There are several kids here that always seem like they are on the verge of blowing up. This morning for instance, one of them was running up and down the short alley by my window, screaming his head off for twenty minutes. The alley is only about 8 feet wide, so the sound bounces around pretty good. He wasn’t in pain or anything, just yelling, and running, and yelling… The other day a truck backed up near my house. He and another kid proceeded to imitate the sound while running around for 25 minutes or so. They would scream BEEP BEEP BEEP as they ran past each other, turned around and did it again.
I figure if they don’t do this, they will probably explode. I guess kids are like this all over the world, but here they are much more confined in the old city. There aren’t any parks or open spaces to really run around. Grass is rarely seen, and you certainly can’t play on it (it is for show, you don’t want to tear it up). So they run around the streets until they’re old enough (and lucky enough) to get a bike. Then they go tearing around the streets on their bikes.
Once, back in my Penn camera days, a father came in with his rambunctious kid. Apparently, the kid had already been a bit of a problem in another store because as soon as they walked in, the father took the kid aside and said in a stern voice, “Do not move from this spot!” The kid didn’t, but he was fidgeting and the demon in him was trying really hard to get out. After a little while, the kid couldn’t take it and started to jump in place and spun in the air. Now there was a kid that needed some wind sprints or something….
One reply on “Children that might explode”
Mojo Nixon famously said, “Elvis is in Joan Rivers, but he’s trying to get out!”
We all have demons in us that need to be let out for an airing occasionally. It’s when we don’t that the problems start.
Whay do you think that whenever I hear the sound of claws scratching the inside of my skull, Barbara Hoey panics????