When I Was Ten
“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” GRAHAM GREENE, The Power and the Glory. There are events in our lives that changes, for good or for worst. This moment’s help to shape our goals, our feelings, our future. Mine was when I was ten years old.
I’ve always been a very shy person, at school I was always the quietest one, used never to talk, and even spend most of the times alone. Nevertheless, in my neighborhood it was different. I had my gang, not like a criminal gang, just a group of friends. I was the leader, I was the courageous one, I couldn’t be the shy one. So it was winter time, me and my best pal went to the park to play in the trees or just hang. It wasn’t an actual park with swings and stuff, it just was a empty space of grass, but we called it the park. When suddenly we see part of the park blocked with a big wooden fence. We were surprised, we thought for a second, finale they are going to make that pool they promised us for a long time. A month past and another surprise hit us, the part was entirely blocked with a wooden fence. Now something was wrong. The park is pretty big and for a pool you don’t have to block it entirely. We knew something was up, so we started investigating. At the time we had a sense for adventure and we wanted to be detectives, I used to walk around with a notebook to write clues. So we started hearing the conversations of grownups about what was happening and we learn the worst, our park, our lot, was going to become houses, they were going to use the space to make houses. “Where would we play, where would we hang?”
So the revolution started, my best friend Ian got a bit scared, but I was determined to fight back. At the time my dad was participating in a strike at his work, he was leading part of it, not by his choice, but because he was the vice president of the union at his work and sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to. At the moment I didn’t understand what my father was doing, but all I knew he was on strike, that he was fighting for rights. I wanted to fight for my park. So, if called all the kids on the block for a meeting to tell them what was going on. For my surprise they actually cared, but we had to do something, we might have been just kids, but we won’t go down so easily. At the time I was learning Microsoft Word, so I made some pamphlets talking about our strike. It was all set up, we had our meetings, our plans, we even talked about how to take down the fence. As son has the pamphlets were done, I told some of the girls in the block to deliver them to all the kids in the neighborhood. I made one big mistake. I put my name and phone number in those pamphlets, and it looked really professional, I had talent with the computer, no one thought that was made by a 10 year old. In my house, my dad and I have the same name, so we tend to get confused in phone calls and even mail. The problem about the whole situation was that many parents saw the pamphlets, and that’s how all hell broke loose. They started calling my house, and telling my dad why was he giving this to their kids, and he had to explain that It was all me, that he didn’t know about it. I felt a shame, I put my dad in a tough situation. People started to talk about my dad, some knew he was on strike and it seemed very strange that his name was in the pamphlets.
I couldn’t stand going outside, I was very ashamed. I had put my dad in a lot of trouble, and for nothing, because the park was still blocked. Then suddenly, the conversations of grownup started to change, they were going to make a park now, with swings and a tennis and basketball court. I didn’t understand why the sudden change of plans. The park was finished and it was beautiful, nevertheless, I did not enjoy it the first month because I still felt bad for striking against it. Some years later I found out what was the real reason for the change of plans. My dad, after he saw how much the park meant for me and my friends he went to the neighborhood board and told them that it was illegal to have some many units of houses and no park at all. That if they made more houses, the neighborhood would be against regulations. My father is no lawyer, but he sure knew what he was talking about, because other neighbors joined him, and the park was made. Even do, at the moment I was a kid who wanted to do grownup stuff, I actually had an impact to the outcome. Now a days, I just laugh about the situation, nevertheless, I wouldn’t like to go on strike again.
I’ve always been a very shy person, at school I was always the quietest one, used never to talk, and even spend most of the times alone. Nevertheless, in my neighborhood it was different. I had my gang, not like a criminal gang, just a group of friends. I was the leader, I was the courageous one, I couldn’t be the shy one. So it was winter time, me and my best pal went to the park to play in the trees or just hang. It wasn’t an actual park with swings and stuff, it just was a empty space of grass, but we called it the park. When suddenly we see part of the park blocked with a big wooden fence. We were surprised, we thought for a second, finale they are going to make that pool they promised us for a long time. A month past and another surprise hit us, the part was entirely blocked with a wooden fence. Now something was wrong. The park is pretty big and for a pool you don’t have to block it entirely. We knew something was up, so we started investigating. At the time we had a sense for adventure and we wanted to be detectives, I used to walk around with a notebook to write clues. So we started hearing the conversations of grownups about what was happening and we learn the worst, our park, our lot, was going to become houses, they were going to use the space to make houses. “Where would we play, where would we hang?”
So the revolution started, my best friend Ian got a bit scared, but I was determined to fight back. At the time my dad was participating in a strike at his work, he was leading part of it, not by his choice, but because he was the vice president of the union at his work and sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to. At the moment I didn’t understand what my father was doing, but all I knew he was on strike, that he was fighting for rights. I wanted to fight for my park. So, if called all the kids on the block for a meeting to tell them what was going on. For my surprise they actually cared, but we had to do something, we might have been just kids, but we won’t go down so easily. At the time I was learning Microsoft Word, so I made some pamphlets talking about our strike. It was all set up, we had our meetings, our plans, we even talked about how to take down the fence. As son has the pamphlets were done, I told some of the girls in the block to deliver them to all the kids in the neighborhood. I made one big mistake. I put my name and phone number in those pamphlets, and it looked really professional, I had talent with the computer, no one thought that was made by a 10 year old. In my house, my dad and I have the same name, so we tend to get confused in phone calls and even mail. The problem about the whole situation was that many parents saw the pamphlets, and that’s how all hell broke loose. They started calling my house, and telling my dad why was he giving this to their kids, and he had to explain that It was all me, that he didn’t know about it. I felt a shame, I put my dad in a tough situation. People started to talk about my dad, some knew he was on strike and it seemed very strange that his name was in the pamphlets.
I couldn’t stand going outside, I was very ashamed. I had put my dad in a lot of trouble, and for nothing, because the park was still blocked. Then suddenly, the conversations of grownup started to change, they were going to make a park now, with swings and a tennis and basketball court. I didn’t understand why the sudden change of plans. The park was finished and it was beautiful, nevertheless, I did not enjoy it the first month because I still felt bad for striking against it. Some years later I found out what was the real reason for the change of plans. My dad, after he saw how much the park meant for me and my friends he went to the neighborhood board and told them that it was illegal to have some many units of houses and no park at all. That if they made more houses, the neighborhood would be against regulations. My father is no lawyer, but he sure knew what he was talking about, because other neighbors joined him, and the park was made. Even do, at the moment I was a kid who wanted to do grownup stuff, I actually had an impact to the outcome. Now a days, I just laugh about the situation, nevertheless, I wouldn’t like to go on strike again.