On Saturday, I found myself among friends, hanging around behind an abandoned industrial building. Some folks were drinking beers; all of us were talking shit. Because that’s what we do. Shoot the bull, drink beer, and hang around debris-strewn alleyways behind abandoned buildings. We’re classy n’ shit.
Any old how, I wasn’t drinking beer because I haven’t been really into it lately. Too hot out, plus I really annoy myself when I’m drunk these days; so, I’m off the hooch by default.
I just couldn’t sit still, and I didn’t feel that talky, either. So, I roamed around the vicinity of our little private park and discovered a pair of abandoned boxer briefs. I poked them with a very long stick but nothing really came of that. I teased my hair up into a great big tumbleweed-y brush. Then I started playing with broken glass and discarded chewing gum (it was Big Red…it still smelled all cinnamon-y).
I made these little crystal forests out of busted up glass stuck into two wads of chewing gum that were melted down to the asphalt.
realized a few days later, that my little episode of antisocial personal amusement hearkens back to an amusement I used to pursue as a little kid. When we’d be somewhere where there weren’t other kids to tear around with, and I didn’t have any emergency equipment with me (I often carried a hand-me-down purse with a book, a doll and some clothes, or some art supplies in case my parents dragged me somewhere boring) I would sometimes build teeny-tiny replicas of Bedrock City out of pebbles. I really, really liked the Flintstones when I was a kid. I’m sure 90% of the jokes flew straight over my head, but I liked the dinosaur appliances and hole-in-the-floor cars.
(sigh) I miss riding with the Saturday group. My work schedule pretty much sucks lately so I haven’t been riding much at all.
Well, the next time you get a free Saturday, I bet I know what you’ll be doing!
I love the idea that they’re still out there — they reminded me of this guy: http://slinkachu.com/little-people
and of the artist who sews lines of poetry to clothing labels in thrift shops.
Hee…what a fun idea!
There is a designer, Behnaz Sarafpour, who has been known to stitch ribbons with lines of poetry penned on to them into the seams of the dresses she sells.