Megan McCafferty

(retro)photo Friday #7: Kids invent everything.

Friday, February 12th, 2010

A bunch of neighborhood kids were at the top of a steep, snow-covered incline, arguing over who had the idea to stand up on his sled and use it as a makeshift snowboard. Each boy insisted he had been first to come up with the brilliant new sport, a solution to the too-many-kids-not-enough-snowboards conundrum.

When I was seven, I also thought I was the first person to stand up on my sled. I called it “snurfing.”

The great narcissism of youth convinces you that you’re the first person ever to experience the thrill of whatever it is that you’re doing. It’s like you invented this awesome new thing–be it snurfing or sex.

As you get older, there are fewer and fewer firsts. And you realize that everything has already been done before by someone else. The best you can do is make the old feel new through creative application of your own unique point of view.

The kids did this by turning snurfing into a daredevil team sport, sending pairs, trios and even a quartet of kids down the hill on a single sled. They crashed more than they snurfed, but had so much fun congratulating themselves over the setting and breaking of world records that existed only in their imagination.

I’m doing this by getting back to work on my book.

Tags: (retro)photo Friday, 1980

(retro)photo Friday #6: SNOOOOOOOOOW!

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Look at how psyched my brother and I are. WE. ARE. PSYCHED. SNOOOOOOOW! YEAH!!! This is the BEST DAY EVER. We’re gonna go SLEDDING on the GOLF COURSE! WHOO-HOO! And we’re gonna build an IGLOO FORT in our front yard and a SNOWMAN who we will still call FROSTY even if we have to improvise with a ROCKS and STICKS because we don’t have a CORNCOB PIPE, a BUTTON NOSE, or COAL because who has that stuff lying around the house anyway? And we’re not gonna come inside for hot chocolate until we can’t feel our feet anymore because it’s SNOOOOOOW and SNOW is the BEST and WE ARE SO PSYCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll try to recapture this enthusiasm when I’m shoveling my walkway.

Tags: (retro)photo Friday, 1980