![](\"https:\/\/images.dailykos.com\/images\/1015329\/large\/NicholsArboretum.jpeg?1639083767\")
\u201cSo you\u2019re taking Coop to the Arb to try out the sled\u201d, mom said to dad, as he tied my shoes.<\/p>\n\u201cSo you\u2019re taking Coop to the Arb to try out the sled\u201d, mom said to dad, as he tied my shoes.<\/p>\n
I was able to put my black rubber boots on myself, because they had those \u201cbuckle\u201d things that I could hook together. If only my shoes had buckles, and didn\u2019t have those \u201cdamn\u201d laces that I still couldn\u2019t figure out how to tie, at least not in that \u201cbow\u201d thing. When I tried, I could sometimes do a \u201cknot\u201d, but then the shoe wouldn\u2019t be tight and the laces would be on the ground and it would look dumb, like I didn\u2019t know how to tie my shoes!<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks like a nice Flexible Flier\u201d, she said, \u201cWith that bar for steering in front, in pretty good shape actually for used.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI sanded the rust off the runners\u201d, dad said, nodding, \u201cAnd then used steel wool to get them smooth. I was thinking about maybe some ski wax, but maybe that might be too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom nodded. \u201cYeah\u201d, she said, \u201cProbably smart. More control of the sled at a bit slower speed. And I see you added a rope to the steering bar. Does that help with steering?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, dad said, wrinkling his nose, \u201cI guess you could use it for that, though I prefer to steer with my feet if I go down the hill sitting. In this case it\u2019s more for pulling the sled behind you rather than having to carry it back up the hill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course\u201d, mom said, laughing, and not just through her nose, but with her mouth, \u201cWhen I was a kid, if we had a sled like that you could steer, we always went head first and steered with our hands. Lower center of gravity so less likely to fall off if you got jostled or made a hard turn. A bit harder to bail out if you were going to hit a tree or go over a cliff!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and David should come!\u201d, dad said.<\/p>\n
Now mom nodded and did the laugh through her nose this time. \u201cWould be fun\u201d, she said, \u201cBut I\u2019m not ready to change a diaper on the snowy ground in the Arboretum. Nor have to walk back to the car out on Geddes to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom then did a big smile, and her eyes twinkled as she moved her eyebrows up and down. \u201cUnless you want to stay here with David while Coop and I go\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, dad said, nodding slowly and wrinkling his nose and pushing his lips together, \u201cMaybe you and Coop should go next time!\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom laughed and shook her head this time. \u201cThat\u2019s a deal Eric. You guys go and have your fun.\u201d Then looking at me she said, \u201cSo Coop, when you\u2019ve mastered the basics and are ready for the head first stuff, I\u2019ll show you the ropes!\u201d<\/p>\n
I just nodded. I knew mom and dad were talking to each other with their eyes and their faces, not just their words, but I couldn\u2019t figure out all the secret things they were saying without using words.<\/p>\n
Dad and I went out the side door to the car, dad carrying the sled and then putting it in the trunk. The \u201cweather\u201d was that word the grownups used, and dad had been singing to me since it had started being winter\u2026<\/p>\n
Oh the weather outside is frightful
\nBut the fire is so delightful
\nAs long as you love me so
\nLet it snow, let it snow, let it snow<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe \u201cweather\u201d was cloudy and gray, and the branches of the spruce trees wooshed in the wind, but not the maple tree or the bushes, maybe because they didn\u2019t have any leaves. But it wasn\u2019t super cold, like when the inside of your nose would sting and feel like it was getting sucked together when you tried to breathe in through it. There was snow on the ground, but not a lot, and it was all mushed down.<\/p>\n
Dad drove the car down the street by the park toward the stadium that Molly and I had gone so many times on our tricycles on the sidewalk part. He turned on the radio and listened to this guy talking.<\/p>\n
\u2026and newspapers in Cuba have been ordered to publish a so-called \u201cclarification\u201d, written by the pro-Castro printers\u2019 union, at the end of any articles they publish critical of the government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cJesus!\u201d, dad said, sounding mad. He quickly reached over and turned off the radio. I wondered if that was the same \u201cJesus\u201d we sang about in those Christmas songs. Dad did get mad about stuff, but he didn\u2019t talk about it much. I was asking mom and dad a lot of questions now, but I wasn\u2019t going to ask why he was mad.<\/p>\n
We got to the end of that street at the big street next to the stadium, which had that big silver fence all around it. We turned left on that \u201cmain\u201d street, which I guess meant it was the biggest or the best one. It went past houses but also \u201cbuildings\u201d, that had doors and windows like houses, but didn\u2019t have the \u201croof\u201d part at the top.<\/p>\n
