A wise person said that everything changes except the change itself. Time is constantly moving on and on, and before we know it, we have grown up and become parents ourselves. However, deep in my heart I always wish I could be a child for ever. And there’s a place deep in my heart that is specially reserved for my childhood, and where I let my imagination roar as a child. Anyway, it seems not so far away when I was actually a boy.

Most of my childhood memories are related to playing with other kids. It was about half an hour’s walk to school. However, it would take us an hour on the way back, for we always found something fun to do. We would dig sweet potatoes in the nearby fields and then eat them among us. Once we dug out a big one, as big as a child’s head. We would pick mulberry when the season came, and usually ate it as we did. Sometimes we would make vertical flutes out of hollow reeds and play “music” loudly and proudly. There is a river, or rather a canal, along the road to school. Various boats used to come and go busily in the daytime. Occasionally we would plan an ambush against a passing boat. When the ship entered the pre-chosen site, lumps of clay, bricks and even small stones flew immediately towards the ship at the signal of the chief. And we all had fled away before the guys in the boat found out why they were bombarded.

The time after returning from school was completely ours. However, we did do something to help support the family--- to cut grass for the sheep. My house was usually the meeting place and then decided where to cut grass, meaning where to play. We went merrily with baskets flung over the shoulders, joking talking and sometimes sharing some “snack” from home. After cutting some grass, we would gamble for grass. The game of hide-and-seek was only for small children, and we had far outgrown it. If there was a dry “pool” where pond-bottom earth was stored as fertilizer, we threw our sickles to see who would be able to make the sickle stand up-side down. Of course it was unavoidable, sometimes, for some of us to get stuck in the mud. Or we just dug several pits in the ground, buried some grass in one of them and then let the other one guess.

This kind of games was not exciting enough, so we created many forms of fighting. We would divide into two groups, one in a big tree with lots of leaves and the other on the ground. And our ammunition was, as usual, lumps of clay. Sometimes a long pond would be a natural battle line. A good clay lump fight would be so unforgettable that it could be mentioned and discussed again and again for a long time. Xiao Li was shot and seriously wounded, but he was just unwilling to leave the battlefield. Lao Mao was so smart to attack the enemy’s left flank, which forced them to retreat. I cannot possibly remember how many unforgettable fights we had.

Summer was almost heaven for us kids then, for there was no school and we could play in the ponds. What a sight with so many kids playing about in the pond! Some were diving, some were chasing somebody else, and others were exploring the bottom of the pond. Some of us even swam naked since their parents did not allow them to spend so much time in the water. I don’t know how long we stayed in the water, almost the whole afternoon! If no parents came to get us, I believe no one would voluntarily climb out of the water. In the evening, seeing adults having a bath in the pond, we would swim a second time!

I never think that we were less happy than the kids today. Yes it was true that there was no Internet, no online games to play, no cell phones, and not so many fancy toys. However, we were truly happy! We were care free in the real sense! Observe the kids today; they seem to be able to get whatever they want. However, can you say they are happier with so many electronic devices and so much love from parents and grandparents? The fact is that they are deprived of the right to get close to nature.