The Eyes Of A Child

By Tom Poland

Seeing Peach Fuzz, Water, & Adventure In New Ways

Hanging out with a child who finds astonishment in the simplest things is the fountain of youth. My eight-year-old granddaughter, Mary Beth, an Atlantan, is spending the week with me, and what a week we’re having. From Georgia to South Carolina, we’re exploring the land and its waterways and attractions.

In Georgia we took an 18-mile boat cruise to a special natural area to see the rocky shoals spider lilies in bloom. It was a trip back to the very site my late mother played at as a girl. For me, this trip brought a bit of family history full circle. Mary Beth got to take over the boat and guide it over the big water. That was a big deal. The next day she spent an afternoon at the pool with her cousin. She was able to coax her three-year-old cousin, Harper, to jump off the diving board for the first time. Harper and Mary Beth are thick now. Buddies for life.

Avoiding the God-forsaken interstate, we drove to Columbia through peach country from Georgia. I told her that even though we are Georgians we have to admit that South Carolina really is the peach state. Down near Monetta I stopped and let her see all the peach trees in a huge orchard tract. She asked if she could pick a peach and though it wasn’t a good lesson, I let her pick one small peach on the verge of spoiling. She was as excited as some adult who had just won the lottery. As we drove toward Columbia she kept talking about how sweet a peach smells. “Smells like morning. It’s fuzzy, too” she observed.

Harper and her grandparents, Brenda and Joe (Bren-Bren) drove over from Georgia to spend a day with us. We went to the State Museum’s Ice Age 3-D movie and then spent the afternoon at Saluda Shoals Splash Pad. A child just out of school for the summer becomes a creature of the water. We’ve spent lots of time around water: Clark Hill Lake and pools, of course. What kid doesn’t love pools. Lots more fun and learning are planned over the next four days to go and you can bet the sound of splashing water will be close by.

Each morning I take her on a nature walk. She takes photos and writes a short story for her mom back in Atlanta. She wrote one about my mint, of which she got excited. “Smells like toothpaste,” she told me. She chewed a small leaf and remarked that it “made her feel fresh.”

I spend a lot of time outdoors working on various assignments and as much as I try to see things in new perspectives, I just can’t match a child’s natural way of looking at the world. It’s too bad life jades us. The next time I head into the field, I’ll look at the world and its wonders and think what would Mary Beth notice. I’ll try to go back in time and find my eyes as a child. It should step up my game and bring new perspectives to bear on the things I cover. Maybe it will make my mind “feel fresh.”

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Tom Poland is the author of eleven books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.