notes from the kiddie pool
Yesterday and the day before that, I lifeguarded ("guarded" from here on out for brevity and coolness sake) and, again and again, I asked if I could watch the kiddie pool. Before we get any further, let me stress that I am not a pedophile, but that I love watching these toddlers and preschool-aged kids not so much individually, but together. How they act, how they play, how they are so very innocent and umblemished and absolutely refreshing. (It doesn't hurt that the water is two feet deep, most of the kids wear life-jackets, and the parents are usually supervising.)
Why do I like watching the kiddie pool? Because, for example, I observed two little boys play for at least an hour with these two horses, which, by the looks of them, had not been marketed towards a male consticuency. They were the sort of horses that would be boxed in a plastic case, trotting against a pastel background of an emerald-green meadow dotted by pink flowers, say, or with names like "Pinky the Pony," but nonetheless, these boys were avid horse-handlers.
Or the little girls I saw fighting over a truck that they could play with, and then proceeded to play with trucks around the little kiddie pool for my entire shift? I'm not saying that it's wrong to play with Barbies or not trucks, as I surely did when I was, too, clad in water-diapers, but it's so... sociologically interesting, I suppose is the best way to phrase it, to see what kids (kiddies?) play with when they're not thrown pink-and-blue coded plastic.
Or, on another shift, the really so-"I Have a Dream"y-it's-outplayed scene that I witnessed. Two little Asian boys were playing with this little red-haired girl and a little black boy (who had the most adorable dreadlocks, I'll add, you should have seen this kid!). Not that, later in life, these kids won't necessarily become friends, they totally could become best friends for all I know. It's just that then, there will always be the heavy package that society dumps on whomever you may be-- the Asian kids will get mocked for not being superb Math genuises, taunting peers will ask the black boy why he's not listening to 50 Cent, and the red-haired girl will get crap for only hanging out with boys and not being "girly" enough. These things might not happen at all, which would be awesome, but they might, which is a shame (but "a shame" sounds passive, and I hope to be as far from passive as possible).
So that's what I was reflecting on once the kiddies had departed at the end of the night, and the water lay still for the first time since noon, and all that shone back in the pale-blue waters was my own face, on the guard stand, reflecting back at me.
Why do I like watching the kiddie pool? Because, for example, I observed two little boys play for at least an hour with these two horses, which, by the looks of them, had not been marketed towards a male consticuency. They were the sort of horses that would be boxed in a plastic case, trotting against a pastel background of an emerald-green meadow dotted by pink flowers, say, or with names like "Pinky the Pony," but nonetheless, these boys were avid horse-handlers.
Or the little girls I saw fighting over a truck that they could play with, and then proceeded to play with trucks around the little kiddie pool for my entire shift? I'm not saying that it's wrong to play with Barbies or not trucks, as I surely did when I was, too, clad in water-diapers, but it's so... sociologically interesting, I suppose is the best way to phrase it, to see what kids (kiddies?) play with when they're not thrown pink-and-blue coded plastic.
Or, on another shift, the really so-"I Have a Dream"y-it's-outplayed scene that I witnessed. Two little Asian boys were playing with this little red-haired girl and a little black boy (who had the most adorable dreadlocks, I'll add, you should have seen this kid!). Not that, later in life, these kids won't necessarily become friends, they totally could become best friends for all I know. It's just that then, there will always be the heavy package that society dumps on whomever you may be-- the Asian kids will get mocked for not being superb Math genuises, taunting peers will ask the black boy why he's not listening to 50 Cent, and the red-haired girl will get crap for only hanging out with boys and not being "girly" enough. These things might not happen at all, which would be awesome, but they might, which is a shame (but "a shame" sounds passive, and I hope to be as far from passive as possible).
So that's what I was reflecting on once the kiddies had departed at the end of the night, and the water lay still for the first time since noon, and all that shone back in the pale-blue waters was my own face, on the guard stand, reflecting back at me.