That's really, really where I'm going to,
Oh, if I ever get out of here I'm going to Katmandu
It was the summer of 1975, the pool at Willow Metropark had opened and I had walked the nearly two miles up to the park with my cousins -- our first venture there without any parental supervision. Despite not yet being in 4th grade, I was a grown-up, and Katmandu was on the radio.
Fast forward.... well, a lot of years, to a different kind of world -- one where you are fearful to let your children out of your eyesight, and the girls and their cousins were at the opening of the new pool at Willow park. With the eagle-eyes of Aunt Krissy and dad nearby, I am sure that they didn't feel the same sense of freedom, but they still seemed to enjoy really themselves.
For me....there was something pretty special about watching the girls enjoy the first blast of summer in a way very similar to how I did the last time a pool had opened at the park. Yea, the pool is smaller than the old one, and the diving boards have been retired and replaced by a body slide and water jets, and Lady Gaga has replaced Bob Seger on the radio, but as I sat there on the grass and watched the kids play, I could remember the fun of the brand new pool and in occasional quiet moment, if the wind blew just right, I though that just maybe I could hear the ghostly whispers of ...Oh, if I ever get out of here I'm going to Katmandu.
