A Summer Evening Walk

For the last three nights I have decided to take a walk around my neighborhood.  I need the exercise and I read somewhere that walking outside does more for your body because the terrain you are walking on is so irregular that it works various muscle groups at one time.  Not to mention it was 30 minutes each day of ME time.  No phone ringing, no kids fighting, no t.v. blaring, and no household chores staring me in my face.

The first night I took a walk, I remembered my mom, my siblings, and I going for walks in the summer when I was younger.  We would just take a walk around a couple of blocks just to get out of the house for awhile.  Of course, we would never really get very far.  There was always someone you knew outside of their homes and we would stop and chat and play.  We usually only made it a block away.  Mom's friend Diane Loyd lived in the next block and mom would stop to talk.  Sometimes we would stay there for hours.  I loved going to Diane's house because she had a daughter, Peri, who was older than me and she would let me come into her teenage room.  I remember playing with her dolls.  She had a Darcy doll that I just loved.  She also had a group of dolls that were teenagers by day and rock stars at night.  I can't remember their title but I know one of the girls was named Starr.  Eventually, she gave me those dolls to have as my own when she got too old for them.  She used to play cool rock and roll music on her record player.  That was the first time I heard Billy Joel.  My sister and brothers would play with Diane's younger son Jory.  Eventually the playtime would slip across the street to include Stacy and Shea Acton.  Or it may have spilled down another block to visit Grandma Teet and her black train engine that we could play in.  It even had a working bell that you could ring.  It was nice to have friends to play with in the neighborhood.  After mom got done visiting we would head back home from our "walk". I guess you should really call it "talk" since there wasn't much walking going on.  After awhile people moved away and we got older.  Walks at night weren't as prevalent anymore unless Granny was visiting.  She always loved to go on a walk.  But I'm glad we did that as a family because it is a wonderful memory to me.

The second night of my walk I realized that going for a walk is not only exercise for your body but exercise for your senses as well.  Hearing:  I was listening to the wind move the leaves of the trees, neighborhood dogs saying hello as I walked by, children playing outside in their backyards, but my favorite sound was that of the cicadas. I LOVE the sound of the cicadas singing in the summer evenings.  I don't know why but it always has been a comforting sound to me.  I also loved to collect the cicada shells that you would find hanging on the trees.  It was neat to hang them on your shirt.  Although one time, I was at the bus stop one morning with my friend Paula Decker.  It was probably about 1978ish.  We found a cicada shell hanging on the tree at our bus stop.  I went to pick it up and the cicada was still in it.  I was really scared and kind of nervous about picking up another shell after that.  Smelling:  some of the scents that tickled my nose on my walk were freshly mown grass, rain in the air, spruce and cedar trees, BBQ grilling, but my favorite was the smell of the mimosa tree.  That smell will always remind me of my granny and gramps house.  They used to have a big mimosa tree out on the side of their house.  I loved in the spring/summer when the windows were open and the scent of the mimosa tree blew into the house.  Seeing:  I hadn't realized how beautiful some of the houses are in my neighborhood.  Some of them are really huge.  I love to just imagine what they looked like when they were first built, what they had in their homes, and what kind of people lived there.  There are some really pretty lawns and landscaping (especially the guy down the road who has a beautiful garden that I have been envious of for years), but the thing that caught my eye the most was butterflies.  I saw various colored butterflies on my walk but the prettiest was a yellow and black butterfly that flew next to me for quite awhile.  My granny used to love butterflies.  I can just imagine her sending the butterfly to walk beside me like we used to do together so many times. I didn't taste anything on the walk (although I would have loved to taste that BBQ grilling) and I didn't touch anything but I did get a good workout of the other senses.

I am looking forward to more walks to come.  It is much nicer to exercise outside than being down in the basement with only the t.v. to look at.  Soon will be the sights and smells of my favorite season of the year to enjoy....Fall.  Crushed leaves under your feet, pretty trees turning various colors, cooler air on your face.  Can't wait!!!