The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
For most of my childhood my father was in construction and had heavy machinery parked near the house. My younger brother and I spent many after-school hours in our huge back yard, romping on bulldozers and backhoes while imagining Mad Max style scenarios. We also had a boat or two in the yard (hey, I grew up on da bayou), so we could play boats vs. bulldozers (I liked shooting plastic water guns from mine).
Needless to say, our house was popular with the neighborhood kids who all wanted turns pretending to ride. The “safety first” hysteria that has gripped modern America hadn’t yet arrived to the suburbs of New Orleans in the mid 1980s so climbing on top of and swinging from heavy machinery didn’t seem to disturb any parents we knew. Whenever possible, my dad would take us for real rides. I remember being around 10 years old, riding on a bulldozer through a grassy field and thinking how indestructible and menacing it felt. I wanted to crash into a building with it (particularly my Catholic school), but mostly I had to settle for a pile of shells or sand.
Fast forward 25 years and my dad still has these things and still likes to use them himself. So recently, when he asked me if I wanted to meet him near the old bayou so the kids could play on the machinery, I mentally tripped for a second.
I’d forgotten about the bulldozers.
Forgotten how fun they were, and what a unique thing to have to play with as a child. Forgot that I had a 2-year-old son that would surely fill up his diaper in delight from the mere sight of such a toy! Forgot that my 3-year-old adventuress would surely want to drive some heavy machinery in a dress. Oh yeah, it was time to take my urban preschoolers for a romp in my old hood. The swamp.
The following photos were taken near a small section of reclaimed land near by Bayou Bienvenue (which explains why it looks more desert than swamp).
Feel the power flowing through you, padawan.
Ok, training over. I got dis!
Can I bring this to show-and-tell?
Coming soon to a theater near you… A highly trained 3-year-old assassin and her mentor (code name: Paw Paw) take on swamp monsters with their death machine!
Wait, I saw this on a Diego episode once. I’ll just clear-cut the rainforest…
I’m sure we can hose my brother off the blade if we try hard.
He will never find us here.
Oh @#&*, bulldozer found us! RUN!
Ok, got my serious work face on now! I wonder if this thing makes me look bad-ass?
Why YES, I think it DOES!
Sigourney Weaver, eat your heart out.
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My maternal grandfather had a farm in Indiana when I was a kid. My mom, sister, and I would often spend a good chunk of our summers there.
He had a backhoe w/ a frontloader, a big old orange International Harvester tractor, a number of riding mowers, and a golf cart. I’ll have to track down some photos of me with him on various big machinery – this post seemed to mirror my childhood.
Love it! Great photos
Terrific pictures and great captions. I grew up in such a tame urban environment that I never saw he-man toys, tools, or displays of manly daring-do. Thank goodness that these two little ones have not only cerebral mentors but ones who can conquer the physical universe, too.
Good looking family all the way around – including Paw Paw.
Now I want to do that.
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