Kid catch phrases, spring 2105: the danger hole

Kids say cute things all the time. A couple years ago it was the very cryptic “fi fi outside”.  For a while my wife and I thought that “fi fi outside” was one of the neighbors walking their dog. To the adult mind that makes sense but makes you question your neighbors who would have the faux Parisian gall to name their dog ‘fi fi’. By the end of that spring we realized that he was saying “leaf outside”, which still makes sense because of the ‘-af’ sound that they hear last.  This spring has created a new catchphrase, one that’s replete with soundtrack memories of Kenny Loggins.

The boys and I were on the neighbor’s driveway playing with chalk. Note: our neighbors own the house, but haven’t had someone living there in 15 years. During the outside months we use their driveway as our canvas, runway, soccer goal, flight deck and shady place.

As our oldest was creating his chalk roller coaster he paused in one area, drew a circle, connected some tracks at various points around it and kept going.

As the circle was so different from the rest of his 1/32 scale amusement park paradise I asked him about it.

“That’s the danger hole”, he said without missing a beat.

“The danger hole.  What’s in the danger hole”?, I asked.

“Bugs and smelly things”.

His younger brother already knew to avoid the danger hole.  He was dutifully following the tracks as best he could on his balance bike.  Granted some of the turns were tight, but when it came to the danger hole he stopped and went around it.

He wouldn’t elaborate on what went into the vague category of ‘smelly things’.  I know that he’s not fond of the smell of his brother’s diapers, so that was certainly in there.   Some of the things that I cook were in there too.

The next day it rained and his two-yard and a driveway rollercoaster track had been erased.  That is the beauty of sidewalk chalk and to an extent, much of life.  You can recreate what was done yesterday, but it will never be the same.  R.E.M said it Don’t Go Back to Rockville.  Granted that was without sidewalk chalk, but it was in terms that my teen-something self could understand.

Our kids still haven’t re-created the danger hole as it’s been raining too much.  It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow and I suspect that they’ll be jumping off the deck and headed on the highway to the danger hole.