Dear Cousins,
Recently some of my storyteller friends asked, "What do you miss most from your childhood?"
When I read the responses I smiled wistfully. More than once I said "yes, I miss that too" quietly to myself.
I miss more than things, though. I do miss the toys, the candy, the wonderful
television shows from my childhood, but more importantly, I miss the
quietness of life, the innocence of being a little boy, they joy of
facing each new day like it is a treasure.
It is a wonderful time; childhood, a time when cutting off an old pair
of pajama bottoms at the knee, adding a big wide belt from Mama's
closet and tying one of her best red scarves round my head made me a pirate for
the day. A construction paper eye patch held on with thread and a Roy
Rogers pistol that could magically turn into a musket finished off the
ensemble. I wasn't afraid or embarrassed to go out into public and down
the road to the woods to play pirate all day with my little brother.
Mama and Daddy never called for us or came looking, cause they knew we
were around close.
Remember having a girlfriend that your heart just ached for, thinking
she was just the prettiest thing in the world... and then blushing
'cause she said hi to you in the hall at school?
Remember coming home all hot and sweaty and Mama telling you to take a
quick bath before supper 'cause Daddy didn't want to smell dirty boys
all through supper? Or going up an' splashin' round in the tub without
ever getting in... and rubbin' the washrag over your face to prove you
did bathe? Of course the dirt and sweat on the rest of your body was a
dead give away!!
I miss walking to my Grandma's house a good piece down the road to see if she had
peanut butter cookies made an' walkin' back home with a fistful... and not
having to ask permission.
A kid just did that back then.
Yes, I miss that time, that era,
that place that fades in my memory
daily...
until I stop and make myself sit still,
till I say to myself...
"yes, I remember that."
Stephen
