Good old times

Image source

Immediately I saw this image, My visit to the village came to my mind immediately. I wrote about it some weeks ago, but I would elaborate on how this picture speaks a lot about the experience.

[During my visit to the village, one evening, Samuel, Olamide, Damola (my friends in the village) and I was sent to fetch water. There were no boreholes in the village, we had to go to the river to fetch water. When we got to the river, we all fetched a pial of water each from the flowing river.

Instead of going back home,they all flew into the river and started swimming. I asked Samuel which is the eldest among them, why would you be swimming in the same water where you fetch water for drinking. He replied and said the water is flowing, as they are swimming the water was flowing away, new one is coming from its source. He told me to join them, meanwhile I couldn't swim, and I don't want to embarrass myself, so I joined them. I didn't use up to two (2) minutes in the river before I jumped out in order not to drown.
They finished swimming and we carried our pail of water home.](https://ecency.com/hive-174578/@herbae/my-visit-to-the-village)

Source

No doubt, A picture Is worth a thousand words. Seeing that image, it reminded me of the good old times. The childhood days. Time when we had nothing bothering us, when our daily routine was to do the house chores, go to school, play and eat. Times I wish I could have back.

Like I do say "I want to be forever young". But such is life. We have to face life the way it is and accept what life brings at us. Besides growth is inevitable.

As children, we would go to the river to fish. Sometimes we'll catch good fishes, and sometimes we'll be there till forever and won't fish anything. Either we caught any fish or not, we were always happy doing it.

The best part of everything is swimming in the river. After school hours, w wouldn't go home immediately, we would first visit the river to check it's condition. Our parents always made sure we do our chores, which after that we will eat. And then we go out of our various homes to meet at the river.

There's something irresistible about the water in the river.
It looks so inviting, yet it's so cold. Imagine doing something every day and yet you still derive joy doing the same thing every single day. The river is our world. Literally.

All of us don't have swim suits, some us us can swim, while some can't. Those that can't swim will sit on the big rocks near the water whilst splashing the water with their legs.
We can also sit on the willow branches and jump into the water, only play with each other, and the bark at the edge of the river is also where we can hang our clothes to dry after our swim.

When we are tired we can go back to our fishing place, or sleep under the tree, or continue swimming.
Once all of us got into the river, all we do is have fun with each other and forget all our hardships and worries.
The beauty of nature as well as human beauty is found in that river.

Source

We used to play games in the river as well. You know how children find every venue a playing ground. Sometimes we'd play the fastest swimmer game, sometimes its river volleyball, and sometimes it's splashing of water over each other's body.

We will tie the long rope to one of a telephone pole, then each person takes one bucket, put the other into the river, collect water and pour into a bucket again, and we do it over and over again. At last, after one bucket is filled with water, we will tie it up, and then start to play in the river.

We'd jump high and land in the river. It's hard to swim, I would think. Some of us can dive well, some of us can dive barely. Some of us are so scared that they can't leave the ground. In the end we all will get wet.
We enjoyed playing those games, but the best part for me is talking to my crush at the river bank. Ha ha ha 😆. Back then, I do stunts and dives in order to impress her.

At some point, our parents would ask us "why do you kids go swimming in the River? True enough, as children we didn't really care where we swam at, as long as it was in the river. We would spend hours swimming back and forth across the river, jumping off rocks into deep waters and catching tadpoles to feed our fish with.

Friendship was our only possession.
The river is where our story began.
The river is where we learned how to be human.
As a child, we depended on the river for our existence.
It was where we spent most of our time making friends and having fun.

When I look back at my childhood, I realize how precious it is as if I was watching a drama series on television. We connected a lot playing at the river.

It felt like home.
Now that we are older and living far away from river, we have all taken up a new hobby to fill in the void that our old life has left. Those were time we wish we could have back. Memories that lasts forever.

No doubt, A picture is worth a thousand words.

Thanks for reading 💚💚