the fireman's pole (rated PG)

Julia had herself a little mishap last week.Instead of spending the morning playing at the church Primary activity, we got to spend it at the ER in hope of her nose not being broken. She's fine now, it's amazing how fast kids heal up.

When we went to pick up our bicycles at church I decided to take the long way home with the girls and swing by the park. We went into the petting zoo where I hurried the kids past the pigs so I could stalk the incredibly hot dad with the pilot shades on in front of us, and afterwards we made a stop at the Ot&Sien playground. I watched the girls head straight for the swings and I took a sunny seat next to a young couple. Now, when I say the couple was young, I'm talking too young to have kids of their own, they must have been about 19 or 20. At first I was mystified by the appeal of a place like a noisy playground for a couple of their age. They didn't seem to be babysitting because their eyes were hardly actually on the playground and mostly on each other. As I sat there next to them I couldn't help but pick up bits and pieces of their conversation. After a silence during which the girl rested her head on his lap, the boy suddenly said 'I want a fireman's pole in our house'. They then had a 15 minute logical debate of the pros and cons of pros and cons having a fireman's pole in your house, and the jury was still out at the very end of it. She thought it was silly and impractical, he thought it was the best idea he had ever come up with in his life. When asked why, he simply said 'Because it would be great!' and that's all it took for her to consider it seriously. 

It took me straight back to my first appartment and how completely drunk on freedom I was when I got the key to that place. I didn't get a fireman's pole but I would have probably let my boyfriend install one if I had had one at the time, and he had suggested it. But I definitely remember the other ways I took advantage of all that freedom. I remember going to the playground around the corner after dark and spending hours all by myself on the swingset when all the little kids had long been tucked into bed. Or the entire Saturdays I would spend in my bed, just wasting time. And oh when I met Sander and we would have midnight drives in his car to the big empty parking lot by the Wassenaarse Slag. He would teach me how to drive and I felt like such a grown up. 

I was, of course, a stupid kid who didn't have a clue. I had a plastic blow up sofa and nearly burned the place down one night by falling asleep with a candle still burning. To this day, waking up to 3 fully geared firemen standing at the foot of my bed staring down at my undies and asking me if I was OK, is the most embarassing experience ever. And the hygiene, oh the hygiene. There simply was none. I knew Sander was a keeper after he came into my appartment with me for the first time and actually wanted to come back a second time. 

And now I still feel like a stupid kid who is just playing house. The hygiene has increased somewhat, and I don't leave candles burning anymore. Spending Saturdays in bed is a definite impossibility, as are midnight drives. But you  know what? I still might let Sander install a fireman's pole if he suggested it.

18 and clueless