Our Little Red Wagon

Just the other day I was sitting at work, and I heard the cutest laugh coming from a three year old.  It was the kind of laugh that you hear on television commercials.  I don't remember exactly what I was doing at that time, but I remember smiling.  It sounded so sweet, innocent and honest.  Even though it was only for a few seconds, it was one of the highlights of my day.  

There are a lot of children and families who walk in front of my house everyday, and I get to hear and see some pretty cute stuff.  In these times, children have so many opportunities to spend all of their time inside the house, on a computer, in front of the television, on cell phones... you name it.  It makes me feel very good when I see these children out playing in front of their yards or out on their bicycles.  Thinking  about this makes me remember when I was little.  I asked myself, "What did we do for fun?"  I can tell you that we lived in an area where the summers were H-O-T!  There were some days when we could only go out side in the morning and in the late afternoon to early evening.  In any case, I remember my sisters and I playing together.  There were games that we made up which I still can recall the rules to.  There is one thing we loved to do, and talking about it will still make me laugh.  This activity we did was something that my mom did not like.  It had the potential of being dangerous, but my sisters and I were careful (as careful as 11, 7, and 4 year olds can be).  Our house was built on a slant, a hill if you will.  At the bottom of this slant is where my dad would pile the ashes from our fire place.  Before we did anything, my sisters and I would first go and check to make sure the ashes were cool.  Then we would get our little red wagon and pull it up to the top of the slant where the side of the house was.  Since I was the smallest, I sat in the middle with my legs hanging over the side.  My oldest sister (since she was the oldest and biggest) was in the front, legs straddling the black handle.  The handle would be straight up, and it was her job to steer.  My second oldest sister was the "caboose".  It was her job to get us started by pushing the red wagon and to hop on as fast as she could before it got away from her!  She was really good at it, and rarely missed the "window of opportunity" before we were off!  Imagine.... here I am, in the middle (with no job), my oldest sister in the front ready to steer, and my second oldest sister standing up behind the wagon ready to push.  Then, my sister starts to push.... we start gaining some speed, and before we make the turn to be in front of the house, she hops on in the back and is right next to me.  I'm squished between my two sisters, like they were my body seatbelts.  My oldest sister steers to the left to go down the hill in front of the house.  We dodge a plum tree, a big rock, and another big rock, and then we hit our brakes..... the ashes!  We run into the cool ashes, and most of the time tumble out of the red wagon with a feeling of such excitement.  Then, we would get up, dust ourselves off, and pull the red wagon up to the side of the house to do it all over again with big grins on our faces and laughing the whole way.

 I can completely understand why this would make my mom nervous.  Here we were, dodging a tree, rocks, and our only brake system was running into a pile of ashes and falling out of the wagon.  I am happy to report that no serious injuries took place, and it is a memory that I know made us laugh.  I wonder how we sounded to our neighbors.  Did our laughing and playing annoy them, or did it make them smile, too?  I know we had a good relationship with our neighbors, so I am sure (hopeful) that our giggles and playing made them smile.

Happy Tuesday to you and yours...