Wednesday, July 9, 2008

No Grils Allowed

When my 4 oldest boys were little and safe in our backyard , things were simpler then. The rules were , don't hit your brothers , don't set anything on fire , and stay in the yard. Sometimes though , they would sneak away , and I would have to hunt them up from whatever adventure they were having. But in the backyard , they built everything they needed to have all kinds of adventures. They dug a 10 foot hole , camouflaged it with bushes , and outfitted it with furniture , army food and a radio.It was their private little world. Until one day , I was walking across the backyard and fell in it. I guess since it was not a secret anymore, the novelty wore off and they decided to move the club to the old shed in the backyard. So they stashed discarded furniture , books , a tent ,food , dishes. etc. You name it , they put it in there.They even rigged up some way of making it a two storey hide out. I really think they could have lived out there if they had to. Once they had finished getting it just right , they got a can of spray paint and proudly wrote " No Grils Allowed" above the door to their club. I didn't have the heart to tell them they had misspelled Girls. I didn't figure it mattered anyway. There were no girls in our family and I had not seen any in the neighborhood.

Sometimes when all the boys are together visiting , they'll be in a room laughing and talking , and when I or one of their wives walk in they'll look up , and with tears of laughter in their eyes they'll say , "Hey , no girls allowed!" They look so happy , it makes us want to share in the joke , to be a part of "the club".A wave of nostalgia will wash over me , and although I love the men they have become , I still miss the little boys they were.

The boys spent many summers in that backyard. I wonder if they dreamed about who they would marry when they grew up , or what they would be. Did they think about places far away that they would travel to when they were grown? Inside the house I dreamed about taking them to Disney land. I never did get to , but I don't think they missed it. They were happy in their make believe world they invented out there. I remember going out in their club one hot summer night and the boys started hollering , "Hey , no girls allowed!" Joey , the baby of them all , came to my rescue. "She's not a girl " he said , "she's our mom."

We lived in that house with my mama . After a few years we moved to another town , but my mama still lived in that house when she passed away. It's been about 20 years since the boys painted that sign. A few years ago , I traveled back to Helena , to visit my mama and daddy's graves. I drove by the old house , and sadly saw that it had been torn down. But through my tears , I saw that old shed still standing there and that my boys words had endured. " No grils allowed "

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awwwww...what a sweet story! I hope you're putting these into a book for your boys. I think they would love it :)

WVButterfly

Anonymous said...

Oh, how sweet! I always tell my own kids when they shoot up an inch or so that I need to squish them down so they always stay little! I agree with WV - get these into books for those well-loved boys of yours.

6boyzmom said...

Thank ya'll. I wish I would have taken a picture of it so I could put the picture with the story. I'm glad ya'll enjoyed it.

Dorlene said...

So cool...