And then we turned right on a street that went across the railroad tracks that had that special black and white sign like an \u201cX\u201d. I always liked driving over the tracks because it made the car bump. We drove up past bigger \u201cbuildings\u201d in the \u201ccampus\u201d place where dad went to school somewhere. We drove by that giant rock that I had seen before but was always painted different colors. We had to stop below that \u201clight\u201d thing, which was what grownups called it, way up above the streets hanging from a pole. You weren\u2019t supposed to go until the red light at the top turned off and the green light at the bottom turned on. But I remembered one time when dad waited a long time, got mad, and went under it when it was red.<\/p>\n
Grownups called that \u201cthe light\u201d, though streets had lots of other lights at the top of poles that they didn\u2019t call \u201cthe light\u201d. I couldn\u2019t figure them out sometimes!<\/p>\n
Then we turned left on a street with just houses and no buildings until it ended, and dad \u201cparked\u201d the car. It was strange that grownups used that word \u201cpark\u201d, which was that big place across the street where kids played, to also be stopping your car and getting out of it. We got out and took the sled out of the trunk, and after looking both ways for cars, crossed over to the part where you went into the \u201cArb\u201d place.<\/p>\n
I knew I had been here before, but I couldn\u2019t remember what it looked like. We walked along a flat part and dad pulled the sled with the rope, but I pulled it some too. On the left of the flat part it went up and there were lots of trees. On the right side it went down and there were some trees too, but not as many. Some trees didn\u2019t have any leaves, because it was winter, but others did, because they were \u201cevergreens\u201d, like the spruce trees in our backyard. I liked the sound of our boots crunching on the snow as we walked.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeez\u201d, dad said, \u201cI hope there\u2019s enough snow to sled on. We haven\u2019t had much this year!\u201d<\/p>\n
I was figuring out that if I asked mom and dad more questions, at least questions that didn\u2019t make them worried about me, that they\u2019d talk more and I\u2019d learn more about stuff, about everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
He pushed his lips together and took off his glasses to rub his eyes, then put them back on and shook his head. \u201cNope\u201d, he just said, which didn\u2019t help me figure out anything. So I kept asking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d, I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, Cloob\u201d, he said, looking up at the trees on either side of us as we walked, \u201cI don\u2019t really know. I\u2019m not a science guy. My friend Walter, remember he\u2019s the guy that got you all those Tom Swift books for your birthday, now he IS a science guy and he probably could at least give you an informed opinion on that question.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn informed opinion?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, he said, \u201cHe\u2019s studied how weather works with the Earth spinning and the atmosphere, you know, all the air up there\u201d, dad waved his arms above his head, \u201cAnd what causes it to snow more or less around where we live. Something about \u2018lake effects\u2019 I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLike that \u2018sunny\u2019 guy on TV that tells you about the weather and tries to be silly?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, dad said, shaking his head, \u201cI think that guy is more of a comedian than a scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA comedian?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone who makes people laugh\u201d, he said, \u201cYou know, like Jackie Gleason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJackie Gleason?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Dad pushed his lips together. \u201cYou probably haven\u2019t heard of him\u201d, he said. I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike that kid that comes to Molly\u2019s parties, that\u2019s older than you\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRicky?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah him\u201d, he said, wagging his finger in front of his face, \u201cThat kid\u2019s a comedian!\u201d<\/p>\n
I chuckled and nodded and said, \u201cHe is funny, but he thinks he knows everything even when he doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes twinkled and he said, \u201cWe call that a \u2018know it all\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if he doesn\u2019t really know it all?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYep\u201d, he said, nodding his head and smiling, \u201cESPECIALLY if he doesn\u2019t!\u201d That didn\u2019t make sense, and I wrinkled MY nose and looked at him.<\/p>\n
He did the laugh through his nose and said, \u201cIt\u2019s an IRONIC name!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIronic?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah Cloob\u201d, he said chuckling, and seeming really happy, \u201cWhen something\u2019s ironic, it can be the opposite of what you expect. Like calling a really big guy \u2018Tiny\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hmm, I thought. Maybe this was one of those grownup tricks for telling secret things that kids couldn\u2019t figure out.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, though I\u2019m not much for explaining the weather, if you asked me why Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter, I could give you an answer\u201d, he said, chuckling some more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did he?