I walked to my old elementary school with my mom tonight (first time I’ve been back in fifteen years), and it was SO funny to see her reactions to things I thought about the playground and school and surrounding houses.
Me, sitting on the third swing on the swingset in the back of the playground: “Oh yeah, this was MY swing. And that one was Axxxxx’s and that one was Jxxxxx’s, and we ruled this corner of the playground.”
Mom: “o...kay?”
Me, ducking under some plastic rocks: “look! the dinosaur!”
Mom: “wait what there’s something under there?”
Me, pointing at the mesh flooring beside the slide: “Ah yes, this is where I learned what “flipping someone off” meant.”
Mom: ??????
Me: “I stuck my middle finger thru the mesh from underneath and someone accused me of flipping them off.”
Me, looking at the death-trap steel merry-go-round: “Ah yes, the old oil tanker.”
Mom: “.....what”
Me, sweeping a hand to indicate the kickball backstop and the field: “And this is where the great snow fort battle of ‘04 -- raged between us fourth graders and the dastardly fifth graders -- escalated to the point where the principal had to call both classes into the library to yell at us, because her office was too small.”
Mom: “good lord.”
Me: “we built an ice throne.”
Me, pointing at a brown bridge made of planks with small metal circle holes, completely deadpan: “that’s the graham cracker bridge.”
Mom: “...alrighty then.”
(I also tried to slide across this zipline-kinda slider thing, not realizing the school had welded it in place due to safety concerns, so my mom has a wonderful video of me wrenching my arms off and eating it into the woodchips)