Withdrawing from being an adult

Writer: Donna Crumly Harvey

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult, in order to accept the responsibilities of a 6 year old. The tax base is lower and we just barely made it through tax day.  Sweetie and I talked about what we had to pay and are totally in awe of this past year with all that we had go on and have both had to face and accept responsibilities without any choice in the matter.  I want to be six again.

I want to go to McDonald’s and think it’s the best place in the world to eat. I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make waves with rocks.  I want to stand by a lake and try to skip rocks across the top of the water.  Nice flat rocks and it always made me so jealous when the boys could skip the rocks better than I could.  Sweetie can still do it better than I can even today, at our age.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money, because you can eat them. I want to play kick-ball during recess.  I have never had a wheel and click but I have heard Daddy talk about making these.  I have never played marbles but Brad has and there is quite a collection of them at the Crumly’s.  There is even a Chinese checker board and I found a little tin box with a note that says “These are the marbles that go with the Chinese checker board.”  The old carom board that I received for Christmas many years ago is  now hanging on the sun porch.

I long for the days when life was simple. When all you knew were your colors, the addition tables & simple nursery rhymes, but it didn’t bother you, because you didn’t know what you didn’t know and you didn’t care.  And by the way, now many of the nursery rhymes do you quote today?  Brad and I are forever saying something from one of the nursery rhymes.  Now I was so smart and Billie Crumly refused to let me say “none” because the country folks would say I ain’t got none she insisted that I say “I haven’t got any!”  I guess it got through to me because I learned “Old Mother Hubbard, went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone.  When she got there the cupboard was bare and the poor dog had any.”  And I guess that is similar to me saying the blessing and I would say “God is grape, God is good.  Let us thank him for our food.”  It made perfect sense to me and still does because grape is good and I still like grape flavor.

I want to go to school and have snack time, recess, gym and field trips.  Oh the wonderful filed trips that we took in elementary school.  I remember going to the Atlanta Orchestra with so many other school children who were coming on their buses and hearing the music that they had selected for us.  I guess it was a way for us to be exposed to culture a little.  Today I think the field trips are to Christmas Tree exhibits where kids always have to do something and bring something home.  We did not have money and could not stop and try and buy anything for sure. We were happy just to have the experience.

I want to be happy, because I don’t know what should make me upset. I want to think the world is fair and everyone in it is honest and good and kind.  Today I watch the news of people getting shot in the back by police officers and even an old policeman who thought he was using a Taser and fired his gun at a young man instead.  But if I had ran from a policeman, my behind would have been tanned until it would not hold shucks.  Not only did we have to respect and listen to police officers (and we better not call them cops) but we had to listen an obey any adult which spoke to us.  If I did not, my mother would have known about it before I could got my little self, back home and I would have definitely have had the devil to pay then.

I want to believe that anything is possible.  The sky was the limit and dreaming was a fun pastime.  I well remember laying on a grassy bank and watching the clouds and describing what the shapes of them were and where they were going.

Sometime, while I was maturing, I learned too much. I learned of nuclear weapons, prejudice, starving and abused kids, lies, unhappy marriages, divorces, illness, pain and mortality. I want to be six again.

I want to think that everyone, including myself, will live forever, because I don’t know the concept of death. I want to be oblivious to the complications of life and be overly excited by the little things again.  Just listen to a baby laugh over something so very tiny and the burst of excitement that comes from little folks.  So very glad to see Grandmother and Granddaddy come in.  Special names that they give like “Gran Gran” or Papa or Pap or Mimi.  Sometimes it is names that the older ones choose but sometimes they come up with them all by themselves and that makes the connection even more special.  I refused to be called “Granny” and some of the grand kids would insist on calling me Granny and I would just act like I didn’t hear them.  It was not me they were talking to so why should I bother with any movement on my part.

I want television to be something I watch for fun, not something used for escape from “the things” I should be doing. I want to live knowing the little things that I find exciting will always make me as happy as when I first learned them. I want to be six again.

I remember not seeing the world as a whole, but rather being aware of only the things that directly concerned me. I want to be naive enough to think that if I’m happy, so is everyone else.

I want to walk down the beach and think only of the sand beneath my feet and the possibility of finding that blue piece of sea glass I’m looking for.

I want to spend my afternoons climbing trees & riding my bike, letting the grownups worry about time, the dentist and how to find the money to fix the old car.

I want to wonder what I’ll do when I grow up and what I’ll be, who I’ll be and not worry about what I’ll do if this doesn’t work out. I want that time back.

I want to use it now as an escape, so that when my computer crashes, or I have a mountain of paperwork, or two depressed friends, or a fight with my spouse, or bittersweet memories of times gone by, or second thoughts about so many things……….

I can travel back and build a snowman, without thinking about anything except whether the snow sticks together and what I can possibly use for the snowman’s mouth.

I want to be six again.  So for this part of country living I have chosen to step back in time.  If you remember these times, you can come play with me and we will play hide and seek.  It is getting where I can hide my own Easter eggs because I don’t remember where I hid them anyway.  Never liked paper dolls but I would love to play cowboys and Indians with you and I can ride my imaginary stead just about anywhere.  This is just a part of country living in today’s world.

If you would like to find other fun things check  this website:  http://www.electronixwarehouse.com/humor/older-than-dirt.htm

I have embellished some of these statements to blend with me and my current age.