\u201d I asked, figuring if he wanted me to and he was so happy, I\u2019d better, to keep him that way. I didn\u2019t know who \u201cShakespeare\u201d was or what that other \u201cI\u201d thing was.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we modern people just have our theories really, our smart guesses that is, since none of us were alive when Shakespeare was, to ask him\u201d, he said. \u201cBut one thoughtful guess is that it made it easier for the actors, the people who were saying his words out loud to other people who were listening, to remember those words without having to read them out of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother, is that it matches your heartbeat when you feel really happy or sad\u201d, he said, reaching over with his finger and touching my chest. Then he put his hand over his own chest, and moving it back and forth just a little bit said, \u201cDuh DAH duh DAH duh DAH duh DAH duh DAH. If MUsic BE the FOOD of LOVE play ON!\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded. I figured that grownups talked in all these sneaky ways that weren\u2019t like regular talking. I was wondering what to ask next, when we got to a place where he stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the first sled run\u201d, he said, then holding out his arm and pointing his hand down the hill, \u201cAnd in iambic pentameter, \u2018And HERE\u2019S the SPOT where YOU and I can SLED!\u201d<\/p>\n
I figured it would be stupid to ask, \u201cIs it?\u201d, so I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I looked down and the ground wasn\u2019t flat like where we were walking, it went way down instead, between these two \u201chill\u201d parts. We were actually up high, because you could see down to this whole lower part with trees and parts with just the white snow and other kids walking around with their sleds, or going down those \u201chill\u201d parts ON their sleds.<\/p>\n
I was just figuring out what these \u201chill\u201d things were. When I piled up all this dirt in the backyard and made a fort for soldiers on the top part of it, dad looked at it and said it was a \u201chill with a fort on top\u201d. Mom and dad said that \u201chills\u201d were all over town but I couldn\u2019t really see them. Yeah some streets went down, and if you went the other way they went up. There was that one street we drove here on, that they said was a \u201chill street\u201d, but it didn\u2019t look like a hill to me, because you couldn\u2019t see the top part and the bottom part at the same time. But here in the \u201cArb\u201d, I guess the hills were smaller, so you could see the top part and bottom part at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, dad said, \u201cShall we?\u201d<\/p>\n
It looked kind of scary, but boys and men weren\u2019t supposed to be scared, and dad didn\u2019t look scared so I nodded even though I wasn\u2019t sure. I wondered if he\u2019d think I was a bad kid if I said I wasn\u2019t sure, one of those \u201csissies\u201d. I wasn\u2019t going to ask him about THAT!<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay then\u201d, dad said, sitting down on the back part of the sled and putting his feet out to the front part against that \u201csteering bar\u201d thing that mom had talked about. He then patted the top part of his leg and said, \u201cClimb on Cloob\u201d.<\/p>\n
I just made myself stop thinking and just sat down on his lap. He didn\u2019t seem scared at all so that made it a little better. Part of me wanted to close my eyes, but that felt like it would be even scarier. Better to see what was happening if we got wrecked. His arm wrapped around my chest and his other arm pushed the ground so the sled moved, and then I could feel us moving even though he wasn\u2019t pushing anymore. That other arm wrapped around me too, as we started to go faster, I could feel wind on my face that felt more cold. I saw dad push the bar with his foot on the right side and the sled turned a little bit to the left so we kept going down between the hills and not up one of them.<\/p>\n
It was fun, because we went pretty fast but not fast enough to be really scary, and I liked the feeling of the cold wind on my face. Even when we weren\u2019t going down any more the sled still kept going for a little bit before it finally stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, what do you think?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
I nodded, and then decided to say, \u201cIt was fun.\u201d I usually didn\u2019t say stuff like that to grownups, even mom and dad, but just to other kids. Grownups didn\u2019t usually tell kids when THEY were having fun, so why should we tell them. It would make them feel like they were in charge of us, in charge of our fun.<\/p>\n
Dad nodded and smiled, and he helped me climb off his lap and get up on my feet. I saw other kids, older than me, going down the different hills on their sleds all by themselves. THEY weren\u2019t riding with their mom and dad. They did it by themselves. That\u2019s what I had to figure out how to do, though I wasn\u2019t sure yet I wouldn\u2019t be too scared.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain?\u201d he asked and I nodded. He pulled the sled by the rope and we walked back up the part we went down. It was hard to walk up, and dad showed me how to make my feet point out to the sides to make it easier where the snow on the ground was hard and kind of shiny, \u201cslippery\u201d was the word he used. We went down together like we had before, except I wasn\u2019t worried so much and I really watched how he pushed his feet on the bar to make the sled turn. It was strange that if you pushed with your right foot the sled went to the left, and if you pushed with your left, then it went to the right. I guess you had to be careful, some things didn\u2019t work like you thought they would work.<\/p>\n
