Little Scenes from Childhood
I have often wondered why we remember certain scenes from childhood. Why these and not others? What is so precious about these flashes of memory that make them dear to us? What is so important about them that the memories of them linger still?
Here are some little scenes from my childhood that I remember from when I was seven years old or younger:
Margaret, the girl who took care of me — I can picture her standing by the sink, one hand on hip, drinking a glass of milk every night before she went to bed
When my father told me stories, he didn’t begin with Once about a time. He began with One tiny little thing…
The expression on my mother’s face when she would open up the very hot oven and the hot steam would hit her face
The field across the street from where I used to live
Being scared of cemeteries
Having so much fun on Halloween and 4th of July
The book Clematis that I read in second grade that meant so much to me
How an aunt of mine would cut an orange in half and eat it with a spoon like a grapefruit
When my niece was three and I was six — we would soap down the bathtub and slide down and never get hurt
How my sister Sylvia, my niece’s mother, would smoke a cigarette and her eyes kind of squinted
When I would stand in the back yard with my arms out as far as they would go, and my brother Sid would aim his BB gun at my hands and not miss and how it stung
When I used to ride on Sid’s back and I would try to hold on, and he would throw me off every time. We called it Bucking Bronco.
When my brother Bennie brought me a puppy and how good my brother Bennie always made me feel
How my sister Eleanor and I would pick violets every spring down at the dingle
When I would hammer nails into boxes at my father’s store
When summers were for doing just whatever you wanted
There must be more childhood scenes, but I’m not going to dig them up. I’ve done enough! I do wonder why I remember these so well, and some other childhood scenes not at all.
What are some of your lasting scenes from childhood?
Godwriting is a blog by Gloria Wendroff and is about Gloria's daily life as the Godwriter of the Heavenletters project that is having a profound effect on the lives of people around the world.
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