MEMORIES

Yesterday I went for a walk at Slater Park in Pawtucket which brought back a lot of childhood memories. One of which was how when it snowed my father would load his 1950 panel truck up with all the kids in the neighborhood, with their sleds, and take us sledding up to Countryside Golf Course. The place would be packed with kids from all over and everyone got along and had a great time. One thing we would do is form a train. In the days before plastic sleds you could get on your sled and hook your feet in to the sled in back of you. we'd get like ten sleds hooked up and go down the hill. Some times we'd make it all the way to the bottom but other times we'd hit a bump and our feet would come unhooked and every we'd go in all direction which was probably more fun than getting all the way to the bottom.        Other memories came back to like fishing in the Ten Mile River, down by the rail road trestle in back of the Narragansett Race Track and the time we all brought something like a coin and put it in a glass jar and buried it in the sand bank. I'll have to take a walk some day to see if the sand bank is still there. It's all grown over now. I remember my father telling me how he used to trap Muskrats back there along the river.         As I was walking along the bike path over by the Carousal I could almost see my friends and I riding our bike over the little stone bridge and pulling up on the handle bars to make the front wheel come off the ground. COOL!!        I guess things were different back then. Kids were allowed to go out and play with out fear of being harmed. They were free to create their own fun and every one got along pretty well with out parent supervision. I think our childern are missing out on the best part of life, which is just being a kid having fun.