Playground Memories (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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The best slide on the playground was the big one.

It was almost as tall as the tallest tree on the property, and if you got up there in a quiet moment, you could stop and stare off into the infinite blue above you until you'd almost get dizzy, then go sliding down and keep the sensation all the way to the bottom.

This didn't happen often, as it was a very popular attraction even with the youngest students, who sometimes on their first attempt got stuck at the top and wouldn't go down when they first found themselves up there, making everyone else back down the ladder, In Order (that was enforced by strict playground rules, you stayed in place and didn't cut in line), so they could get off and go do something else.

If they were lucky, they had an older sibling or another older student slide with them the first couple of times to get them accustomed to it, and most of even the tiniest denizens of the school would scrabble up like little monkeys and slide down like happy, playful otters by the end of their first semester.

Those huge, high slides have been replaced, of course, by safe, low, wide plastic slides, not metal you could get cut on or burned on during the hot days, perched over special surfaces designed to give to help prevent injuries, unlike the hard ground we'd land on before popping back up and going for another round.

Much safer, of course, but i sometimes wonder if our children have lost something of the adventure in life in our rush to protect them from the bumps and bruises we took for granted, and just once more i'd like to look off into the blue, and get a little dizzy, and slide down, holding on to it as long as possible.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Slide.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

We just need a few minutes,

our days are so long and so full,

there's always one more thing to do,

and with children life's not dull.

In a few minutes we'll get up

and realize it's time to eat,

one of us will pour the cereal

while the other makes things neat.

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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful Sweetie and Brother-in-Law have managed to head out on a long-deferred trip to see their sister, a four-hour drive away.  They're supposed to be back on Saturday.

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Today is:

Children's Picture Book Day -- while i can't find a sponsor for this day, starting kids on a lifelong love of books is as good an excuse for a holiday as any

Commemoration of Sen no Rikyu -- Urasenke School of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japan (remembering the influential master in The Way of Tea)

Daylight Saving Time begins -- Albania; Andorra; Austria; Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Faroe Islands; Finland; France; Germany; Gibraltar, Greece; Greenland (some areas); Holy See (Vatican City); Hungary; Ireland; Isle of Mann; Italy; Jersey; Kosovo; Latvia; Lebanon; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia; Malta; Moldova; Monaco; Montenegro; Morocco; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; San Marino; Serbia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Ukraine; United Kingdom; Western Sahara

     European Union: Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time) Begins

Feast of Artemis -- Ancient Greek Calendar (as protector of wild animals, vegetation, and places, begins at sundown; date approximate)

Festival of the Sacrifice at the Tombs -- Ancient Roman Calendar (to honor the ancestors)

"Greatest Show on Earth" Day -- Barnum and Bailey merged their circuses on this day in 1881

Guan Shi Yin Pu Sa -- Buddhism (birthday of Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy)

Hot Tub Day -- because we all need one!

Khordad Sal (Birth of the Prophet Zarathushtra) -- Zoroastrianism (Fasli Calendar)

Komamorijinja Reisai -- Nakaedo, Kashi-sh, Gifu, Japan (festival of the the Kosazukeishi "child-granting stone")

Maundy Thursday -- Christian (a/k/a Holy, Green, Chare, Sheer, or Shere Thursday; commemoration of the Last Supper)

   

National Black Forest Cake Day

Nazul Al-Quran -- Brunei Darussalam; Malaysia (Quran Revelation Day)

Ragnar Lodbrok's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (remembrance of this Viking's sack of Paris)

Respect Your Cat Day -- anniversary of King Richard II's edict in 1384 forbidding the consumption of cats

Serfs Emancipation Day -- Tibet

Something on a Stick Day -- something edible, because almost everything tastes better on a stick

St. Guntramnus' Day (Patron of divorced people, guardians, repentant murderers)

Teachers' Day -- Czech Republic; Slovakia

Wear a Hat Day -- UK (a brain tumour awareness event and fundraiser) 

Weed Appreciation Day -- at last, for those of us with black thumbs, since this is all we can grow! "Weeds are flowers once you get to know them!" A.A. Milne

Birthdays Today:

Lady Gaga, 1986

Julia Stiles, 1981

Annie Wersching, 1977

Kate Gosselin, 1975

Scott Mills, 1974

Juliandra Gillen, 1971

Vince Vaughn, 1970

Reba McEntire, 1955

Dianne Wiest, 1948

Ken Howard, 1944

Conchata Ferrell, 1943

Jerry Sloan, 1942

Freddie Bartholomew, 1924

Dirk Bogarde, 1921

Irving "Swifty" Lazar, 1907

August Anheuser Busch, Jr., 1899

Maxim Gorky, 1868

Frederich Pabst, 1836

St. Teresa of Avila, 1515

Fra Bartolomeo, 1472

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Hair"(Rock musical), 1968

"Philadelphia Story"(Play), 1939

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus, 193

Viking raiders sack Paris, who leave in exchange for a huge ransom, 845

The origin of the Fasli Era in India, 1556

Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco, 1776

Nathaniel Briggs of NH patents a washing machine, 1797

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man, 1802

The US Salvation Army is officially organized, 1885

Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, 1910

Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities, 1917

Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara, 1930

The McGill français movement protest occurs, the second largest protest in Montreal's history, 1969

Operators of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fail to recognize that a relief valve in the primary coolant system has stuck open, leading to a partial meltdown, 1979

In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths, 1994

The 2005 Sumatran earthquake rocks Indonesia, and at magnitude 8.7 is the second strongest earthquake since 1965, 2005

At least 1 million union members, students, and unemployed take to the streets in France in protest at the government's proposed First Employment Contract law, 2006

Australian diplomat Peter Woolcott's draft for the first-ever treaty to regulate the conventional arms trade is discussed by members of the United Nations, 2013

Britain introduces the first new pound coin in 30 years with a secret security feature inside to stop counterfeiting, 2017

The world's largest dinosaur footprint at 1.7 metres found in Kimberley, Western Australia, 2017

The study of a gene mutation that allows a 71-year-old British woman to never feel pain is published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2019