a sprinkler suit
watching those sesame street kids play on their sad playgrounds always puzzled me. as a girl growing up on acres of land in northern california, it just didn't make sense. there had to be some kind of joke that i just wasn't getting, because i didn't believe it.. a couple lousy swings, a handball wall, maybe a sand pit, some sprinklers and a sad set of monkey bars and i was supposed to be convinced that it was real? that anyone would ever do that to a kid; build a playground on blacktop without any kind of grass anywhere? it wasn't real, but if it was, i felt sorry and confused for those kids.
today i watch my children play on those playgrounds. i watch them run on the blacktop and swing on the swings and stomp their feet in frustration at not being able to get the monkey bars right. those kids i pitied are now my own and those sad playgrounds i didn't believe in are theirs. they are theirs and they are amazing. the girls will run and charlie will walk, so slowly and carefully, all over that black rubber matting and asphalt for hours. every season of the year we are there, never noticing or thinking about the missing grass. we run,we draw with chalk, we blow bubbles and swing, slide and chase. but during the summer, while charlie searches for the nearest ball, the girls are concerned with one thing on their lovely little playground; the water. no matter what they are wearing, eve and ruth drench themselves in the geysers that pop up when the weather turns hot. more often than not, on those summer days we spend in brooklyn, the girls walk home, leaving a trail of little puddles behind them.
for those days of sprinkler bliss, a sprinkler suit was made. now that the very last day of our summer vacation is here it seems a little late to be sharing this, something made back in june, but here it is anyway. eve and ruth both balked when i tried to present it as a swim suit. "but it's just a shirt and underwear!" they cried. they were right, and we have used each piece separately as such, but when the two pieces are put together it becomes eve's "sprinkler suit", a term they were both willing to fully embrace (ruth didn't want one for herself unless it had a big hole in the back of it and neither of us were fans of the prototypes i came up with.. next summer). with her sprinkler suit on eve can run and play in the water and dry off in record time and i can watch as she scootches and spins on the ground and throws her little body around without once thinking about how much damage she is doing to her suit or clothes. after all, it is a sprinkler suit, and sprinkler suits are made for summer and all that comes with it on these new york playgrounds we happily call our own.
..
also, this is my favorite sesame street song. ever. there are funnier and cleverer songs, which are awesome, but this was my favorite as a child and is even more so now that the girls request to watch it over and over and charlie rocks along to the beat.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 01:37PM
Reader Comments (40)
Love it!!! That fabric is too awesome.
Adele
so, so cute. We've been watching old sesame street videos from the library. There is something so comforting about them. When I was a little girl I used to make a fort in a corner of the living room and watch the afternoon episode while my mom made dinner. I can't describe the feeling it gives me when I watch or hear those original episodes, but it feels good, homey, comforting, cozy. Thanks for the memories. Love the song, a true classic!
I love the clothing, perfect for playground sprinklers or city fire hydrant play. Do they still do that? When I lived in Chicago as a child they would open up the hydrants on very hot days.
Barbara
I don't think I've ever heard that Sesame Street song before. This was my all time favorite when I was little:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-cxKg&feature=fvw
I still sing it my head at least a few times a week.
I also loved those purple triangle people who went to the museum. Was there a song with them? I swear there was.
that was a trip down memory lane! i love that song too
love it, katie. i want one of my own. and i'm not sure i've ever said so, but you write so beautifully. love that, too.
i love this post. very nostalgic. I can just picture you in Brooklyn with your brood.
Mandi
I was the same way as a kid (lived on an acre of land in Northern CA too). I just assumed Sesame Street was a completely made up life. Now that I live in Harlem I often think my children are a part of Sesame Street as we say hello to all our neighbors sitting on the stoops of Brownstones and playing in the sprinklers with kids from every demographic. Isn't it great?!
I totally remember that being my FAVORITE song on Sesame Street :)
When I was a kid, we lived in the woods and we thought it was the meanest thing our parents could ever do to us... we thought kids with sidewalks were the luckiest in the world. When we went to my grandparents' house in the Bay Area, we were in love.
Now, I live in "town" complete with SIDEWALKS and I am constantly saddened that my kids don't have a tree fort or have never tromped their own trail :)
I just have to tell you that I star nearly every post that comes up from katie did in my Google Reader. I love everything you do. Thanks for inspiring me so consistently! :D
Wow, that song link solved a mystery for me.
That was the "theme song" we taught our Head Start kids a few years ago. I knew it some how, but never could remember how I knew it. It had a book to go along with the song that we would show the children. The "I've got one daddy, I've got two" never bothered me (because I have a stepfather myself) until the other teacher pointed out the picture of the two men walking together as "parents".
I'm curious to know where in northern California you grew up, I live and grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I shared your pity as a child for those kids on those pathetic playgrounds.
how about a boy version of the sprinkler suit??
That is a brilliant idea, Katie. And so cute, too.
We enjoy so many fountains in Portland during the summer—this type of thing would be perfect! Hope you enjoyed your time in our fair state this summer!
that is just adorable.
darling! did you use a cotton fabric or something fast drying?
OMG.. brilliant. We have "splash parks" here that have very fancy water features (the type I would have died for as a kid!). We usually dress the kids in swimsuits, but I really really really must make a sprinkler suit for my daughter next year!
I loved that one and James Taylor singing "Jelly Man Kelly". Glad to see the posts are back!
Oh so sweet! Your girls are darling, really. Makes me wish Chris and I were blonde... ;)
oh boy, that song was quite a trip down memory lane. thanks for reminding me!
aw... i loved that song when i was a kid. still do.
yay, you're posting again!!! and thanks for linking that song -- i have to say that that one is my favorite, too. oh, it's been Y-E-A-R-S! i totally forgot about it, too!! fun stuff!!
that suit is brilliant and so perfect for summer playground play.
i know that exact sesame street flashback feeling that you are descibing! we lived in manhattan with my daughter when she was very young and spent many hours at the city playgrounds. i often felt like we had stepped right into the vintage sesame street episodes that i used to watch as a child. the playgrounds are such a big part of city dwelling with kiddos. and this little suit is just wonderful for all of that. love it.
Soooooo adorable! Love it! Your work is always so inspiring! I couldn't resist mentioning this in our weekly link luv roundup. Come by for a peek:
http://www.luvinthemommyhood.com/2009/09/link-luv-roundup_09.html
Thanks for the inspiration!
HILARIOUS! Those parks that didn't exist :) Good to know they do- because I've STILL never seen one :) Lots of grass here in UT :) LOVE the sprinkler suit- don't you love how kids are like, "BUT that's just a shirt and underwear!" SO REALISTIC at times when you would love them to just use their imagination with you :) It always cracks me up.
This is so awesome! What lucky girls!