Ravings of a BiPolar Gothic Witch
     Occasional commentary, observations and tidbits as well as other random thoughts

In the last few days I have had the privilege twice now to read well written essays on the memories of childhood.  One was a little too country for me and a bit before my time, and one was British so there was quite a bit I couldn’t identify specifically by name, but I understood the sentiment.  So here is my own attempt.  If it resonates in you, I encourage you to step back from the day to day worries about our adult lives and spend some real time remembering:

• TV was 3 channels and you had to adjust the rabbit ears differently for each one and you knew you had stayed up REALLY late because the national anthem came on when the station went off
• The beginning of school meant the smell of chalk dust and new shoes
• Summer meant staying out all day and playing tag or hide and seek in the twilight, swimming all day, and no routine
• Catching lightning bugs in a jar
• Rolling in the grass and gazing at the stars, wondering what was out there without having the manufactured images from bigger than life movies
• The scariest thing in your life was going home with a letter from school
• Guns were something you saw on TV in cowboy movies
• No one went out to eat unless you got the treat of a McDonald’s happy meal
• Cartoons before a movie instead of commercials
• Not knowing how that first kiss would feel but knowing you wanted it more than anything in the world
• Boy/Girl cooties (pass it on…)
• Talking to animals and knowing they talked back to you or at least listened
• The first real rock song you heard and loved
• Transistor radios and having your very own even if it only got AM stations
• Black and white television
• 5 cent candy bars, and being bummed when they went to 10 cents
• The smell of sunlight and the feel of prickly fresh cut grass
• A storm coming in
• Days feeling like they could be filled with anything and summers that lasted forever
• Gasoline always pumped by the 17 year old high school kid
• The feeling of flying when you rode your bike as fast as you could down the biggest hill in town
• The magic of taking your first picture and seeing life captured for eternity
• Your first girl/boy party
• Everyone knowing who you were, especially if you were somewhere you weren’t supposed to be
• A refrigerator cardboard box
• Secret hiding places
• Sneaking a cigarette
• Praying hard for so much snow that the electricity went out so you could play in it instead of walk to school in it
• The best birthday party you ever had was because you parents allowed you to have friends over to the house instead of just family
• Playing cards on a cold winters night
• Saturday morning cartoons:  Johnny Quest, Kookla, Fran & Ollie, Puff & Stuff, The Magic Window
• Walking home from school for lunch
• Christmas shows that we could only see once a year
• Pride and fear of your first period
• Walking to school regardless of the weather, and only riding the bus if you lived in the country and even when you were a Senior
• Running until you ran out of breath, laughing until you couldn’t breathe
• Converse tennis shoes that were the ugliest things in the world and you had to wear if you played basketball
• The biggest events of a week were the high school sport events
• Any adult could ask for your help to carry groceries, feed you, or tell you no and you didn’t think about it and neither did they
• Your first boyfriend and figuring out the bases.. and whether you really wanted to go there
• Your first heartbreak
• A cold 16 oz glass bottle of soda pop
• Your high school graduation and KNOWING you had the world figured out
• Having no real idea of what poor or rich meant because all of your friends were the same and none of you did anything that required money
• Going barefoot all summer
• Your first real job (where they actually paid you for doing something - usually something no one else wanted to do - like walking beans)
• Not only seeing the flowers by the road, but stopping and actually picking one or two
• Dandelions held under your chin to see if you would get married
• Deciding your true love’s name by twisting the stem of an apple
• The first time you drove a real car
• County fairs with the mysterious carnies, games that could rarely be won, cotton candy, and rides that were magic with their neon glowing in the dark
• Prom night
• The first time you made love
• Cutting through neighbor’s yards to get home from school
• Not locking the doors at night, and leaving the car in the driveway with the keys in it without worrying about it
• Easter corsages for church and lilies for the dead

Explore your childhood.  Recapture that innocence.  Try to remember what we believed then.  Maybe it’s still true..

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