Old Stomping Grounds

There is a term I like to throw around when discussing the best hometown features and reminiscing good old nostalgia. Its coined old stomping grounds! (Where I'm not actually stomping ground, ya know its um...a figure of speech, an idiom as you will. Gosh, who remembers those?!)

The Merriam-Webster definition is a favorite place or habitual resort, also familiar territory. A location where one use to spend a lot of time in.

It's been so long since I was surround by mother nature and it's blossoming lavender Verbena flowers in Galloway's Nature Reserve.

Hold on...I was just there last Tuesday. Before that time I was missing this part of my childhood a lot and needed to revisit this treasured piece of beautiful land mixed in with the wild-life, a 3-mile long trail that's great for runners including myself.

Smack dab in the middle with a lake where ostriches go to feed the baby ostriches that clean spring water (hey save some for the ducks too!)

So many activities you can enjoy at the lake such as swimming (at your own risk as it's not patrolled), Kayaking, Skiing and Tubing just to name a few.

Here are some pictures of just part of my hometown features: *Warning* I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER, I'm just very average with android phone cameras that have lots of cool filters.

Definitely one of the main highlights of my childhood hometown is this spot called Nature Reserve.

The name itself makes perfect sense - "reserved for nature" its also a place where I get lost in the moment of peace and clarity.

Revisiting this place last spring of 2020 was a smart move for my mental health and a chance to have a handful of compelling conversations with myself.

This nostalgia really helped me become whole again and tap into a newer version of myself that I wasn't previously aware of.

So many moments occurred here, times where I cried, times where I reflected, times I prayed, times I felt joy and times where I laughed and mocked duck sounds.

I can also call this place where I have connected with family and friends.

Taking my mother out for a trail walk and she is not use to walking a lot anymore as she continues to have reoccurring knee and ankle problems that has made her fearful of falling but I assured her she would be fine, "just don't think about it", I said.

That day she walked over 3 miles and boy she was worn out but proved she can do it.

Back in August I was invited to go biking with the boys, we would be in a group bike riding on the trails for 4-5 Miles, most of the group was tired out and I was still ready to go 10 more miles!

When I was kid, nobody taught me how to ride a bike let alone on the trails but when I taught myself, it just became clockwork for me and I was already maintaining suitable shape for this get together and I felt a natural going for the 1st time.

Another hometown feature I would like to bring up is my memorable time in elementary school...more specifically recess, playgrounds and dangerous falls off slides!

I would say nature reserve was more of the heart of my childhood and recess at school and my playgrounds was like the meat and potatoes of my adolescent years.

I don't care what anyone says if you didn't get to experience recess and roughly play in the sandbox and trip and fall with knee scrapes and play ball tag with your friends, is it safe to ask that "did you really have a childhood growing up?"

Recess for me were the golden years of simply just being a kid. It was the time after lunch where all the rugrats would be eagerly waiting for the teachers to dismiss them for afternoon playtime.

You had your basketball courts and unfortunately snagging a ball at recess was never easy with kids competing for one or trying to fight for one.

You had your jump ropes (which I sucked at jumping rope, I'd miss my cue all the time) and all sorts of sports equipment such as football and baseball.

My favorite feature of recess was none other than the playground.

Oh and I would be negligent not to mention a good'ole fashion game of tag!

You had the hide-and-go-seek tag, ball tag, freeze tag - ya know where you tag someone and they freeze for whatever how long and they become "it" the point is I hated that variation of tag because once I get tagged by the tagger now I have to freeze for like 10 seconds and by that time little Johnny is already hiding in the fields in a large group of kids and its bad enough I was playing with kids that were faster than me.

And things would get heated when you are playing with kids who are ultra competitive and loved not being the tagger, this one friend I had would get so mad when he became "it" and he thought just a little tip on my shoulder which I can't feel would be my turn to chase the other rascals.

The tag wars were real back then, early 2000's all the way!

Back to the playground, which I had a love and hate relationship with.

Lets be real, I wasn't the most athletic and well-coordinated child at all.

So I was more susceptible to getting hurt and tripping on something.

My times at recess and the playground go a little something like this:

Tripping and falling on sharp bricks that are kinda circled around and happened to cut deep on the lower part of my leg and blood was gushing out so fast. I still have that same scar today.

Running and scraping my knee and elbows with so many cuts and bruises just horse playing. The time where I almost buckled my leg.

Also watching a young girl fall off from the jungle gym and another kid fall and landed right on her - I know very scary.

I'll never the forget the time when I was playing tag and I so badly didn't want to be tagged, well I was following another kid to the slide and right when I was about to be tagged, my way was blocked by two other kids that were taking up "slide space" and I felt this urgency hit me hard, so out of desperation I scurried my way to slide off the slide even though another kid was in my way.

I kinda just trampled over him and next thing you know I fall off a 20-feet high slide and I completely black out for a couple of seconds.

Looking back that was not very smooth of me to have done that cause I'm lucky I didn't dislocate my shoulder after that long fall. But the wild kid in me soldiered on and got back in the mix!

The two of my hometown features that I cherish the most is the crazy times I had at recess/playground and the nature reserve spot.

Two of the highlights of my childhood and a little taste of nostalgia to go back in time and reminiscence.

I like to call myself a nature baby, I wasn't in touch with feelings and emotions as I was pretty immune to it.

I was living in the moment and thats what I miss most about being a kid, it was a free spirited thing for me.

It doesn't matter where in the world you visited, there is truly no place like your old stomping grounds. Born and raised as they say.

"Tag, your it!"