Tag: <span>childhood</span>
One of the rare occasions I will show myself. Banged up knee, no front teeth, one of Grandma’s ridiculous haircuts, yet the boy on my side could not resist my charm and became my boyfriend for one summer.
Lent was a big deal in our Catholic boarding school. 40 days of fasting was the motto, which didn’t bother us too much, we were used to it. Boarding school food is a bit like hospital food, and fasting comes naturally.
Going back in time, I recall our short vacations in Italy. Remember, I was born and raised >>>here<<<. Right after lunch, before the shops closed during the hot afternoons, one of us kids was sent to a magazine stand to pick up a German or Austrian newspaper, which by then was three days old. We lived! Nothing was so dramatic back then.
It started snowing last night. I felt it when I woke up. The darkness outside was brighter, the silence quieter and my soul smiled.
I didn’t like our neighbor, he frightened me.
“Get to know him,” my Grandmother had advised me and that’s why I was standing here and watched this cruel man holding a tiny bird.
“We are surrounded every day by the wonders of life, wonders beyond comprehension that we simply take for granted. I decided that day that I would live my life—not simply exist. If I died and discovered heaven on the other side, well, that’d be just fine and dandy. But if I didn’t live my life as if I was already in heaven, and I died and found only nothingness, well…I would have wasted my life. I would have wasted my one chance in all of history to be alive.”
― Allen Eskens, The Life We Bury
They all greeted my Grandmother nicely, paid respect to her and connected through her with a friend, who wasn’t there anymore. I sat quietly beside her and listened to the stories these men had to tell.
Every snowflake is unique, just like the memories they bring.
Faces of kids are dancing around me, I can hear the laughter, I can feel the joy.
The other day, someone at a store mentioned that a Methamphetamine lab had been found in an old house nearby and he asked me a rhetorical question:
“Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?”