Again, I didn\u2019t see other kids going on their sleds with a grownup. I wondered if they were looking at me on the sled with dad and thinking that I was scared to do it by myself. I wondered if dad would be happy or sad if I said I wanted to try by myself. I just stood there for a minute and I could tell that dad was trying to figure out what I was thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to try it by yourself?\u201d he asked, and I couldn\u2019t tell if he was asking it in a sad way or not. I just stood there for a minute but then started to nod my head just a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right\u201d, he said, sounding happy now and not sad, \u201cMaybe your first time we\u2019ll just walk halfway up so you don\u2019t have to go as far and as fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not worried about him anymore, I did a regular nod. We walked back up part of the way but not all the way. He turned the sled to go down, then got on his knees behind it and held the two metal parts in the back that touched the snow so it wouldn\u2019t go down by itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cClimb on\u201d, he said. I looked at the sled and wasn\u2019t sure it would be okay.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll be fine\u201d, he said, figuring out I wasn\u2019t sure, \u201cIt\u2019s just a short ride down and it won\u2019t be very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though I still wasn\u2019t sure I figured I better get on or dad might be worried about me and not let me do other things I wanted to do by myself. I sat on the sled and put my feet on either side of the bar like he had.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s good\u201d, he said, though he moved each of my feet around a little bit against the bar like he was making it better. He hit the side of my left boot with his hand and said, \u201cNow push with this foot if you want to go that way\u201d, and he pointed to the right. Then he hit the other foot and said, \u201cAnd this foot to go the other way. Got it?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust try it once\u201d, he said, then his hand hit my left boot, \u201cpush the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pushed with my foot. It wasn\u2019t easy to make the bar move but it finally did, though my bottom kind of moved backward on the sled when I did.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, he said, \u201cBut also hang on to the sled on either side so you don\u2019t slide off the back.\u201d He took each of my hands in his and moved them down to each side and I held them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere ya go\u201d, he said, patting my shoulder, \u201cJust hang on. You ready?\u201d<\/p>\n
I figured I just had to nod and do it. If I got wrecked it didn\u2019t seem like it would be too bad.<\/p>\n
I felt him push the sled a little bit before he let go. And I was going down, all by myself, just like all the other kids who I could see and who could see me too. I decided I would just worry about hanging on and not try to steer with my feet. I didn\u2019t go very fast or very far but I was happy.<\/p>\n
Dad came down to where I stopped. \u201cHow was it?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, I said, nodding, figuring I wouldn\u2019t tell him that I was happy that I looked more like the other kids on their sleds.<\/p>\n
We walked back up to that same spot and I went down a couple more times.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to try from a bit higher up?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
I nodded and we did that. It was a little bit faster in the middle part and I went farther, but now I wasn\u2019t even worried anymore.<\/p>\n
When we went up to do it again. I got on the sled and he said, \u201cNow one time you should try falling off, on purpose, so you see what that\u2019s like, and then you won\u2019t be afraid of that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at him like that didn\u2019t make sense. Why should I try to fall off? Isn\u2019t that what you didn\u2019t want to do?<\/p>\n
\u201cFall off?\u201d I asked, \u201cOn purpose?\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiled and his eyes sparkled, and then he pushed his mouth together and nodded. \u201cIf you know that if you get in trouble, like you’re headed into a tree or the bushes, you can fall off and not get hurt, then you won\u2019t need to worry about anything and just have fun and even get more daring.\u201d<\/p>\n
I kept looking up at him, still not sure.<\/p>\n
His face changed from a smile to the way he looked when he was thinking. \u201cWell Cloob\u201d, he said, \u201cYou do what you think is best, but trust me on this one, you\u2019ll be ready to take on the world!\u201d<\/p>\n
There was that \u201ctrust\u201d word that grownups used. They would say \u201ctrust me\u201d when they wanted you to think that they were right and you were wrong. Even Ricky, who liked to pretend to be a grownup sometimes, would say \u201ctrust me\u201d, but that didn\u2019t mean he knew the right thing.<\/p>\n
But then I also thought about Molly and how she always liked to get wrecked and blown up when we were playing and pretending, and loved to fall down on the ground. Or when we went on the merry-go-round in the park, she always wanted to jump off even if she fell down and got kind of wrecked for real, or at least all dirty and scraped up. I usually could figure out what she was thinking, but not when she did stuff like that.<\/p>\n
