#3

It was those summer days when cotton ball clouds of white stood starkly against warm blue. Golden rays of sunshine warmed the black tar covering the crevices and cracks of the neighborhood road.

The warm squishy blackness seeped between our toes as we scampered across the street. Our day usually started like this. Sarah, Molly, Emily, sometimes Abby and I scattering across the street to find our playmates- knocking on the doors that our friends lived behind. Behind these doors came the Wille girls, tiny and 2/3 blond, and the Basile twins, tall and tanned from summer sun, and the McFadden’s, blond hair shining white. 

As we assembled on the white pavement of the driveway the work began. Packs of colored chalk were dug out of the corners of the garage and we each grabbed one. Colored lines appeared on the sidewalk starting to take the vague shape of a road.

When the road was completed we got out the “cars”, in the form of bicycles, scooters, rollerblades, anything on wheels.  We rode our cars around in the circle drive. We rode our cars on our makeshift street stopping at stop signs and crosswalks. We rode our cars to the gas station. We rode our cars to the grocery store, or the bank, or the clothing store. We rode them into each other sometimes as well.

All morning we played. We played with our cars and played our car games. Games like Cops and Robbers, or Coolio Julio were how we spent those hours. Hours that went by like minutes until it was lunchtime. Lunchtime came without much warning, just the sudden grumbling of a tummy and we would be trekking inside for sandwiches or Mac and Cheese or hot dogs.

With stomachs full we returned to our summer wonderland. Our continuous circles continued and the sun rose higher in the sky. After lunch we never lasted very long. Pretty soon we’d be trudging back inside. Sweaty shirts stuck to sweaty backs, we all piled onto the couch to watch Scooby Doo. Glazed tired eyes watched the colorful bursts of the TV screen until finally our friends made their way home and it was time to help start dinner. It was the end of another summer day in suburbia.

These days were the normal of our childhood, and the nostalgia of our adolescence.