Tagged again!

Hockey Mom (another new spinner, btw!) tagged me for the "5 Things I Miss About Childhood" meme.  Hmm, lemme think:

1)  Holidays at my grandmother's house.   Now that I'm older, I'm more aware of how this must have affected the grown-ups.  But for us kids, it was great.  I had a whole passel (and it is passel, NOT passle -- I looked it up) of cousins, many of them within +/- 2 years of my age.  We'd all eat together.  The kids sat at tables out on the back porch.  When the meal was done, and the dirty dishes taken up, a big sheet was laid down over all the food dishes left on the table.  We'd all be playing, but from time to time, we'd creep into the dining room and sneak food from under the cloth.  I have a distinct memory of sneaking turnip greens more than once.  I loves me some southern-cooked turnip greens, folks.  Always have.

2)  Going to the library when it was a new and exciting experience to me.  The first book I remember reading that gave me a real "sense of wonder" experience was Horton Hears a Who.  My young mind boggled at the idea of all those tiny Whos living on a tiny speck, and ol' Horton the elephant having to look after them.  And every time I went, there were new things to explore, new authors to discover, new genres to fall in love with.  Most days now, I feel old and jaded around books.  Everything seems to be a variation of something I've already read.  I miss that sense of newness and possibility.

3)  Sharing secrets with my brother.  My brother and I are less than a year and a half apart in age.  We were pretty close when we were kids.  We used to say "I'll tell you something if you promise not to tell Mama and Daddy!"  As far as I can remember, I never told a single secret we shared.  And I don't think he did either.  These days we don't have anyone we need to keep secrets from, but I still have the same esteem and trust for my little brother that had its origin in the sharing of those early years.

4)  Riding my bicycle all over the neighborhood.  I didn't ever go very far (in miles) till I was grown, but I had a nice route of a mile or two that I rambled over all the time.  There was one hill in front of Tift College that was the closest thing I had to an exciting downhill ride.  I'd ride down it at night when the traffic was light and slalom back and forth between the dashed white line in the center of the road.  Sometimes I'd try to do it without holding on to the handlebars.  I could get most of the way down, but I'd always wobble and wimp out and grab the handlebars again.  Cutting those deep S-curves back and forth was a source of deep pleasure to me.

5)  Playing tag or hide and go seek at night.  This usually happened when some of my cousins were around, because there were only 2 other kids in our neighborhood.  I loved to play freeze-tag.  My brother was a big kick the can fanatic, but that was a boy's game, and I never played it with them.  But I was a dab hand a freeze tag. 

Precious memories, how they linger.  :)

Comments

[Beth]

I remember freeze-tag! Very fun. :)

[Sandy]

Cool! Thanks for playing! I'm hoping my kids will have some memories that are just as special.

[Glynda B.]

You were much more daring in your biking than I was. I think hills would have frightened me. We lived out in the country, and I rode for miles back there on old dirt roads. A whole group of kids would go together. I've walked home many a time with a goat head stuck in my flat tire. Nice to read about your memories.