oh junior highers

I wrote this a few weeks ago and it didn't post- but I think it is good:

This week I have a group in town that is junior highers - the questions are great. I started writing them down.

"Did you walk here alone?"
-as we left an agency that I had arrived to pick them up - she later said that she would never be alone anywhere...that is what is great about junior highers they say profound stuff without knowing it

"Can people swim in Chicago?"
-as a 7th grader from Mississippi he was wondering where all the swimming pools were, and since he hadn't seen them in backyards - he went to believing that maybe, just maybe us Chicagoans didn't swim at all

"This soup tastes like ketchup and lime."
-overheard while eating the potato chowder I had made for Monday's supper, that didn't contain ketchup or limes, nor in the opinions of the college students around

My favorite one from several years ago
"Does Chicago have grocery stores?"
-again, he hadn't seen any so they didn't exist in his mind - but with this one I wanted to say something to the effect of no, we don't - instead see that building called the Sears Tower, it is actually a big farm that we all go to and get our food.

The most enlightening from my friend Reese came on MOnday:
"Boy, you city folks are just good at sharing. All those people share that church building, and the school building, and even those homes that are joined - you know apartments."
-I take for granted now that a church building has about 5 things going on at any certain point, and even that two schools can share the same building, and that apartments are a way of life. But Reese didn't; instead he saw the positive aspect that I rarely think about. Thanks, Reese.