Tag: Five Missed Childhood Memories

Catez over at Allthings2All tagged me to talk about five things I miss from childhood. Let's jump right into it.

1. First and foremost, I miss the lack of responsibility. You remember, those carefree days in the summer when all you had to do was get back to the house before the sun was gone. In fact, The Thinklings just had a post about the changing times of playing outdoors. But there's more than that. Thought processes were different back then. I didn't think about consequences, or what others might think of me, or clutter my head with any of those worries. I just did it. When two of my cousins and I wanted to ride my Spiderman Big Wheel down a big hill, we just hopped on it and rode down the hill. Well, at least half way....before it broke in half. It's just that sometimes the weight of adulthood gets a little heavy.

2. I miss playing stupid games with my dad. See, my mother left us when I was about 5, so dad was my entire world for those next all important 5yrs (before he got remarried.) For a while, he and I lived in a little pull behind trailer on 20 acres of West Texas land. We had no running water and no electrical lines. The simple things tend to entertain you in the middle of nowhere. Well, we played Crazy 8s all the time. We would take turns counting down 60 seconds, to see who could keep closest with a clock. After a big rain, dad and I would grab a couple of golf tees and head down to the ravine. We would put our tees in the water and race them. I miss army-marble too. This consisted of a bucket of those green army men and a couple of marbles. We would set up our men, each of us taking a side. And then we would take turns shooting the marble at eachother's men. Last man standing wins. I could go on. But I'll never forget those days.

3. I guess that leads me to the next item. Those 20 acres. I miss that sorely: the adventures, and games and dangers and lack of civilization. My memories of the short time we lived there could fill a book. The acreage offered everything from rattlesnakes to missing days of school because we couldn't get out after a decent snowfall. When I hear "those were the days" sung in All in the Family, these memories flood my senses.

4. I miss the unadulterated love of a dog. It seems I always had a dog, a best friend, and still do. Dad and I moved a lot. A dog helped keep me grounded with ever loving presence. And when I say unadulterated, I mean the lack of concern for hygiene. I didn't care about the hair, or the slobbering, or his paws on the couch or bed. Now, I try to control the hair, I can't stand him just standing there licking me, and I certainly don't let him on the bed. I miss the days where it just didn't matter.

5. I miss Saturday morning cartoons. Cartoons in the early eighties had the same impact on me then as the Thursday primetime lineup does now. That was about the only thing I had to look forward too in the fall as a kid. I dreaded school, missed the summer, but oh man, the new shows came out on fall Saturday mornings. I used to record the theme songs on tape and listen to them at night. Now you barely get to see a cartoon on Saturday morning. Where did they all go? At least my generation has put up the Cartoon Network.

Perhaps I'll take this one step further and list 5 things I don't miss from childhood in another post. That could be just as interesting.



1. Just Ask Judy
http://justaskjudy.blogspot.com/2005/06/ive-been-tagged.html

2. Loose Leaf
http://www.looseleafnotes.com/archives/2005/06/meme_5_things_i.html

3. Black Currant Jam
http://blackcurantjam.blogspot.com/2005/06/meme-5-things-i-miss.html

4. Allthings2all
http://allthings2all.blogspot.com/2005/06/i-wanted-green-hair.html

5. Because I'm Not Dead Yet