This Used To Be My Playground

cookies for those who recognise this playground

I took a different bus home from town today; one that takes me a bit further from home, but allows for a pleasant stroll. I used to walk there all the time, and it was always calming.

Walking home today was no different. And I knew that I'd come to an outdoor basketball court. You know the one. Concrete court, metal poles, no net on the hoops.

The best part of the old basketball courts was that they weren't just used to play basketball. They were great soccer courts too - someone's flip-flops would serve as the 'goalposts'. Wonderful places to play 'Catching', or 'Tag'. Throw in a couple makeshift ramps, and you've got yourself a decent place for the sk8ters to hang out. You'd find the older kids hanging out at night with their guitars (and sometimes beers and cigarettes for the kids who were much older, or at least pretending to be).  And the little kids used it to drive their Flintstones-style cars or trikes.

First thing I noticed as I rounded the bend in the path was that it was quiet. It was odd not to hear the clacking of skateboards or the bouncing of basketballs. And when I walked closer, I stopped dead in my tracks.

The basketball court which has been there for as long as I can remember, in this neighbourhood that I grew up in; the basketball court on which I had a fight with my first boyfriend, the one where I've seen so many familiar faces over the years...it's gone. In its place is now an extension of the carpark, with about 8 extra parking spots.

Change is inevitable. But I've lived in this neighbourhood for 23 years now, and to have it changed overnight (at least it seemed that way to me) was rather jarring.

I stood there for a good minute or two, I'm not kidding. I rarely feel nostalgia in this neighbourhood; having lived here for so long, I don't always notice gradual changes. But at that moment, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia so strong, I couldn't walk on just yet.

Sometimes, I feel it's hardly surprising that so many people feel lost in this world. It's progressing and changing so fast that we can no longer keep up.

I think I embrace change. It intimidates me on occasion, but I've learnt to welcome change in my life. I've even begun to seek it out. But I would really rather things slow down around here. It's not the best feeling in the world to have the rug pulled out from under you.

So right now, I'm going to curl up in my very familiar corner of my very familiar living room and open up a very familiar book, which I've probably read about a dozen times.

And if anyone knows if there are still any of those old rubber-tire swings on sand playgrounds in this country, let me know where. I'd like to go on those swings.

Just for old times' sake.