#positive memory

When I was 11 I learned how craters were made. I was in 6th grade and just beginning to take interest in astronomy and knew the moon had a lot of craters. I thought the idea of rocks making holes in the ground was so cool and wanted to replicate it.

Literally every morning recess was spent hunting for and putting small rocks in my pockets. Not little pebbles but not big hand-sized rocks either. Then I spent part of after-lunch recess in a deserted corner of the sandbox, throwing my rocks into the sand as hard as I could to see the little circles they made when they hit.

I thought it was the coolest thing ever that I could make my own craters on a tiny scale. I tried different angles and compared what I got from dropping vs flinging rocks down. I had no understanding of physics then(and still don’t beyond the basics!), but I ascertained speed and angle affected the size and shapes of the “craters” I created.

I’d go off to play like usual once I used up all my rocks. It was a bit of a recess ritual. I realize how now frigging autistic that had to look, but literally nobody bothered me about it. I always did it while facing away from other kids so nobody ran the risk of running in the path of a rock I threw.

Then there was a time I found a HUGE rock that took two hands to pick up. I hid it behind the sandbox rim, hoping nobody else would find it. Nobody did! Next recess, I picked that sucker up, tossed it straight up, jumped backwards in case of sand splatter and watched it fall. That rock made the biggest sand crater I ever saw. I spent that entire recess tossing and dropping that big, round-ish rock over and over to see it make craters. I still remember the ka-POOF sounds of impact over 20 years later!