we were funny as little kids. every single one of us. and at the time, everything we did was completely normal and justified. i remember this one time in fifth or sixth grade. me and my friends were in the school band. i played the baritone horn, and john, jack, and kiran played the trombone. the four of us had a low brass rehearsal once a week and then the whole band, full with flutes and clarinets and trumpets and percussion, had a full-band rehearsal, also once a week. well this one time we were rehearsing on our Tuesday (I think) and we came to this one part of the song that had a “retard”. And I don’t quite remember what that means now but something like slow down the pace or something. And being that we were little and silly, we burst out laughing. every single one of us. man, that was funny. the song said retard. we laughed for like ten minutes. and seeing as how the rehearsal was only thirty minutes long and this was the week before the concert, our conductor/teacher was none too happy. she told us to please stop, to concentrate, she threatened to separate us, but really once a bunch of silly kids starts laughing over something silly, it’s like a runaway freight train of laughing momentum that just cannot be stopped. so she could threaten to get us in trouble, but, at the time, retard was just too funny. we had fun though, and did well. i remember at the school talent show we played take me out to the ballgame. then in middle school we went to a competition and got to go to six flags. retard isn’t funny anymore. i guess it’s politically incorrect now. but back then, it sure was funny. it doesn’t take much to get little kids to laugh. that’s the beauty of little kids. they are funny and have fun and it’s easy to be happy. i think as adults we miss that. we still laugh, now and again, but it’s appropriate and calculated. we aren’t silly like we used to be. but there are advantages to being an adult; you can dress yourself, you have to get a job and pay for things, all your sports teams lose to boston, people you cut off on the highway get mad at you, gas prices, inflation, heart disease and obesity, surly government employees, terrorism, waiters spitting in your food. Adulthood is pretty great.
