We were out at the beach this morning playing in the sand and surf. My daughter brought the bucket and spade and came over to me, asking if I could help her build a sand castle. I told her we couldn't build a sand castle at this location, because it was dry and wouldn't hold together. I suggested we go down near the water where the wet sand was and I'd help her build something fun.
Telling her about the need for wet sand reminded me of something from my childhood, a memory that I've thought about so many times I was sure I'd written about it here, but after searching, I don't think I actually have. This memory is from many years ago when I was at an age that playing in sand boxes was still something fun and exciting.
I don't remember where it was, but we went to visit a magician friend of my father's. He had a daughter that was close i age to me. After introducing us, the four parents went off to do adult things and their daughter and I headed went off to play. We went up to her attic, I think it was, which had been converted into a playroom. There were toys after toys after toys in that room. I was overwhelmed with the number of toys she had piled all over this room.
She took me over to a kitchen play set after a few minutes. I remember discovering her play refrigerator dispensed pretend ice cubes. I had never seen anything like this before and I remember thinking she was so lucky, because I didn't know anyone who had a refrigerator that had real, plastic, pretend ice cubes that shot out of the ice dispenser on the door. At that time, our refrigerator at home only had ice trays, so this was truly the height of luxury in my mind.
Later that day we went out to her back yard. It was wooded and had lots of interesting foliage. It also had a big sandbox filled with sand. I loved sand boxes and this one was filled with beach sand, which was light and fine and so much fun to play with. As we played, I noticed there was an area of the sand that was getting wet. Then I noticed that area was getting bigger. Then I realized it was because she was going to the bathroom right where she was sitting.
She told me, "the wet sand is mine" and I told her that was all right with me.
After that weekend I didm't see her again (I have no idea what her name was) for a long time. It was some years later when I was in my early teens that she attended the annual International Brotherhood of Magician's conference. My parents and her parents were excited to have us meet again. I remember we ran into each other in the elevator and I didn't recognize her at all. From her clothes and attitude I got the distinct impression she liked bad boys and hung out with the smokers during lunch at school and that was never my type.
That may not have been the case, but she and I seemed to have diverged in our paths from that weekend some years ago when we played in the sandbox together.
The Big Boy Update: Today is my husband's birthday. My son has been excited about it all day, which might be related to the ice cream plans for after lunch, but we're not sure. He was helping dad make sand castles (or rather sand moats) at the beach this morning and burst into song, singing Happy Birthday to daddy and grinning from ear to ear.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The other dad that was with us this weekend would pretend to be a robot around my daughter. He has four girls, so he knows just what to do to make little girls giggle. My daughter loved it. She would turn his power button back on and replace his batteries when he would run out of energy. She helped change his "programming" so he would help with the dishes instead of the "tickle everyone" program he seemed to have prior. She even started talking like a robot at one point she was having so much fun with him.
Back Update: Sometimes fitness activities cause my back to have fits or go wacky or just basically give me grief. I don't know if it was yesterdays' short run or sitting on the couch last night after dinner, but my SI joint subluxated again during the movie we watched. I looked fairly pathetic trying to get up and not being able to do so without looking very foolish. It was painful, but it was pressure more than anything. Thankfully, most of it resolved overnight. I didn't exercise today. I ate birthday ice cream...and a lot of ice cream at that.
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