Childhood fun

Today, after driving through towns I used to go to when I was a child, I reflected on all the things I used to do and see.  We used to live with my Nonna and Nonno, Italian for grandmother and grandfather, who had a house with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins in the suburbs of Zurich. There's a huge military airfield in the town so every ten minutes anything was interrupted by shaking and noise that even shouting couldn't overcome. But still, it isn't something I would want to erase. We spent most of the day either in the garden or on our bikes. It was the perfect place to spend our summers. 

Behind the house was a huge yard that belonged to a bunch of apartments so technically we weren't allowed to use the sandbox and swings. But that didn't stop us. Behind that yard was a path for walking and biking made of pebbles and sand or something. We spent hours driving around there, looking for shortcuts, driving through little paths, using the bike signs to pretend to be a car. We were always there in summer so we got to buy little crackers for the independence celebration of Switzerland on 1st August. This one particular place we loved was a little underpass under a highway. The walls were painted with beautiful spray paint art. 

We used to climb down to the river and skip stones or break fire crackers in half making a volcano out of them. We made boats out of twigs and raced them down the river, they didn't make it far but it was a test to see if we could even make a boat. We would ride across this little bridge that had more than enough Brennesselns, this thing kind of like poison ivy. We'd have to get enough velocity going to be able to drive across the bridge with our feet in the air so we wouldn't get burned by the plant. Sometimes we would venture into a little housing estate, it was like a miniature town with a well and a little pond with tadpoles. 

Later on we would all collect again and watch TV together, watching shows like Swat Cats or Biker Mice from Mars. Summers were always so wonderful. Even with some of the setbacks. Some of the bad times and some of the little annoyances or pains. Even after smashing open my leg when biking. Sometimes creepy neighbors that lived in a house that I thought was haunted were entertaining. Going to steal berries from the garden, climbing trees we should never have climbed, sneaking through gaps in bushes and fences, finding new hideouts by the river, having paths we take to get to somewhere that are named and assigned to either the way there or the return trip. I couldn't have asked for better summers. 

Pictures from weheartit.com