25 July 2005

Things I miss from childhood

    You set sail across the sea
    Of long past thoughts and memories.
    Childhood's end, your fantasies
    Merge with harsh realities.
    And then as the sail is hoist,
    You find your eyes are growing moist.
    All the fears never voiced
    Say you have to make your final choice.
      Childhood's End
      by Pink Floyd
Rob at Laughing at the Pieces offered his post on this subject then tagged me. So here goes:
1. The woods behind my neighbor's house.
Many a war game was played there. Many an expeditions were launched. We dug up old farm equipment and hid in the old chicken coops. They were a safe place for us to play in an unsafe manner. Now, the woods are gone, replaced by houses.
2. Climbing trees
There was one you could climb high enough to see the high school, a couple miles away. We built tree houses (plural, because they lacked the structural integrity to last), a rope swing, and the slide for life (a pulley that your rode down a 50' length or rope). There was one time when I jumped down from a tree, and my knee caught me in the face, putting my tooth through my lip. Good times!
3. Vermont
Every year we went there, to the same lean-to in Calvin Coolidge State Forest. They were all named after trees. Ours was Basswood. Such was my family's dedication to this annual vacation that they went when Mom was eight months pregnant with me. Going there each year was like going home. I keep pestering Sharon about going there again. Someday....
4. Gram
My dad's mother came to live with us when we moved to a larger house. I didn't realize how lucky I was to have that, though I do now. Gram always had stories about this and that, so familiar that I took them for granted. And there was her cooking. I don't miss that, to be honest. Having lived through the Depression, she wasted nothing. This made for some, um, interesting dishes. How about a lamb sandwich? No mayonaise for the egg salad? BBQ sauce will do.
5. Atari 2600
Okay, I've got to be honest on this one. I loved that Atari. I did. I wasted countless hours of my life finding the chalice again in Adventure, rolling the score over in Space Invaders and Asteroids, shaving another second off my time in the Indy 500 ice race, etc., etc.

Well, there ya go. Who should I tag next? I will randomly choose from my friends' blogs. Leaving Rob's off, there are six. The result of 1d6 is... six! That means I'm tagging Jeri.

2 comments:

Jeri said...

Whoops, I just noticed this. Will have it up pronto.

"Pronto," of course, being the Spanish word for "eventually."

Andrew said...

Take yer time. It took me a day to spot Rob tagging me.