From Childhood

I live in a rather large apartment complex, on a street with other rather large apartment complexes, with residences squeezed in between.

When school is session, I always see children waiting on buses and oftentimes get stuck behind one of those school buses.

Yet, here it is summer and I don't see many kids around.  I don't see anyone riding bikes or playing outside.  Even when I go to my apartment pool, there aren't many kids around.  Mostly adults.

Summer was golden when I was a kid.  I loved summer.  Playing outside.  Getting dirty.  Being a kid.

Thinking about this makes me wish for slower days, easier days... days when I had no worries.

Here are some things I miss from childhood...

1. Snow Days. Not necessarily snow... but I do miss getting up only to be told to go back to bed because school had been cancelled. In all of the years since I've left school, I can only think of three days where "weather" prohibited work and I got an adult snow day.

2. Wanting to get up early. When I was a kid, you couldn't keep me in bed. I would be up with the sun and hated going to bed at night. On Saturday mornings, this meant cartoons or other children's shows, which leads to the next...

3. Saturday Morning Cartoons and Schoolhouse Rock. This is pretty self-explanatory. When I was a kid, Saturday morning TV was for the kids. Now, you have to go to a specific channel to find cartoons... and they just aren't like the ones I grew up with. Looney Tunes, Scooby Doo, Captain Caveman, Grape Ape, Archie and the Gang, etc etc etc interspersed with "education" in the form of Schoolhouse Rock moments.

4. Summer Vacation and Christmas Vacation. Oh, to be able to only have to work 9 months a year and get paid for 12. (And not go back to teaching to do it.)  I think people would be happier if they had more time off to just relax and do things.  When did it become a sin to want to take time off.  I used to work with a woman who NEVER used vacation.  EVER.  I love taking time off.  At the beginning of the year, I go through the calendar and schedule myself one three-day weekend each month where there is no holiday to give me one.  I don't feel guilty about taking time off and if I get sick, I call off.  Why make myself go to work feeling like crap?  The work will still be there the next day.

5. Wanting to be active. I rode my bike, ran around like an idiot, swang on swings, went on hikes, splashed in the wading pool, chased my brother around the yard, played with the dogs, and did all sorts of active things. It wasn't a "chore" to expend some energy.  And it wasn't done just to burn calories.  I'd love to be able to run around and be silly again.

6. Not wanting to eat. Kids have the right idea. They only eat when they are hungry and they only eat what they need to get by. Well, most kids. I never wanted to stop to eat when I was a kid. My mom would have to beg me and my brother to stop playing and eat something. We'd sit down, eat a few bites and then be back up and running. (Of course, later, food became a crutch and I gained weight, but this is a happy post and I will not dwell on that.)

7. Santa Claus. I may not have gotten everything I put on my Christmas list as a kid, but there was so much fun in the hoping, wishing and anticipating. The closest thing I now have to Santa Claus is the lottery... I remember getting the Spiegel catalog every Christmas and circling all of the arts and crafts supplies and Barbie dolls.  I wanted anything and everything scientific and interesting.  I wanted pottery wheels and rock polishing kits.  I wanted telescopes and microscopes and chemistry kits.  I wanted hot wheels and Easy Bake ovens. 

8. Innocence. The only thing that scared me was the "thing" I thought that lived beneath my bed. And the dark. I didn't know such things as poverty, war, death, illness, debt, child abuse, rape, murder, theft, etc. The news came on after I went to bed and although some may say that meant living a "sheltered" life, I think sometimes I'd like to have that kind of easy innocence again.

9. Playing. Playing house, playing school, playing with barbies, playing doctor, playing cops and robbers, playing with toys, playing with friends, playing in the house, playing in the yard, playing at recess. I enjoy laughing and having fun.  I don't think adults do enough of it.  At work, we had this big to-do a couple of years ago about having fun at work.  The FISH Philosophy based on the fish tossing fools at that fish market in Seattle.  Such a great idea.  However, anytime I get a little goofy at work, someone or something squashes that and tries to temper me.  I have a relatively new co-worker who has a sense of fun.  I enjoy having him sit next to me.  It reminds me that laughing is not a bad thing.

10. Allowance. Remember when a dollar seemed like a fortune? I would save up my "allowance" (earned by getting good grades and doing chores) to buy penny candy, MAD magazine, TEEN magazine, TIGER BEAT magazine, teen romance novels, finger nail polish, lip gloss, stickers, and records. I remember when I was a little kid, my parents would give my brother and me each $100 every income tax season when they got their refunds. I felt like I was a millionaire.  We'd get in the car and drive to "Century III Mall" outside of Pittsburgh, about an hour away, and shop till we dropped.  My favorite stores were National Record Mart, Waldenbooks, Spencer's Gifts and this other store that sold stationary supplies, where I'd get colorful paper and cool pens. 

Kids just don't know what they have.   I get sad when I see how quickly they seem to want to grow up.  I wish I could let them have a glimpse of what life is like once you stop being a kid.

I like buying toys for my training classes (and co-workers... and myself).  The toys remind me to have fun and remind me of what it's like to be a kid and have that little spark of mischief inside.

I think Peter Pan may have been on to something.