Rainbow Hoodie

When I was little I had a rainbow hooded sweatshirt that I wore to school from about first grade through 5th grade. My mom gave it to me and I think it was one of her old ones. As I recall it was mostly black but had a rainbow pattern on the edges of the sleeves and hood. I could have a completely false memory of this, but I, at least, know that I had a huge zip-up hoodie and wore it until there were holes in it. My mother had a rainbow umbrella too and on a rainy day I was permitted to take it to school once.

I say once because, like most little kids, I liked to jump in puddles. So what's the point of giving a kid an umbrella if he is going to come home soaked anyway? I had a habit of getting my shoes and socks wet at school. We were not supposed to or allowed to play in the irrigation water at school. In primary school I was one of the fastest boys. I thought that if I ran really fast and got my feet out of the way of the splashes that it would be okay to run through the irrigation.

I think I actually was clever enough to avoid the really deep spots and run though "dry" a couple of times. What is the fun of running through water though if you're not going to get a little wet. I found myself justifying a little splash here and another there. Before I knew it my mom was telling me to take off my wet shoes and socks and to not play in the water anymore. Bummer. It was fascinating to me how the next day my shoes would be really stiff. Do you know the best way to get stiff shoes unstiff again? Get them wet!