The Joy of Childhood

On the corner of our apartment building there is a water spicket, which is occasionally turned on, and by the corner of two sidewalks that meet nearby there is a shallow hole where the water likes to gather.

This afternoon when I returned home after work and grocery shopping, I walked around the building using this sidewalk. As I neared the afore mentioned corner, a site met my eyes which brought a smile to my lips, a twinkle to my eye, and a child-like joy to my heart. Sometime earlier in the day someone must have used the water spicket and the escaping water gratefully trickled to its favorite gathering spot in that shallow hole by the corner of the sidewalk. Once there the water and the dirt joyfully intermingled to form a perfectly playful puddle of mud. And before nature could play its role to dry the gooey puddle, a small, toe-headed, brown-eyed boy found that rich, mucky, mess.

He sat on the edge of the shallow hole with his wiggling toes right in the middle of that cool, chocolate-colored mud. He legs were immersed all the way to his knobby little knees and he was bent over, presumably to touch his wriggling toes, sinking his hands and arms up to his knobby elbows. Oh, what glee I beheld on that perfect little face!

As I passed, he threw his arms in the air (flinging mud in every direction) and cried, "Chocolate Milk!" A giggle escaped my lips, then his. Two big brown eyes twinkled like Christmas morning as he turned his attention back to the puddle of mucky, gooey, perfectly delightful mud!