You never know as a parent what is going to stick, whether it's a nickname or a tradition, spaghetti on the wall, or a flip comment like the one I made once during a walk in Symmes Park, one of many great local parks around here. As we came around the corner of a trail, there was, on our right, looming menacingly, a ginormous hill. I knew that in the winter local kids sled down that hill and I had it in my mind that it held some vague destiny for them.
As we looked up it I said aloud: "Wow, boys, it's Mount Destiny!" Just a casual , stream-of-consciousness sort of comment. Today at school I overheard N talking to another boy about sledding:
"We like to go sledding at Symmes when it snows a lot."
"Yeah," said the other boy, "We go there, too. There's a great big hill there, near the basketball courts."
"Yeah, that's the one," N said excitedly, "Mount Destiny!"
"It's called Mount Destiny?"
"Yeah," N answers.
"Cool..." said the other kid.
It is my hope that in eight or nine years, when the boys are getting together for sled riding with their peeps, that every kid in the whole district knows which hill is Mount Destiny. They will. And I will know that a throwaway, goofy-assed, self entertaining, offhand remark started the whole thing.
Here are a couple of pictures to lend some verisimilitude to the whole thing:
There's one more iconic (in my mind) picture, taken on the day we took Mount Destiny as our own:
Well, I broke one of my own rules today and posted more than three (or was it four) pictures in one post. Oh well, a story has to tell itself sometimes.
From Marci's '...things you don't expect to hear from the backseat..."
"Swim like the wind."
Best mixed metaphor, ever...
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