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Candles

It's funny how something can trigger nostalgia.

Just the other night, a friend mentioned something about candles and it conjured up such a nice image in my head, flickering half light and silhouettes and it made me think back to when I lived in Colombia as a child, early 90s and electricity rationing. It made me think of eating dinner in the shadows, one candle burning in the middle of the table, the bright red glow of the flames from la cocina.

We (us kids ie me, my sister, my cousins and the kids in our street) would play escondidas, an elaborate combination of hide and seek and tag. This would be out in the street under cover of darkness, our parents didn't mind so long as we stayed in this street only, although round the corner was acceptable. They themselves would drag the rocking chairs out of the stifling heat of the houses and into the street, chismes old and new instead of the telenovelas they were unable to watch.

I laugh, calling it a street. It was a row of houses on the outskirts of the village, the road being nothing more than volcanic ash and dust beaten into a semblance of a path by the slow steady pace of pedestrian traffic.

It was great fun and we'd play for hours and hours until the electricity came back on. We'd be up trees, and in bushes or even out in the open, hoping to envelope the night around as though it were a cloak of invisibility.

I remember once hiding in a little shed in mi Tia's garden, with Yamile, the girl next door. We were pressed together tightly and then I remember she stuck her tongue down my throat. That was the only time, we never spoke of it and sometimes I wonder if I dreamt it. I know it wasn't my first kiss, but it's probably the first one I can remember.

I miss those candle lit nights.

By Cockney Colombian on Jul 21, 2007, 15:47 in Friendly Talkzone.

Peter (Moderator) (Trustee board) (Dev team) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jul 21, 2007, 23:15:

Now that's poetry!

Poor but snappy

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kalder says on Jul 22, 2007, 06:16:

I remember having to use candles here in 1974, when the Miners' Strike lead to the powerstations shuttingdown.

"A piece of cheese may entrap a mouse, but a bicycle could ensnare the Imperial Chancellor."~~An Bai Kuang

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fugdis says on Jul 22, 2007, 20:26:

you and me both Mr.Kalder

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