“It’s such a beautiful day outside,
Simple pleasures are the best.”
– Simple Pleasures by Bobby McFerrin
When I grew up in the tiny Delta town of Walnut Grove, there was a railroad levee that bisected the town. My grandmother lived near the tracks, and I remember flattening old cardboard boxes and using them as sleds to slide down the grass-covered slopes. This was well before the time of the Internet, cable TV, video games and smartphones, and our pleasures were much simpler then.
On a recent quick visit I saw 12-year-old Axel Bobadilla and his 9-year-old brother, Jesus Pineda, using snow saucers to slide down a grassy levee in Walnut Grove. It wasn’t the railroad berm, which had been excavated many years ago. They were going down the levee of the Sacramento River behind a gas station that my neighbors once owned.
With all the distractions that the modern world has to offer kids these days, sometimes it’s simple pleasures that can be the best.