Past Tense #8: They See Me Rollin'...
This story about extreme playgrounds. Do NOT do it at home (even if you happen to have concrete tubes laying around your backyard...)!
After reading my story about me stealing cherries from her aunt’s backyard (you should have it in your inbox since last Sunday), Elena told me that I should also tell you the story of the “centrifuge”...so here goes (this story is available for everyone to read, signed up or not, so please feel free to share it!):
As I had told you before, our house was under construction at that time. It took a while until it was ready, and during that time the whole place became our amusement park. That’s why all our friends and neighbours came to visit.
I used to spend a lot of time with Dana and Daniel Caleap, but also with Elena - after I fell from the cherry tree and the old crone ran after me, I didn’t set foot in her back yard or on her fence anymore, so we played in our own yard.
My father wanted to build a big house, so that we, his children, would stay close to him and, after getting married, each of us would have a floor of the house to live in. The big yard was for us to have enough space to romp around. But not everything went according to plan! I’m now writing from Bucharest, with Eva sound asleep in my arms...:)
A huge hole in the ground, the beginning of a swimming pool, had been dug in our yard, and close to it a one meter high ledge in the shape of a circle, which was supposed to be the frame of a fountain. But we had other plans for it…we used to take some wooden boards, 4-5 meters long, and turn that concrete ledge into a rocker. We usually did that until we would break the board, then we would take another one and so on...until our hands would be full of splinters. Then we’d stop just to take the splinters out from under our skin with a needle…
That particular summer day was very hot. The workers had been digging to install the sewerage, so our yard was full of big concrete pipes. Our amusement park was ready for a new attraction. But Coco and Marius were out chasing pigeons with slings, so I was just walking like a cat on top of the construction site of the first floor of the house when I saw my friend Elena in her aunt Sanda’s backyard.
Elenaaaa! What's up? Wanna come and play?
I saw Sanda the crone looking up for me and I instantly put my head down behind some bricks.
“I’m coming! I’m coming!”
…said Elena after talking to the old witch for a moment.
I was waiting impatiently for Elena...because I just couldn’t move those concrete tubes by myself!
Help me get into the tube, and then push it forward as hard as you can!
She would hold the tube in place, I would then get inside it, “start the engines” and “off to space” I went. It was slightly downhill from the kitchen to the gate and I would roll inside the tube like in a centrifuge.
Elena would run next to the tube and then, with me being all dizzy from spinning so hard, we would push the concrete tube back “uphill” because it would then be her go at it. We had so much fun...the spinning was even better than when we got a ride in the fast merry-go-round at the county fair each August 15th (the day of our village church’s patron saint). And it was also free of charge!
We played around with the concrete tube until...at one moment, I somehow fell from the spinning tube while heading to the gate and it then changed direction towards a mound of dirt. The tube didn’t go all the way up to the top of the mound, and so it rolled back towards me in what it seemed to be high speed.
Elena, scared by what could happen, shouted at me to get out of the way of the rolling concrete tube, but...I didn’t really hear her and so…it kind of ran me over. I got away with only a few scratches, but you know how they say…”turned into wallpaper”? That’s pretty much how I felt after that “experience”...
What do you think? Was the spinning around worth the scratches? :)
Stay safe,
Until next time,
Ioana
Did you like this story?
What’s next:
I will continue to write my stories and send them out to my (happily growing community <3) each Sunday, and I will also continue the Parenting Insights part of this newsletter, each Wednesday!
But…
…there are so (too) many stories left untold! Be it happy or sad, a childhood story has the unique ability to heal. Whether it is you or the reader, your story will definitely help someone move forward and evolve in life. And this is my personal goal and the goal of this newsletter! I want to give myself and you this healing voice!
It’s always good to remember and I’m really sure that your stories are very much worth telling! So let’s make a deal: you send me your story and I publish and promote it. After a while, I will do a “story contest”, based on the feedback I get from my readers, and will do an interview with the person sending me the most interesting story! Please make sure that your stories are really yours! Nothing compares to the passion we put in telling stories about our own childhood!
So:
Read, share, repeat!
Write it, send it to me, I publish it, everybody reads & shares.
This works like a charm for both mind and soul.
Just send me your childhood story and I’ll publish it, unchanged (unless some minimum editing required, which I will run by you before publishing). Anonymously, or not - it’s your choice how you want to be heard. If one person in need reads the story and finds it healing, then it’s a win!
I‘m looking forward to telling your childhood stories!