Jaguar 8, nobody with me
Sliding a pass under the bedroom door
Finding a home while climbing a tree
Finishing ditalini and asking for more
Swinging and sliding and digging a hole
Adding to Smallville day after day
Eating Special K from a Corelle bowl
Hoping 4:30 was still far away
Rolling down the hill while giggling with glee
Playing freeze tag and making mud pies
Building moss covered bridges in the magnolia tree
Thinking about next time as we said our good-byes
Yum yums, popsicles, and alphabet soup
Chasing rainbows as they flew across the wall
Throwing apples to watch them roll off the roof
Running and jumping for the attic chain in the hall
The Spy Club, A.B.L.E., Angel Heaven, too
GEEP / VEEP and the Scientific Scene
Gazing in awe when the club house was new
Flying our kite using Grampa's good string
Walking to Hills for Jurassic Park cards
Going to Kroger to cash in our change
Trying to keep our games out of the neighbor's yards
The smell of pasta sauce simmering on the range
Playing TI Invaders, Parsec and Munch Man
Alpiner, and Hunt the Wompus, too
Memorizing The Secret Garden and Peter Pan
Arriving in the morning in time for Family Feud
Two pats after every flip of a corn pancake
Cream cheese and bagels, toasted rye bread
Filming a commercial in only one take
Marching through the field, the corn well above our head
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe
Inky pinky ponky, daddy had a donkey
Engine, engine, number nine, going down Chicago line
Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?
Oh what I must have already forgotten, it is too early yet
Looking back at those days
I fear there are more things I am bound to forget
I seek to trigger my memory in so many ways
Such a special gift, these memories of childhood
A challenge to never forget or underestimate those days
My challenge to confront what I thought I understood
And pray my children's youth is as wonderful in their own ways
Sliding a pass under the bedroom door
Finding a home while climbing a tree
Finishing ditalini and asking for more
Swinging and sliding and digging a hole
Adding to Smallville day after day
Eating Special K from a Corelle bowl
Hoping 4:30 was still far away
Rolling down the hill while giggling with glee
Playing freeze tag and making mud pies
Building moss covered bridges in the magnolia tree
Thinking about next time as we said our good-byes
Yum yums, popsicles, and alphabet soup
Chasing rainbows as they flew across the wall
Throwing apples to watch them roll off the roof
Running and jumping for the attic chain in the hall
The Spy Club, A.B.L.E., Angel Heaven, too
GEEP / VEEP and the Scientific Scene
Gazing in awe when the club house was new
Flying our kite using Grampa's good string
Walking to Hills for Jurassic Park cards
Going to Kroger to cash in our change
Trying to keep our games out of the neighbor's yards
The smell of pasta sauce simmering on the range
Playing TI Invaders, Parsec and Munch Man
Alpiner, and Hunt the Wompus, too
Memorizing The Secret Garden and Peter Pan
Arriving in the morning in time for Family Feud
Two pats after every flip of a corn pancake
Cream cheese and bagels, toasted rye bread
Filming a commercial in only one take
Marching through the field, the corn well above our head
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe
Inky pinky ponky, daddy had a donkey
Engine, engine, number nine, going down Chicago line
Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?
Oh what I must have already forgotten, it is too early yet
Looking back at those days
I fear there are more things I am bound to forget
I seek to trigger my memory in so many ways
Such a special gift, these memories of childhood
A challenge to never forget or underestimate those days
My challenge to confront what I thought I understood
And pray my children's youth is as wonderful in their own ways
7 comments:
This is so good! I want to thank you for making our shared childhood memories what they were/are. You've written about them so beautifully, capturing the smells, tastes, sounds. Everything! Thank you. I'm keeping this one forever.
Luke, you have no idea what this means to me. Yet, you know exactly. I'm in tears, I can't stop crying...I miss all of it, I really had no idea this was inside me. This emotion toward what magical times we created, and to not even see it vanish. It vanished silently, calmly, maybe one night when we were all asleep in our separate houses, dreaming separate dreams.
Thank you both for the kind words. I really enjoyed writing this. Being able to totally focus on those days, I was able to remember and even begin to feel like a kid again, playing at Nonna and Grampa's so many summers ago.
Katie, it is intersting that you mention not being able to see it vanish. In my mind I have a picture, and it just recently surfaced. When I was putting our home movies on DVD, the last scene we shot together is of the four of us (you, me, Eva, and Angela). We were all sitting in front of the camera and saying goodbye, then we get up and all walk in different directions out of the frame and it fades away. We had no way of knowing that would be the last time we would make a video together, yet it could not have been done in a better way. When I first saw that when I was making the DVDs, a tear came to my eye. I believe the name of the scene on the DVD is "Trees in Spring."
Luke! Wonderful! I love the imagery of 'two pats after every flip of a corn pancake' . . . those years were special to me, too, (didn't even mind being spied on!) May I be so bold as to add Dinosaur Hall, Fourth of July celebrations, the dead end adventures, millet 'n' cheese, picking berries, Commander Mark, Perfect Strangers, Anne of TV Cables, 'Teamwork' and 'We Didn't Start the Fire?'
I see already the special times you are creating for your two little ones . . .
. . . and playing 'mail' - you all were -and still are - so creative! Let us never forget 'Pansasa'!
Aunt Sue, I had lines about skipping rocks down at the dead end, Perfect Strangers (the bibby bobka episode), setting leaves on fire with a magnifying glass, and sneaking under the table to spy on the adults, but I ran out of time and couldn't work them into the poem. And I totally forgot about playing "mail," thank you for mentioning that. Also, thank you for mentioning Commander Mark. We were on YouTube the other night looking up old shows that we watched as children, and couldn't think of his name. We could picture the show, but could not remember what it was called. I'll try and look it up again. Thanks!
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