A Place of Our Own

Even good kids seem to be conspirators at heart. There's something to be said for adventuring into the unknown--testing the limits, breaking the rules even slightly in the hope that we'll find our own secret spot in the world.  For many of us, this was an actual place we built or discovered with friends. Sometimes an abandoned-looking house or lot would suffice, whereas others had the help of a grown-up to make them a legitimate tree fort or clubhouse where they could gather.

I became fixated on the clubhouse in my Berenstain Bears book, No Girls Allowed. I tried to sell my dad on the idea of building me the same elaborate fort but he decided to spend his time making houses for adults instead. (Lame.) In any case, I was pretty good at improvising forts on clotheslines and in garages. Couch cushions could always be put to good use in a friend's basement.

But just as important as the physical space was the creation of the club itself. I've started a few in my day, usually following a theme of alliteration (Busy Bees Club, Krazy Kids Klub--I know, I know). I don't recall membership being anything more exclusive than simply showing up, though there was always one important rule that must be observed: NO ADULTS! Not actually because we were doing something that would get us in trouble (unless rollerskating and making fortune tellers was against the law) but because we lived in a world run by adults and we wanted a place that truly felt like ours alone.

The story of The Secret Garden is very true to this theme. The main character, Mary Lennox, becomes enamored with the idea of finding the secret garden once she learns that it's hidden away on the grounds somewhere and she's explicitly told not to search for it. Once she does finally discover it, the garden becomes a very special place--one she is responsible for bringing back to life, one untouched by the adults who busy themselves with other grown-up matters, one that allows her to connect to nature and to her friends and to herself. Whether we seek out these sorts of special places because we need the escape or we simply want somewhere to be inspired, there seems to be an almost universal appeal amongst children. It should come as little surprise, then, that some of the most beloved characters from children's literature--Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn--are driven by this same mischief and wonder, and ultimately, the desire to belong. I'll leave you with the words of Mary Lennox (our favorite literary adventurer), as she sings in "The Girl I Mean to Be":

I need a place where I can go

Where I can whisper what I know

Where I can whisper who I like

and where I go to see them.

I need a place where I can hide

Where no one sees my life inside

Where I can make my plans

and write them down--so I can read them.

A place where I can bid my heart be still,

and it will mind me

A place where I can go when I am lost

and there I'll find me.

I need a place to spend the day

Where no one says to go or stay

Where I can take my pen and draw 

the girl I mean to be.