Childhood Memories

Playing in the fall leaves 2008: Andrew, Lexie, Davis

CAREFREE!

I was reading my friend jen's blog the other day, about memories from her childhood. We grew up in the same neighborhood, and she ran around with my older sister, Jessica. So much of what she said reminded me of my own wonderful childhood, and made me want to record some of the things I loved about growing up on Oak Lane in Kaysville, Utah.

Kaysville is a bedroom community. Not great for a town's tax base, but wonderful to grow up in as a kid. It had one stoplight and today only has a few more. It was a town of one grocery store Bowman's (it now has two.) I think my parents are still loyal to Bowman's and when we lived in Layton I would sometimes still shop there( when I would do the shopping, Jeremy does most of it.) I love that my parent still live on the same street, I grew up on. They have lived there all of my life and can't imagine they will ever move. For some reason this makes me happy. Probably cause change is hard for me, and I couldn't imagine anyone else living in "my" childhood house.

I could not cover my childhood without paying tribute to Natalie. Nat and I we joint at the hip from an early age. She is in my earliest memories and I feel so lucky to count her as a close friend. Every little girl should be so lucky as to have a friendship like ours. It has been magical and still continues to be. I remember drinking chocolate milk from straws and blowing bubbles together. Having read-a-thons when we were like seven or eight. I don't think normal kids do that but I am so glad we did. I had a hard time learning to read, and I was lucky to have Nat who loved books to help me see the beauty. I love to read today and I learned that books were cool by being friends with Nat. (All of my family are readers so I think I would have caught the bug eventually but I am truly grateful to Natalie for this.) We got a ride in the mail mans truck one day when it was raining, and he chauffeured us from her house to mine. What would it be like to live in a world were you could still trust your mailman to drive your child to their friends house (it was only 5 houses away although we did turn a corner.)? I would die if Lexie did that and we were probably her age(4). Like I said the friendship was magical; I grew up thinking every little girl had the same magical friendship, and to my dismay, this is not the case.

I remember playing night games. I don't know if kids still do this, but I sure hope so. It was so fun. We had a total routine; it started with Steal the Flag at Benson's. Then we crossed the street to Anderson's and played Poison and Lightening on the basketball court followed by Ghost in the Graveyard also at Anderson's. When it was time to come home my dad would go outside, stand at the top of the hill and whistle. This is how we knew it was time to come home. No cell phones, no constant video games we played outdoors and we played hard. Then we would come home and have baths and Mom would put our hair in curlers for Sunday. On a rare occasion if my mom happened to be at work, my Dad would roll our hair in the curlers. This was bad cause taking them out when Dad put them in was always a tearful event with many tangles. Like I said it was a rare occasion, but I always thought it was cool I had a Dad who would do this in the first place.

We rode our bikes all over the place, went on circle walks, and walked around the cemetery. Jess(my sister) and I, on more than one occasion filled the wagon with the tall glass soda bottles and would pull them to Bowman's were you got 10 cents for each bottle. I remember getting close to twenty dollars once, we thought we're rich. Don't do the math to see how many sodas we drank. I'm sure we looked hilarious to the passer by, but for me those are the things that make life great. I love it when I see a lemonade or kool aid stand, and see kids just being kids. I think kids are growing up way to fast these days. Oh how I miss the carefreeness of childhood and hope and pray I create the same kind of environment for my own kids. Thanks Mom and Dad for providing the ideal childhood, it truly was the best!