Steam

5AM, time to wake up and greet the day head-on. I hear the steam filling the radiators to heat me up from the chill of the morning. From where I sit, I get a stereo symphony as the steam relief valves begin playing their songs. In my left ear a few feet away in the living room, in my right, the kitchen radiator sits in the next room several feet away. This is a ritual that happens every morning, why am I aware of it this morning? For some reason, the sounds of the steam have triggered childhood memories of life in a simpler time. All we had to do in those days was go to school and play. There were so many kids in the neighborhood to play with on Anderson Road. We didn’t have video games, computers, or even color TV as I remember. There was an overgrown weeds field down the road where we played baseball until darkness took our vision, or we lost the ball in the high grass. We would ride our bikes for hours and hours. I’ll never forget the day my dad brought home my new red 3-speed bike with a high bar in the back. I don’t think it was a special occasion, I think he bought it just ‘cuz? I can feel the excitement I felt then. What a day that was! I used to love clipping baseball cards in my spokes with clothes pins to give it that motorcycle sound. We would ride for hours but would walk the bike up the big hill so we could zoom back down a hundred miles an hour with no hands, screaming, and feeling free. What a great place and time to be a kid. Now I hop in my truck and I can drive up those big hills. But I remember those times so long ago and smile. We had such a great foundation, inventing games, and just being together. I look a what kids have today and wonder if they really have to use their imaginations. Everything is right there for them. Music to go on their iPod, video games, and wide-screen plasma TVs. Do Kids even ride bikes anymore? Gosh, it’s amazing what a little steam will do