The Blue Container - A Meeting Place

"Blue container this break?"

"Hell yes."

The blue container was where we always hung out during breaks at school. We weren't the cool kids, we were the losers sitting on the huge dumpster sharing tic tacs. We watched the jocks run around and play football and talked about how stupid they all were. In winter it was a frozen look out post, in spring we'd sit on the big black lid which was warmed by the sun, in summertime we'd sit in its shade and in fall we'd cover it with leaves from the surrounding trees. It was in the corner of the playground, like we were in the corner of the class. Our own little corner with our own quirky nicknames for each other. The blue container was our gathering place. A place we planned school activities, whose house to hang out at after school and a place to plan creative activities. After a school the blue container was swapped for the library. The dear librarians often kept it open an hour longer for us because they enjoyed looking at us being all consumed by fairytales about dragons and elves and magical worlds. We were a gang and we found companionship in being the outsiders. And our sacred gathering place was that big blue container.