Fading Memories

I am still considered part of the young crowd. I hang out at the theatres with my friends, except for the fact that the nearby by cheap theatre that we could walk to at the nearby mall, is gone. Since we don't want to take the bus to the other mall, why don't we walk down to the playground. It's gone now, all three that were nearby, great for playing in. 

The parks that I grew up at, where my siblings and some of my cousins grew up at. The same playgrounds that were taken down and replaced by a splash pad and a new park. It maybe shiny and new but it is not the same park with the metal slides that would heat up in the summer sun. Not the same slides that were easy to climb once learnt how. Not the same monkey bars, that my grandpa helped us all to cross on. Definitely not the place we would escape to when we didn't want to help clean up after supper. There is no two tires side by side, off the ground with bars to run on. No bars the are up to your waist by the time your 13, one on either side of you, to climb on. No slanted wood slabs that are perfect to rest on. No swings that would spilt us up so we could all go on even if it meant using the baby swings as well.

The two favorite trees are gone. One the split up the middle, so ever close to the ground, perfect for climbing. The one tree that had swirls going up and around it, which no matter how many times you tried to climb it you couldn't. Both the stumps of those trees have also disappeared. Not even a trace of the fact that they have been there left. Along the trails of these parks is nothing. On one part there is barely any trees alone. Another, there is the old set of tennis courts and a few evergreen trees. On the last part there is the hill(s) that are amazing for riding bikes on, and the tulips that my grandpa planted that come up every year.

Some days I wish that everything changes back, that I can revisit those spots and have more than just memories, but a place where I feel I belong. It is always nice to know that it won't change that when you return it will be the same. It is never possible, so much has change from my childhood, and so much more will continue to change.