So I was thinking maybe I WOULD try falling off the sled, so I could tell Molly I did it and maybe figure out why she liked to do it too. But I didn\u2019t want dad to think that he could make me fall off by telling me to \u201ctrust\u201d him.<\/p>\n
So he got me ready to go down again by myself and said, \u201cSo ya gonna try falling off?\u201d I shook my head. If I did fall off, I wasn\u2019t going to do it because he told me to.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay\u201d, he said, and I could tell he was trying to sound extra happy so I wouldn\u2019t think he was sad or mad that I didn\u2019t want to do what he said. He gave me a little push and let me go and I headed down the hill. I didn\u2019t try to, but somehow I was pretending Molly was there on the sled with me. When we got to the fastest part she said, \u201cFall off Coob\u201d, but I didn\u2019t do it. Then she said it again louder, and I DID. The side of my bottom hit the ground and my snow pants made a squeaking sound as I slid down the hill, but not as fast as the sled which I could see ahead of me. As I slid I fell over on my side but put my left arm out which kept my face from hitting the snow. I slowed down to a stop while the sled went down to the bottom by itself.<\/p>\n
Dad ran down toward me. \u201cAre you okay Cloob?\u201d Sitting in the snow I nodded. I couldn\u2019t wait to tell Molly what I did.<\/p>\n
I thought he would ask me if I did it on purpose but he didn\u2019t. He just said, \u201cI\u2019ll get the sled\u201d, and walked the rest of the way down the hill. He did seem happier though. I got up and walked down to where he and the sled were.<\/p>\n
\u201cShall we do some exploring?\u201d he asked. I nodded. He started to walk away from the hill we had been sledding on. There were a couple other kids sledding on it now, and other kids on the bigger hill next to it. Some were sitting on their sleds like I did as they went down, but others were lying down on their sleds like mom said. I saw how they could steer with their hands instead of their feet. I watched them for a minute but then ran to catch up with dad.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see\u201d, he said, scratching his face, \u201cIn iambic pentameter that would be, \u2018shall YOU and I exPLORE some MORE\u2026\u201d, he stopped talking and I could tell he was thinking. Then he said, \u201cOutDOORS\u201d, and laughed through his nose. I didn\u2019t think grownups could be silly unless they were at those parties where they drank that special stuff. I couldn\u2019t remember the last time dad was silly!<\/p>\n
We walked up another hill and when we got to the top we could see that there were kids sledding down the other side and a couple other grownups too sitting and talking to each other. Farther away we could look down at other smaller hills with trees all over them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake a break?\u201d dad asked, looking down at me but looking like he was thinking. I nodded. He put one knee down on the ground and then his hand, then made a funny noise as he let his bottom land on the back part of the sled, and then he pulled his legs up so they were crossed. I sat next to him on the front part of the sled and looked out at all the stuff we could see down below us – trees, hills and kids with their sleds. I could tell he was really thinking hard about stuff.<\/p>\n
He looked up at the sky, which was gray instead of blue.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know\u201d, he said, \u201cThis place, at least in the winter, always reminds me of where I was in the war when our unit first saw action. It was in the Ardennes in Luxembourg and Germany after the Battle of the Bulge.\u201d He looked around but didn\u2019t look at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mom said I should wait to tell you about the war until you\u2019re old enough to ask\u201d, he said. I nodded, and he turned his head just a little bit toward me and I think he could see me nodding, but he didn\u2019t look right at me. So I figured I shouldn\u2019t look at him either, and I just looked out in front of us. When mom wanted to say something really important she always looked at me, but when dad wanted to, he didn\u2019t look at me. Like that one time he got really mad at me and hit me on the bottom.<\/p>\n
I remembered when dad and I had talked about the war in the basement. I was always wondering about that war thing, and now he was saying he wanted to tell me, so I figured I could start asking questions, even though I didn\u2019t want him to think I was asking because he told me to. So I didn\u2019t ask a question right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, I said, \u201cYou blew up those eighty-eights.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed through his nose and shook his head. \u201cIf we were really lucky and I did my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour job?\u201d I asked. He nodded and pushed his mouth together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the spotter\u201d, he said, still not looking at me, \u201cI had to head out in front of my unit and figure out where the German guns were. Usually someplace up high but also kind of hidden in the trees. I would radio back to my guys and tell them where to shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid the Germans shoot at you?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
