Scary places

Scary places…

I remember The Path and all.

And all of us who had to walk through it. “The Path” was actually the small area- probably only a hundred feet or so wide- of trees and such-

Probably the edge of St.Matthias’ property-

That we had to cross between the edge of schoolyard and the end of a neighborhood street.

I remember stepping onto its muddy banks or dried clay/sediment with thre tree roots making sort of ‘steps’ as we stepped onto/into the path area.

I don’t think it was just he incident with the wild dogs that made/makes it scary- I think, really, is that you were leaving your freedom behind-

You were leaving the neighborhood streets and resigning yourself to another WORLD for the day, and boy did I hate it sometimes.

Once I was there, I think I had fun most times, but I also tried not to go- in first grade once, I refused to finish going through the path to school.

I stopped at the edge of it, and my sister Amy had to get her 5^th grade teacher Ms. Bigford to come and talk to me. I don’t know how she got me to cross the school yard and come into the building- but she did. Butat that’s what made the Path so scary- it was the threshold to a world like Scout’s- where I felt repressed.