2005-08-02 
 

safe harbor

I remember playing variations on tag or hide and seek when I was a child and the sudden melting relaxation I would feel when someone called out the all clear.

Depending on the neighborhood and decade you grew up in, this may have varied, but probably went something like this:

Oldie, Oldie, come home free!
or:
All ye, all ye in come free!
or: (one of my favorites)
Molly, Molly, Boxtop Feet!

Tonight, as I walked past a barfull of post work revelry, a dark haired patron with a beer in his hand leaned out of the door and called out to his friend Mark across the street. Mark had just paused while exiting the door of a too modern office building and was looking back inside fretfully until he heard his friend shout.

"Mark! Ollie, ollie, oxen free!"

Without another look back, he crossed the street to his friend.

The whole scene made me smile. We should all have someone calling us to safety at the end of the day.

Labels: memory lane, san francisco

* posted by me at 10:35 PM

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