We went to the beach at Shediac a lot,but we went other places too.One of those places was down in Albert County.Rather than a beach,this place was a little creek,just the right size for children to play in.The water come up to my knees in most places,and we would wade around all day.We could go from one side of the stream to the other,either by walking right through the water,or by hopping from stone to stone,and trying not to get our feet wet,making a game of it.
This place had it's own kind of movement.And it's own sound.I think it's really the place that caused me to be amazed by the sound of water moving over rocks,singing through the woods.There were birds here too,and their songs,little peeping things,and feathered creatures both seen and unseen with their elaborate melodies.And frogs too.You could see them,shooting through the water,grabbing at flies,and you could hear them,all day long and on into the night.I loved to watch the dragonflies too,how they could almost stop in the air.Once,some older kid told me not to get bitten by a dragonfly,because you would die.But then my father said,no,that's not true,and I was so relieved,because I didn't want to think such beautiful creatures could hurt you.They looked very much like helicopters in the way they could move,settle in one place,then dart away.And there were water striders too,a kind of spider that could walk right out on top of the water.Later,I heard kids call them"Jesus Spiders",but my mother would never have let us call them that.Still,they were incredible things to watch-they were the only thing I knew of that could walk on water.I wanted to catch one and bring it home.We didn't have an aquarium back then,but I thought I could put one in the bathtub.But,in a whole childhood,I never managed to catch one.
I much preferred the stream to the beach.I guess I never really became a beach person,but I could not wait to get into the car when we were off to the stream.It never took long to get there,though like everything else when you're a kid,it seemed like a long time.Sometimes we would go there for a picnic after my mother got off work.Other times my father would take us there on summer afternoons,before we went to pick up my mother.The woods there was not all grown over then,it had been thinned out and there were picnic tables among the trees.Really,it was the most perfect place to relax and play,a green,brown,mossy,birdsong water world,where there seemed not to be a care in the world.
This place had it's own kind of movement.And it's own sound.I think it's really the place that caused me to be amazed by the sound of water moving over rocks,singing through the woods.There were birds here too,and their songs,little peeping things,and feathered creatures both seen and unseen with their elaborate melodies.And frogs too.You could see them,shooting through the water,grabbing at flies,and you could hear them,all day long and on into the night.I loved to watch the dragonflies too,how they could almost stop in the air.Once,some older kid told me not to get bitten by a dragonfly,because you would die.But then my father said,no,that's not true,and I was so relieved,because I didn't want to think such beautiful creatures could hurt you.They looked very much like helicopters in the way they could move,settle in one place,then dart away.And there were water striders too,a kind of spider that could walk right out on top of the water.Later,I heard kids call them"Jesus Spiders",but my mother would never have let us call them that.Still,they were incredible things to watch-they were the only thing I knew of that could walk on water.I wanted to catch one and bring it home.We didn't have an aquarium back then,but I thought I could put one in the bathtub.But,in a whole childhood,I never managed to catch one.
I much preferred the stream to the beach.I guess I never really became a beach person,but I could not wait to get into the car when we were off to the stream.It never took long to get there,though like everything else when you're a kid,it seemed like a long time.Sometimes we would go there for a picnic after my mother got off work.Other times my father would take us there on summer afternoons,before we went to pick up my mother.The woods there was not all grown over then,it had been thinned out and there were picnic tables among the trees.Really,it was the most perfect place to relax and play,a green,brown,mossy,birdsong water world,where there seemed not to be a care in the world.
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