Mar. 23, 2007 - 17:50 MDT

EDEN REVISITED

Like most boys I threw snowballs, made the run to skid on the sidewalk iced by us all, and had my sled and a nearby hill. And when I got a bit older I had my ice skates skimming over the lake ice.

But that was just the icing over a grim and grisly cake. I hated winter, cold weather, bare branches and brown sod, even hated the snow.

So of course, not being a poet with the words to express myself, my joy burst forth in extreme exercise, running about somewhat the way of a beetle run amok, when the first evidence of Spring showed up. The warmth, greening things, bulbs showing pretty flowers. Yeah, I was a boy, but like Ferdinand, I loved and still love flowers.

Things were different when I was a kid. Most folks rode to work on street cars, trollies on rails. If they had a car it was used to go see folks and go to picnics and such things, and then shut up 'til next week. Back then during the busy parts of the day, each street car going into and out of the main part of town would have a trailer, with a conductor. A line was strung from a bell at the motorman's position through the car and into the trailer. Once stopped the streetcar wouldn't move until the conductor would ring the bell up front. I started school in 1927 and the automotive world was pretty young then. I remember Dad having to stop, dismount a wheel and tire, patch the inner tube, reassemble the works and once in a while if we were going a bit further, the tube patching might happen on another tire.

Most of the folks where I lived had coal as the principle heating fuel. There usually was an inswinging window in their basement, convenient to a truck. Coal was delivered by the ton to the coal bin of a house, the householder having to stoke his own furnace and empty ashes as well. Ashes were the non-skid stuff put on sidewalks when they were icy.

Suicide Drive -- the road between Denver and Colorado Springs on weekends was almost bumper-to-bumper going in both directions. The road was given the name because there were, much as there is today, the ME FIRST drivers that would risk the lives of all motorists on the move on that road that day. But for us Denver folk going to the Springs was a thing to do, several attractions were there, Cave Of The Winds, Manitou Springs, Pikes Peak ( a daunting road then ) and Ute Pass through the mountains headed west. And of course there would be things going on in Denver that the residents of the Springs would want to take in.

Dad and Mom had friends who lived in the Springs and every now and then we would meet them about halfway in between on the Rampart Road and have a bang up picnic.

One thing I think we had as children that kids nowadays don't have was free, unsupervised play time. After breakfast we could strike out on our own to see friends and play without anyone looking over our shoulders all the time. Usually we went home for lunch or ate at a friends, and we were bound on our honor to be home by dark.

Such things as "Play Dates," were not dreamt of yet I think. Of course we knew how to behave ( but didn't always ) and usually did, knowing that neighbors could and would administer chastisement when and if it was deemed necessary.

Come to think of it, physical punishment was never resented by us -- usually. The only times I can remember resenting being punished was if I was being punished unfairly for something not my fault.

Long before Girls came into my psyche, Spring was a longed for treat for me. Not really going amok or berserk, but daffy like gamboling animals I guess. Along with that, looking forward to full summer some weeks ahead was part of the yearly treat.

I'm a heck of a lot older now, but Spring winds my internals much like it did when I was younger, and although I can't leap and run as I did then, the life and the spirit hums and sings a merry tune. Once again is EDEN REVISITED . . . . . . . . . . . .

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