July 1, 2019

Max’s Musings

By Max Molleston

This is July and I am going to dedicate this Muse to the women who are 50 Plusers. This poetry is from that book I neglected for fifteen years, and discovered, and am thankful to have it this month, or subsequent months should I choose. The dedication is about what young girls did for group entertainment in summers gone by. The title is Ten O’Clock, which does not leave a hint of content. Soon, you women who were neighborhood participants in this fun competitive activities will know.

TEN O’CLOCK

Our skipping ropes lie silent,

Our hop-scotch squares are dead,

And we are home at ten o’clock

Tucked in bed.

We jumped away the morning,

We hopped away the noon,

We skipped away the evening:

Night came too soon.

Time looped up our skipping rope,

He blackened our squares,

He took us by our trusting hands

And led us up the stairs.

This fun and very truthful poem, or verse if you will, was the product of poet Patricia Hubbell and is on page 80 of this almost forgotten tome, an anthology titled City Streets, published in 1968 and for some time held forth on a library shelve at Pleasant Valley High School, Pleasant Valley, Iowa. Rhoada, my wife of 55 years is/was a farm girl, and claims she and her girls did all those fun things at school, in Dysart, Iowa. So did you women who are indulging in this July Muse. Even guys would try hopscotch, particularly if no girls were watching. I can remember summertime when 10 pm was a treasured luxury for staying out late.

For some of us in town the nearest street light prolonged the pleasure of being out late. Nowadays the youngest of the kids have supervised things to do passed off as healthy and a learning experience. Back “then” the education was having fun, maybe being a nuisance to neighborhood girls and getting the most out of our lives. But, we didn’t know what we had, perhaps until now. Lots of county fairs and ball games and other scheduled things for those of us who are parents and grandparents to attend. They revolve around the planned play the grandkids are a part of. August may not be the end of summer but lots of K-12 schooling begins next month. Join us!

Filed Under: History, Personal Growth

Trackback URL: https://www.50pluslife.com/2019/07/01/maxs-musings-62/trackback/