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RE: I Was a Bad Kid: The Doorstops
I can imagine you sitting in a nice hollowed out sandy spot beneath the bush, dirt on your cheeks, just waiting. Your poor mom - it must be hard raising boys with that devilish streak. :)
This brought back memories of the elementary hallways. The bad stuff sticks out, like the blood after a fight, and hair weave blowing away like tumble weed. I was one of those kids that never had to use the bathroom. I'm not sure if I genuinely didn't need to, or I didn't want to draw any attention to myself. Maybe girls have bigger bladders than boys. Who knows.
The bush was actually a small forest of maples, ash, poplar, willow and dogwood trees about the size of a football field. I had raked trails and a fort I built out of scraps. That was my house. Dad gave me my own tools and told me to do whatever I wanted. I'd steal nails. He didn't like that part. Some of those walls outlasted the trees. I'd spend days sawing branches away so I could ride my bike down these trails without getting a stick to the face. I even had my own garden. My parents didn't even know I planted it.
I'd light small fires and cook hotdogs. They didn't like the fire part either but I never burned the place down. I'd spend the whole day there. My brother had his own little space as well but I always sabotage it so he was kind of like Eeyore, constantly rebuilding. As soon as he turned his back, I'd do something to mess with him. I was a bad neighbor.
I can see why you'd want to live there, with all those pretty sounding northern trees. I suppose an isolated bush would be the home of a five-year-old, rather than a nine-year-old. There is a huge leap in development in those four years. It sounds like a boy's paradise. Your description reminds me a bit of the neighbor boy I had a crush on when I was in elementary school, only he was outright reckless. I guess reckless is attractive to nine-year-old girls.
The my parents didn't even know parts of childhood were fun at the time because of the risk, and now still are because of the humor. With your personality there must be a lot of humor in reminiscing. My reminiscing isn't funny, it's just remembering what an angel I was. My parents had it so easy :)
There must have been a lot of wars and treaties between the two patches of trees. I hope your Eeyore didn't have his birthday forgotten or lose his tail, or anything of that sort - that would really paint a sad picture.
All I can do now is laugh. I'm sure I'll laugh at today's regrets in the decades to come as well.