Things My Kids Have Missed - Part I

It occurred to me today that I have been blogging for years and years. Occasionally, I stumble across spiral notebooks, old envelopes, loose sheets of paper, index cards and backs of church bulletins where I have written whatever was on my mind that particular day. I know, technically, "blog" is defined as a "web log." Perhaps mine was a plog (paper log), but it is a history, none the less--a log of my thoughts. Some of them are pretty good. Not surprising.

I found five yellowed notebook pages of hand-written notes that recorded my thoughts one day apparently long, long ago. These are things I remember from my childhood that would be foreign to my kids. I will begin sharing these today and continue when you have more time to read them.

My kids have always lived with beautifully manicured, lush green grass lawns. When I was little, we sometimes had yards with sparse brown dirt interrupted by clumps of dried brown grass and lots and lots of dandelions. I loved to pick the beautiful yellow flowers and take them inside where Mom oohed and aahed as she arranged them into a lovely bouquet and set it proudly on the kitchen table--never making a reference to weeds.

And sometimes the yard would be full of the ripe plants that I could pick and blow the fluffy white seeds all over the neighborhood to fully populate every yard in the vicinity.

And rocks. We had lots of rocks in our yard. My friends and I would gather up these stones and lay them out on the ground to outline our "house." These houses were fun. They had rooms and you could walk right through the walls.

We cooked mud pies in the kitchen of our make-believe house. Dad didn't mind if we dug small holes in the dirt which was the main ingredient of mud pies, of course. The single other ingredient came from the garden hose. Mom supplied the aluminum pie plates by saving them from the frozen chicken pot pies. I always ran out of patience waiting for the mud pies to "bake" and they ended up as a blob on my "kitchen floor." But the next good rain recycled these pies back into the dust from whence they came.

My cooking today has improved only slightly from those early beginnings. You would still recognize it.

Screen doors. I still love screen doors though I haven't seen one in years.. The kind that squeak when you open them and slam behind you as you run through just in time to hear, "Don't let that door slam!" Sometimes you missed the frame and your hand would leave a permanent bulge in the screen. Or the stick you were carrying poked a hole right through it. Sadly, storm doors don't slam or tear, or bulge. They only close slowly and collect fingerprints.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for Pepsi & peanuts, shade trees, neighborhood stores and wringer washers. If you would like to share things you miss from your earlier days, please leave a comment! But it might take a couple of days for me to post it. Just be patient. Remember when we had no computers?