Three Teens

Ahh, the memories I conjure of summer nights during the last days of my childhood. This evening we were out late and rode home with the car windows down. Oh the sights, sounds and smells: barbeque, kids playing, car radios. It made me think of when I was hovering on the brink of being too big to play, but wanting so desperately to join the neighborhood kids in a game of tag or hide and go seek in the dark. Every evening (before air conditioning) people would sit outdoors. The adults would talk while the kids played. Each night I would swear that I was not going to play with the children who lived in our apartment building. I had just turned fourteen, and would be a high school freshman in the fall. Each night I intended to join in the adult converstaion, but always ended up joining the children. I can remember being hot and sweaty and ticked off at myself that I gave in. Again!

Then, when I was fifteen, and way too sophisticated to play anymore, I sat out in the evening and talked to the teenagers on our block about movies we'd seen. We used to all go to the show twice a week. Times were different then. Life was simpler, we were innocent, not exposed to the images and harsh realities that kids today are.

We have three grandchildren all 13, hovering on the 'brink'. Half the time they act annoyed and barely grunt a response; other times they act childish. I remember when ...