He pushed his lips together and shook his head. Then he stopped shaking it and made a clicking noise with his mouth and said, \u201cWell, once.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he sat next to me on the sled, he leaned his head toward me and his eyes looked at me for just a second, then back out in front of us. \u201cThose German guns\u201d, he said, \u201cLike the eighty-eights, they shoot in a straight line. So they have to see what they\u2019re shooting at. Our mortars don\u2019t need to see what they\u2019re shooting at, because they shoot in an arc, up and over things.\u201d He pointed his finger and made it go up in the air above him and then back down. He even made a kind of whooshing noise and then a quiet boom noise after his finger came back down, spreading them out like something was blowing up.<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cSo our guys shooting the mortars can be hiding behind a hill or behind some trees, but they need the spotter, that\u2019s me, to tell them which direction and how far to shoot. And the first shot is never right, but when I see the explosion, then I tell them how much to change the direction and and the range. That second shot is hopefully closer. Eventually we try to get close enough to take out the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo blow it up?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah\u201d, he said nodding and looking ahead, \u201cOr they might try to limber it and get it out of there. Or one time\u201d, he put his hands on his cheeks, \u201cThey saw me and started shooting at me.\u201d He laughed through his nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you do?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran\u201d, he said, his eyes opened extra wide, \u201cThat was the only thing to do. Their second shot landed close to me and knocked me to the ground. So I got up again and ran and tripped over some rocks and my face hit the frozen ground and it broke my nose. I guess they thought they got me because my guys had stopped shooting at them. So they stopped shooting at me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head slowly, and then looked at me and raised his eyebrows. \u201cI got a medal for being wounded, and I didn\u2019t even have to be brave, just scared and clumsy!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I thought about the question I had been thinking about since I first heard about the war. \u201cWhy were we fighting the Germans?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
He nodded, then said, \u201cBecause their leader was a madman and he wanted to take over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was he mad about?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, he said, looking at me, \u201cWhen you\u2019re a madman you\u2019re mad about pretty much everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the older boys in the park talked about the war they talked about that \u201cHitler\u201d guy who was in charge of the Germans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Hitler guy?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Dad looked at me and his eyes looked sad and worried. He closed them and nodded. He opened them again and asked, \u201cDid I already tell you about Hitler?\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head. He looked at me like he was wondering how I knew about him. Usually I wouldn\u2019t tell a grownup, even mom or dad, about what kids said, but I figured I should do it this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe older kids in the park talk about the war and about him\u201d, I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do they say about him?\u201d dad asked, looking even more worried.<\/p>\n
I wondered what he was worried about that the older boys might have said. Sometimes they made fun of that Hitler guy like he was stupid, but I didn\u2019t want to tell dad that, because I had a feeling dad might think that was bad. So I said, \u201cThat he was the worst badguy ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could see he wasn\u2019t as worried now, but still sad. \u201cYep\u201d, he said, \u201cThat\u2019s about right.\u201d<\/p>\n
We did more sledding after that. Some with me on his lap and some by myself. He even showed me how to do it myself \u201chead first\u201d, how to lie on the sled on my stomach and grab the bar part with my hands to steer. We just tried that on the flat part, not one of the hills. He crawled on the ground behind me to push me and had me try steering to the left and to the right with my hands. That was really neat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d, he said, \u201cWe probably shouldn\u2019t try head first down a hill today. We\u2019ll save that one for when you go out with your daredevil mother!\u201d And then he laughed. A regular laugh with his mouth, and not one of those nose ones. I could tell by those last words he said that he really liked mom. Other times when he talked about her I wasn\u2019t too sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cSo you\u2019re taking Coop to the Arb to try out the sled\u201d, mom said to dad, as he tied my shoes. I was able to put my black rubber boots on myself, because they had those \u201cbuckle\u201d things that I could hook together. If only my shoes had buckles, and didn\u2019t have those \u201cdamn\u201d laces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13,1773,515,1775],"class_list":["post-7248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","tag-ann-arbor","tag-childhood","tag-human-development","tag-memoir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7248"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7252,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7248\/revisions\/7252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leftyparent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}