August, 2014. By Paul Goldfinger, from the NYC street series © Click to enlarge.
It was probably a group of day-campers, perhaps 20 of them–boys and girls of a similar age. They all wore matching orange shirts, and like all street-wise New York kids, they were jaunty, fearless and outgoing as they enjoyed the park as if it were their back-yards, which, I suppose, it was. The counselors were close by, reconnoitering the area while trying to remain semi-invisible. You could see that they were doing a tricky balance-bar dance as they watched their charges, like a Greek goatherd would his flock.
The kids laughed and chattered, forming and reforming groups, with some of them making the rounds, darting from one clump of kids to another. Then they all grouped together–I guess I missed the signal. And then, all together, they were gone.
ALICE COOPER. “School’s Out.” From the album Rhino Hi Five: Summertime songs.