Childhood Meme-ories

Nupur at One Hot Stove recently tagged me for this latest meme. Out of curiosity I decided to trace the thing back as far as I could. Lo and behold, I found the instigator of this on-line chain letter - Brad Warbiany. The original post, dated June 1st of this year, was titled Time to Unleash a Plague and his blog (actually a group blog) is aptly called The Unrepentant Individual. So now that everyone is feeling warm and fuzzy, on to my childhood memories...

In tracing this back I discovered that it took a slightly different bent once it hit the food blog world. As the book meme was transformed into a cookbook meme, so did "The Five Things I Miss From My Childhood" become "Childhood Food Memories". I've decided to go with the original theme, "Five Things I Miss From My Childhood", rather than the food-centric theme. Also, I've dropped the "The" because I sort of doubt my list will be the only or even the top five things I miss from childhood.

OK, so here we go...

I miss devouring books the way I did when I was a kid. Now, there never seems to be enough time and, well, I can't stay awake.

I miss family vacations, especially our camping trips along the Skyline Drive. Maybe it was the relaxed pace, the crazy double-solitaire games under the gas lantern, eating outdoors every night, the black bear sightings, buying penny candy and souvenirs at the camp store, the nature talks at the amphitheatre, hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows... oh who am I kidding? It was all wonderful... well, except maybe for the coin-operated showers that cut off after 5 minutes!

I miss the feeling I used to get when we would eat at McDonald's - and it wasn't guilt! Back then, there really were golden arches, they actually posted the number (in millions) of burgers sold, and you didn't enter the restaurant - you made your purchases at a counter and sat on a yellow and white tiled bench on the side of the building, ate at home, or ate in the car. I liked it best when we ate in the car. My sister, brothers, and I would sit on the tailgate of the station wagon and watch for a train to go by as we consumed our burgers, fries and shakes. It didn't matter that the pathetic burger couldn't be tasted under the pickles and ketchup - it was all about the fries and chocolate shakes!

I miss that last-day-of-school elation. I've occasionally felt it in the more recent past as I left work just before a vacation, but it doesn't come often enough these days!

I miss Saturday mornings watching cartoons and playing with blocks. I know you probably think I'm reaching back into my infancy for this one, but my sister, brothers and I "played blocks" for years. It was engineering, role-playing, and creative play all rolled into one. Perhaps best of all it was a shared tradition. Our block collection, which resided in a large basket, started as a purchased set or two, but grew over the years thanks to my Dad's many carpentry projects. Over time, certain structures evolved and made regular appearances (most notably the pancake factory). In addition, certain blocks took on certain functions and heaven help the visiting friend who didn't conform!

Well, that was fun - thanks Nupur! I'm going to break the rules and not list the links and not tag anyone. I invite you to share what you miss from childhood in the comments of this post or feel free to tag yourself - I just don't want to be the bad guy!