FEBRUARY 1969. The playground of Franklin Avenue Elementary School. An el niño winter long before we knew the subtropical kid's name. It is cold. Snow has blanketed the Verdugo Hills. Reports of flurries in the basin. I am wearing a jacket of nylon and corduroy. It is not enough to keep me warm. It has been raining for a month. Houses tumble into the ravines of Mt. Washington. Landslide across the Pomona Freeway. We are playing kickball and I'm up. I kick a hard grounder.The ball cleaves several puddles just as the afternoon sun breaks through the clouds, silvering the little fans of water. I run. My breath mists. Faces of kids wheel around me. I am so very much alive.-- Ruben Martinez
(photo credit: Pink Moose, flickr creative commons)
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