A tale of three parks!

Camping season is here!! My family enjoyed the pre-summer ritual of cleaning out the camper, taking inventory and preparing for another season. It doesn't take long to remember why we enjoy this so much: no distractions, yard-work or house work and quality time with family and friends.

For some reason, I've been intrigued by my visits to the various parks we've visited. Likely, the fact that I spend a lot of time there chasing my 4-year old (5 years old today) and 7-year old around has a lot to do with it. My observation has been that a good park has a life of its own. I'm not talking about a water park or the monstrosities that often appear in today's super sized world, just a the good old fashioned jungle gym ("JG"). These parks take on the life of who's there. A lonely teenager swinging alone, a slew of kids laughing, or fighting. At night, perhaps some beers from the neighbors cooler (last year, we were the "neighbors" whose cooler of beer disappeared in the night -- more about that later).

This year, it seems that whenever I arrive at a park with the kids, its just us and the JG. Nice, I think, just the kids and I and some good bonding. Let's play a friendly game of tag! Literally, within moments, the kids are pouring out of every nook and cranny in the area. It was almost as if they have been hiding in the bushes all day waiting for some unsuspecting mom or dad to show up. Suddenly, you become the center of their "you're it" world.

Even the older kids (over 10), who initially act too mature to stoop down to boring old tag, seem to come around when there is an adult figure on the JG. The first park I observed this was in South Dakota. We started a game of dodge ball tag. Hit them with the ball, without them catching it, and their it. I think we played for ten seconds before everyone wanted in. The traditional animosity between the age groups quickly evaporated. For a good forty-five minutes, the park was crazy-fun. Dinner time arrived and I announced that we had to leave. As quickly as they arrived, the throngs of kids were gone. It happened so quickly, I wondered if I had imagined it.

Next, we visited a campground in the Canby area. Their JG was an antique Rainbow Play set. Built like a tank. Again, tag with the kids on an empty JG turned into a ten-kid free for all. Melissa, a three-year old, was at first afraid to play. She was clearly afraid of the older kids and I finally was able to "catch" her and she was it. She then proceeded to chase me around the JG at least three times. The older kids were trying to let her catch them, but I finally realized that I was her only target. "Watch-out" all the kids shriek when it's my turn. This time, I tried to slowly disappear to the side and let the games go on. Fun to watch, but the proverbial dinner bell again ended the fun. I felt 10 again for a moment and could almost hear my mom yelling, "kids, time for dinner." Of course, I was the one yelling

Finally, last weekend, we went to our "home" campground and set-up shop across from the park. I asked the kids, to help me describe this park to someone. They immediately answered, "space rocket ship." Not what I expected, but soon I was the alien who had to recruit an army of my evil friends to attack the space ship and overrun the "good guys" and take over the ship. In the end, my army was defeated as we did not know that the good guys had a self-destruct button that blew up the ship as soon as we were all on board. I WILL remember that one next time.

____________________________________
Welcome to Tilting Against! If you have not subscribed to receive posts via e-mail, you can do so by clicking on the following link: http://tiltingagainst.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html


Make sure to watch for the confirmation e-mail.