Adults vs. Children

It's amazing how your perspective on things changes from when you're a kid to an adult. As a child, you might have thought that any adult that was in charge was against you, whether it was your parents, a relative, a teacher, or even a day care worker. You just didn't have the freedom as a child and couldn't get away with what you wanted. Oh how nice it would be if we could fast forward time to get a glimpse of what life would be like as an adult. Or even if a time machine actually did exist. I know there's always that risk of altering the past by visiting the future - but so long as you don't bump into your future self, there's really no harm in seeing what you may end up as an adult. But would any child really understand what the future may hold, no matter if one could advance time to the future?

Back when I was a kid, I always enjoyed trips to my uncle's garage just a short drive from home. I refer to it as a garage because that's basically what it is. Two separate pole buildings where my uncle stores an incredible amount of stuff in. And when I was a kid, it was like an indoor playground. One of my cousins was about my age and the other was a little bit older. But we always had a good time together. Whether it was riding go-carts and mini-bikes, to playing with matchbox cars, and even playing statues. There wasn't a game we didn't play together. And it was always special when I was able to stay over a night or two at their place because we always had a good time together. And then we grew up and now we hardly see each other anymore.

I remember discussing it with one of my cousins when I was a kid about how much fun it was to be over at his place while I was bored at my house. And then yet, he felt the exact same way as me, except that he was bored at his place while he had a blast being at my house. I guess I never really understood why that was when I was a kid. I mean, he had everything and anything to place with at his place. Heck, he was even able to swim everyday of the summer out at their family camp. Yet, he would rather be at my house. Well, I guess that was because we were together, and typically you have more fun playing with someone else than being by yourself. And it's also a new environment, a place completely different than what you're used to. And you may be able to get away with more mischief because whoever it watching you is not your parents. As an adult, it all makes sense now.

Now a days, I'd rather be at my house than out at my uncle's garage. I mean, it's nice to visit there from time to time, but to spend long periods of time there like I did as a kid; well, it would just get downright boring. More often than not I'm put to work there than anything else. And my cousins just aren't around as frequently anymore. They have their own lives and just can't come up to the U.P. like they could as kids. That's the disappointment in growing up. Things change and yet they ever rarely remain the same.

Go-Carts and Mini-Bikes

Back when I was a kid, one of my favorite places to go in the summer time was to my uncle's garage. Needless to say, it wasn't a typical garage. There are a couple of buildings situated on a plot of land and in those buildings are stored a variety of things. One of the most enjoyable activities myself and my cousins were able to do there is to ride go-carts and mini-bikes. My uncle had two different go-carts, one was a larger, yellow two-person go cart and the other was a smaller, black one-person go-cart. And then, if there were even more people out riding, there were a couple mini-bikes to ride, which were basically small, motorized dirt bikes.

My cousins and I would go riding all over - but we never went exceptionally far away and weren't overly reckless either. But that's not to say that we didn't have a problem arise. I was riding with my cousin Craig in the yellow go-cart, him driving and I riding behind him. We were driving along a gravel road when I began to notice the go-cart slowly drifting towards the edge of the road. I think my cousin was looking at something off to the side of the road and became distracted. By the time I alerted him to what was happening, the go-cart drove off the road and stopped part-way down an embankment, just above a river. How fortunate we were that the go-cart didn't continue down into the river or even flipped over when we went into the brush. We were startled at the situation but thankful it wasn't more serious. My other cousin was riding in the black go-cart and noticed that we disappeared. He soon found us and helped us retrieve the go-cart from the embankment. I don't even remember anymore how we actually go it out of there. All I know is that we pretended like nothing ever happened and never told my uncle about it.

We had other relatives in the area that would come up during the summer time and stay. The old family homestead was mostly vacant, but served as a location for family to use when they liked coming up for vacation purposes. Uncle Norman and Aunt Dorothy would come up every summer, usually around the time of the local Homecoming Celebration. My cousins and I would often ride the go-carts and mini-bikes over there to visit when they arrived. On one such occurrence, Uncle Norman offered us gas for the mini-vehicles. Just the way he said it, is something I will never forget. "Want some gas?" He smoked for years and it gave him that rough sounding voice that's common for smokers. I don't have a lot of memories of that man, but at least I have that one in particular that I can remember him by.

Needless to say, we're much too old for go-carts and mini-bikes now and they quietly sit in storage in my uncle's garages. However, now my nephew gets to ride one of them now that he's old enough and when my dad is able to take him over there. A new generation of children are getting the chance to enjoy the things we used to like as kids. It's amazing how that works and how fast time flies, isn't it? Hopefully someday in the not too distant future, I'll have kids of my own doing the same things that I did as a kid.