As a kid I always liked to have a stick in my hand when I went out playing with my friends.
It wasn't used to hit them with unless we decided that our sticks were weapons and then we would have sword fights with them.
To get a stick we needed a penknife to cut it off the bush or tree and shape it so that could be held easily and whirled around keeping all your friends and enemies at bay.
A stick was good to swish around to slash the stinging nettles down or best of all to run along a fence making a rattling sound as you ran along with the dogs barking loudly on the other side.
Then when you felt your tummy rumbling and it was almost time for tea you used it as a walking stick to help you on the way home.
I am old now and I might need a stick soon to help me walk down to the shops and back but knowing me I will be running that stick along the fence to make those dogs bark again.
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Evolution of a stick. Great story!
ReplyDeleteFrighteningly prophetic.
ReplyDeleteSuch happy memories, and you keep the spirit of childhood alive in you!
ReplyDeleteA wonderful tale of childhood, Old Egg! Life was so simple then wasn't it? Kids got to be kids! I love the way you linked your present back to the past!
ReplyDeleteLOL. What a fun final line.
ReplyDeleteWonderful take Robin! It brings one a full circle with humor knocked in of life's antics with that innocent stick!
ReplyDeleteHank
One thing's for sure, you'll never be a stick in the mud!
ReplyDeleteI so enjoy your prose, for that is when when you break free of the reins and rules that poetry impose upon you. More please!
A seasonal tale!
well described constancy of boy, man, old man (because the body is not the entire person, of course.
ReplyDeletethere is a part of all of us that is remarkable impervious to the ravages of time
Who gives thought to the prominence a stick has in the life of a child? So often we forget these "minor" details from our younger days.
ReplyDeleteYou've written a lovely reminder that some of the more simple things in life are often the most constant and reliable.
I think middle-aged people have lost, and not yet re-found, the fun in the simpler things. :-)
ReplyDeleteYour six sentence story is great. I went back in time with my story too. Oh, and we had a lot of stinging nettles. It is impossible to forget the big welts from getting too close to the stinging nettles!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful memories of childhood times, when a stick is so much more than a stick.
ReplyDeleteNice. Know what else a stick is very good for? When walking through the woods, if you wave one in front of you, you won't get spiderwebs in your face.
ReplyDelete