No flashy photoshop work this week just a straight-forward snapshot. This is me at age 5 hanging out in the backyard with my Grandfather. What I have in my hands is a jart hoop which I had pulled a part and turned into a jump rope. Remember Jarts? Now there's a safe game the whole family can enjoy.
I clearly remember this photo being taken and the hour or so previous. I had been in the house and discovered some sheet music. I remember thinking in my little 5 year old brain "I can write music. All it is is a bunch of dots on some lines." So, I got out some paper, carefully drew horizontal lines and proceeded to fill them up with notes I copied out of the book. I was so proud and wondered what kind of beautiful song I had created. I ran clutching my masterpiece to find an adult to translate my work for me. I held it up "Look, look, I wrote a song!" I don't remember who I showed it to or what they said but they didn't say what I imagined that they would. I looked at my sad little piece of scribbles and dots and knew that it wasn't really music. It was foolish for me to believe that it was. Golly, if it were that easy everyone would be doing it. I mourned the death of a musical career for maybe 30 seconds or so and picked up the Jart hoop. I decided to hang out on the table until dinner was ready. That I also remember. We were grilling out.
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5 comments:
My parents have a Jarts set in their garage. My friends keep begging me to get it from them so that we can play. (None of us has children yet.)
-Cynnabon
Cynnabon,
It's a really fun game. There's a huge satisfaction when you hear it land in the grass and the suction noise the soil makes when you pull it out. Of course I'm remembering from a 5 year old perspective. They seemed huge at the time. It took two hands for me to pull them out of the ground.
You should play but don't get caught!
I did hear that they're illegal now.
I loved to play when I was a kid. I have fond memories of my father yelling, "Don't stand there! Get out of the way! Do you want to end up with a Jart stuck in your eyeball?"
As an added bonus, they're now all rusted. Hope everyone has had their tetanus update!!
Cynnabon
I wrote music as a kid too--before I knew what all of the shapes and symbols meant. I loved that there was a language that translated into music. I lived for music. I was so proud that I had found a way to communicate the tunes in my head. Proud. I drew lines and then put little color coded circles, squares and triangles on the lines. It was beautiful. The adults in my life were not so impressed. Sigh. The process was more rewarding than the finished product.
But I don't know what a jart is.
Ahh my husband and I were just lamenting the loss of Lawn Darts (as we called them) last weekend!!
good times.
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