CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

When I was small, there was a big yard in front of our house. The house was shaped as a Russian letter Г. Close to it's shortest elbow there was a hill with a park on it. We liked to play on that hill.

After the Second World War there was a dancing place left around a huge oak, surrounded by bushes and benches. Summer evenings in Estonia are not too dark, it was enough with light for to see whom you want to dance with.

On another side of the hill there was a two-stored stone house with a cellar windows, visible from the street side. Before a war it was a manor together with a park. In my time this house belonged to pioneers – the communist youth. It was a club with lots of activities for children . My sister tried to learn Esperanto there. We could see airplane models in the cellar windows and hear heels stepping one- two- three in a rhythm of waltz.

On the other side of hill there was a short way to the center of the town. On the hill slope, there were stone blocks with letters graved on stone's surface, made for a decades and decades go, but still visible. I guess there was a cemetery long time ago when this part of the town - almost a city center now! – was a suburb. We liked to glide on the sledge down from the hill at winters, when there was snow. And it was, because winters were much colder 20 years ago.

Near the manor there was a garden with fruit trees, bewildered by that time, but still bringing some sour apples. And who was the first to taste? Of course, boys who played football under that trees.

Across the street in front of the manor there was another park with a huge greenhouse in it. It was a part of pioneers’ club where children could learn plants and biology. It was closed at summers, but we helped the master to water patches and to take away grass. The master was a student at biology department, a son to one famous scientist. He became a politician politician. Every August he was inviting us to a fest with a cake as thanks for our help.

At the longest elbow of our house there was a kindergarten, located in a stylish house with long high windows. The space inside was split into two stores by inbuilt floor inside. Behind a house there was a playing yard. During week-ends kindergarten was closed and we played on their territory. Now this building got a tower to crown it's roof and a parking place to hide a playing ground. There was was a church in that building before war, and it has turned into church again nowadays. That’s why it has such a special high windows.

Later there was a multi store building with underground parking raised right in the center of our yard and shielded as so we couldn’t see the hill and pioneers’ house and greenhouse any more. I don’t know if modern children are allowed to play outside our old houses yard nowadays.

How childish are children nowadays? How do they build their worlds? And what can happen if children don’t live a full life, if they don’t play all that games which have to be played before they meet real life? How can they play their adult roles without training in their own world while they are young?

…There are no pioneers in Estonia now, but passing by the former pioneers’ club I can hear children voices singing songs and laughing in the windows…