Staying up past your bedtime when you were a kid

Nobody likes bedtimes.

Nope, nothing’s worse than lying under the covers in hot flannel PJs with wide, unblinking eyes while the late autumn sun slowly droops outside your window. As the sky fades to a burning orange, the streetlights flicker on, the moon pops out, and eventually the thin crack of light under your door flicks to black.

And then you just lie there, staring at the ceiling, flipping your pillow, tossing and turning, aching and burning.

Nobody likes bedtimes.

Come on, whether it’s mom chasing a giggling diaper-clad junior around the coffee table or dad forcibly finger-peeling video game remotes out of pre-teen paws, it’s all the same when you’re a kid.

The fun stops when the head drops.

Yes, bedtime is a secret, locked roadblock to a magical mystery tour of late night television, dark downtown scenes, and unknown journeys into all things strange, exotic, and sinful.

But it’s that buildup and curiosity that make it great when you finally do break on through to the other side.

Do you remember birthday sleepovers when everybody drank Cokes after 9 p.m. and watched R-rated movies? Did you have faraway Little League tournaments where parents cracked beer coolers after the game while kids terrorized the hotel whirlpool and sauna? Did you celebrate New Year’s with cousins all dancing to Michael Jackson in the basement as the clock counted down?

Staying up past your bedtime when you’re a kid is like getting on a rickety roller coaster and riding down a dark tunnel heading somewhere you’ve never been and were always told not to go. But then you find sugar rushes, skinnydips, heart-to-hearts, and nonstop giggles all waiting for you deep in the blackness, just around the bend.

AWESOME!