Bigger Than We Were

 I remember being at the beach with my grandmother and 6 other sibling/cousins all under the age of 9. I don't know how she managed to sit there reading a magazine and smoking a cigarette, but she did. She didn't hover or interfere or want to "play" with us. She left us to our own devices and in return we did not throw sand, run away, or drown. It's not to say we didn't do stupid or dangerous things, we swam too far out and jumped off rocks and held each other's heads under water, but it always felt, I don't know, like we were earning something. We felt bigger than we were. I spent this past weekend at the beach and was thinking about that. If you grew up in the late 60s and 70s, chances are you had at least one experience where your adult supervisor could have had charges filed against them for reckless endangerment. In fact, if you grew up in the late 60s or 70s, chances are the term "reckless endangerment" is a subtitle for some of your best memories.