Playin' in the dirt

I think every kid has one thing that they enjoy playing with more than anything else. There's one particular toy that is just a bit more special than all the others. For me, I found joy by playing in the dirt. I would get my little cars and trucks, and make roads in the cool, soft dirt. There were three areas scattered around the perimeter of my house where I would wear holes in the knees of my pants by crawling around in the rocks and dirt with my cars.

I attribute my love of toy cars and the dirt to the Dukes of Hazzard television show. I watched it with a passion and I wanted to be like Bo and Luke Duke when I grew up. I even had a General Lee car, and a Rosco P. Coltrane police car. I had a bulldozer, that I used to make the roads. I made mounds that I would use to jump the General Lee, also. I also had a tractor and a plow where I would make a field and pretend to plant crops. I went wherever my imagination took me.

One day, my imagination took me to a place that got me into deep trouble. I barely remember this, so I must have only been 4 or 5 years old. I can't remember if it was raining outside, or cold, but for some reason I was inside the house all day on that particular day. I used to drink chocolate milk all the time. Mom would get me the Nestle Quik powdered mix, and I would make the chocolate milk that way.

That particular day, I wanted to play in the dirt but couldn't go outside. So with my creative mind, I took the Nestle Quik container and turned it upside down and started dumping the mix on the middle of the kitchen floor. I went to my room and got some cars and started running through the mix, pretending it was dirt. Besides, it looked just like loose dirt, and I was really having fun.

About that time, Mom walked in and saw what I was doing. I can't remember her reaction, other than her asking what in the heck I was doing. I simply replied, "I'm playin' in the dirt, Mom."

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The wife and I stayed with my parents this weekend. We had eaten a very late lunch, and I wasn't hungry again until around 10 o'clock when I went to bed. So instead of eating, I drank some chocolate milk. It was the good Nestle Quik powdered mix that I had drunk as a child. Mixing it up on Saturday night brought back this childhood memory of mine.