To be clear, I am a reasonably happy adult and I have no desire to go back. However, I do miss some things. Here are a few of them.
- The carefree way that we used to roam on weekends and afternoons. - We'd tell our parents that we were going out to a friends house and they wouldn't see or hear from us for hours...without worrying much.
- The ice cream man - they're still around but it's not quite the same somehow. You could hear the Mr. Softee music from blocks away and all the kids would come running. It was a big thing for my grandfather and I.
- Kickball - I was the queen of the kickball diamond in elementary school. Not anymore.
- Saturday morning cartoons - we would sneak downstairs and watch for hours while our parents slept.
- Making forts - we would do it in the den with blankets and overturned chairs and whatever else we could find.
- Climbing trees - I lived in the trees as a kid. Really! I would go up there and read or get into mischief or just chill. Awesomeness!
- Big family gatherings - we would have all kinds of relatives around the table for holidays. I've tried to recreate this for my girls but it was different as a kid and different with relatives rather than close friends.
- Summer - it was so awesome that last day of school. There was that amazing feeling of freedom as you walked out of the school and knew that there was no homework to be done, no tests to study for, no teacher to answer to. Just fun and relaxation for the foreseeable future
- Family vacations at the lake - for many years my family, my grandparents, and my uncles family would rent cabins at a place in upstate NY. They were so rustic and you could hear the rain on the roof. You could swim out to the dock in the lake. There were bats in the rafters in the game room where we'd play nok hockey. In a word - fabulous!
I loved climbing trees, too.
ReplyDeleteThe ice cream man. He ruled. Especially when he had Atomic Fireball candies!
ReplyDeleteOoo, good list! We had a weeping willow I used to climb into and read. I had totally forgoten about that!
ReplyDeleteWonderful memories of a happy childhood. I used to visit the ice cream man with my grandfather, too, when I was at their house in the summer. We would listen to the music while we were finishing up dinner and then he would race me to the street to meet the truck. So much fun!
ReplyDeleteYour list is the one most like one I would make. We had such fun as kids with few worries and loads of time to play!
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