Friday, March 03, 2006

Streets

Have you ever thought that streets have their own feeling to them? Like when you walk on one street and you feel tranquility, another street – and you are overwhelmed with business, some streets feel safe and other do not. One street I walk and giggle.
There are some streets that I like to walk on. I get off the bus earlier for that reason.

Of course, there is this particular feeling with the streets on which I ran as a kid. Though streets have changed, some became wider, some otherwise, old buildings in contrast with new and I do not see on them the familiar faces – my heart pounds faster, as some of the still familiar sounds and scenery resurrect my childhood memories.

This is the place where I first learnt how to ride my bike. This is a bush near which I fell and wanted to cry, and my sister saw it and told that I was a strong girl who is not suppose to cry, and so as I walked on the street I hold my tears back. Then in five minutes I was running again with my green from medicine knees. On the side of this street is a tree from the top of which I slipped down, scratching to blood both my legs and hands and walking back as a bear, rocking from left to right to get home. But that time I could not hold my tears. Just days after I had to climb that tree again many other times, it was my spying-hiding place. The boys could not find me there. And even that dramatic fall – it did not betray me. I had to quit the game but just for a short time.

Between two other streets I can see couple of trees that have grown up from the little twigs that my mother planted into the ground, which I used to water everyday in summer, into strong branched trees. These days my nephew climbs them as they play with other boys.

I like many other streets, and I return to some of them, if I have a chance.

P.S. I think it is more that just the streets themselves that I like, but what they contain in them – people, houses, smells and trees, and playgrounds and how it all is related to each other.

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