We live sorta nowhere. The Cottage is outside of a sleepy town, and the town is really just a village. We’ve never had a trick or treater we didn’t bring home from the hospital.
My six-year old still sees many things for the first time ever. His reaction to these new things is always interesting, as you see how a mind that understands many things now searches for a slot in which to put fresh information. Sometimes only a new slot will do.
My wife took him to the supermarket the other day. A supermarket is a marvelous place for a child. It’s a riot of color and text. If you’re six, you’re still jazzed about reading new things.
There was a new wrinkle at the store. There was a real live Salvation Army bellringer standing post outside the door. My little boy stood transfixed for a moment, sizing up the whole situation as people passed and put coins in the kettle. He’d never seen such a thing.
-Mom, can we put coins in the kettle?
-Sure, son. We’ll have change after we buy groceries, and use it on the way out.
Of course there was a wrinkle. When they emerged from the store, the bellringer was gone, off to greener pastures no doubt. My boy looked this way and that, and said nothing.
My wife said he was very quiet in the car, as he turned the thing over in his mind.
-Mom, what happened to the Change Guard?
3 Responses
A wonderful age. I teach Sunday School to first and second graders, and they see the things we walk unthinkingly by. They see the world in color when it is sepia to us.
Good story. My kids are that age (or 8 and 6, to be exact).
What is it with those Salvation Army guys anyway? More often than not they pack up and leave while I'm inside the store. At all hours of the day or night. I check my watch just to make sure there isn't a shift change or something. Now I put the money in on the way into the store.