Summer Freedom

 Writers' Pantry #80

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summers were barefeet running the neighborhood, tar filled pavement cracks melting in the sun (pick it out and chew it) sticking to our soles. Quick! Any lawn to cool them.  Sprinklers and stubbed toes.  Too soon, the dreaded days of school, our toughened feet trapped and strapped into leather oxfords and saddle shoes. Softening until those sweet, sweet summer days of freedom and running barefoot once again.

hot foot it back home

summer’s annual dance step

barefeet on pavement

 

©2021 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved

Comments

  1. Oh, that sparked some similar lovely memories of my own! Thank you.

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  2. Thanks for sharing your summer nostalgia: haibun and photo, Bravo.

    much❤love

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    1. Thanks for visiting! Hope things are going well for you.

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  3. I am sure many of us yearn for those childish days again when adventure and discovery were activities (and school of course) that filled our minds until suddenly we were responsible to look after ourselves and find a job!

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    1. Yes, we do, but I really wouldn't want to relive all the rest of it. I remember in high school thinking how we had so many summers, yet really, there were only three, the fourth we were out and adult.

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  4. Replies
    1. Me too, and having photos sure help! I remember riding my bike in flip-flops (called zorries then) and stubbing my toe as I rode. Boy, was it mangled, but I didn't cry until my mother saw it and reacted!

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  5. I love how well you brought us back with you into a fun childhood memory.

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    1. It was fun! Lots of kids my age in the neighborhood, and while there weren't sidewalks, there were dead end streets to play in. And big backyards.

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  6. i wonder why, as children, we are able to run around barefoot without any discomfort, glass and nails not in the picture. your poem brings back those carefree, happy days.

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    1. Good question. Although, for some reason my mother let me go grocery shopping with her barefoot, which was not at all like her. Maybe I fussed. Smoking was allowed everywhere then, and I stepped on a hot cigarette butt in the store.

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  7. Maybe we all should cast off our shoes and have a tour of our yards! Maybe we could regain some of that carefree feeling! I must say, however, my carewfree childhood days of being barefoot ended after I stepped on a snake!

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    1. Oh! That would do it, a snake! I go barefoot in the house most of the time, and in the yard a lot, or getting the mail. My foot doctor doesn't approve.

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  8. A gentler simpler time...how we miss that. We were lucky to know it !

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  9. I miss those days so very much. The sound of happy feet on pavement (and on wet soil), the symphony of shared laughter and mayhem, life happening wonderfully... Your poem truly takes me back. 🥰

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    1. You brought back the sounds of squeals in cold sprinklers! There were a lot of kids in my neighborhood, it was within walking distance of an elementary school. Which doesn't seem to mean as much now, as there is one on the next block from me and few kids living right nearby. Parents used to buy houses for the school locations, so kids could walk.

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  10. Love your Haibun that almost reads like stream of consciousness ......

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  11. Oh lovely I remember these long summer days without any worries We were lucky to have expertienced that. Love the cute picture

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    1. They seemed to last so long. They are longer than the summer vacation where I live now. Maybe they are starting earlier to make up for last year's weird schedule. In the photo I'm with my friend who lived next door, Betsy. She was a year younger, but I was very tall! My mother was 5'11" which was very tall for a woman then. And now, I guess.

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