Long Evening's Journey into Childhood

Last night I was caught in a peculiar time warp. I wasn't fully in the past, because I was a conscious now-me, looking back on a then-me, but I was pretty close. I was home with the rest of my family for Father's Day, and Mama had pulled out all of our old childhood papers: cards we'd made, letters we'd written, school papers, drawings, etc. I was amazed at how much it brought back. The living room was soon filled with laughter as we took turns reading and showing various treasures we were unearthing.

I was laughing so hard that I had tears streaming down my face as I read my "about the author" at the end of a story I'd written: "My name is Andrea. I like to pick beans."

What!? Where in the world did that come from? So much for the more traditional "I have a dog" or "I like to ride my bike." Bean-picking all the way.

Soon I was discovering little indications, in those early writings, of the person I would later become. For instance, Gretchen found a book that she and I had written together, and the dedication page said: "This book is dedicated to people who say hi to people they don't even know."

I found this little essay from second grade: "Someday I'm going to be a techer. I will be a nice techer. I will give the girls ponys and book and candy for thare dirthday. I will live in a Machon. [Teacher with a mansion. Riiiight.] I will give the boys machboxes and gi joe stuff and candy for thare birthday... I will be vary fun. the end"

I found many things I'd written about friends: Jenny, Timmy, Rosie and Craig factored in regularly. "Me and Craig made up a sog. It wus abot The Snow." I would like to claim some credit for Craig's more recent musical achievements, because I was obviously very instrumental in getting him started.

I found several letters from both Melissa and Claire. Melissa (whose letters were dictated through her father or mother, since she was about three at the time) wondered what I had had for dinner: oatmeal or oranges? My school writing assignments had many references to happy visits to Rhode Island. "We played all day. We played outdoors and we played in. We had all the fun we could."

Claire wrote to me when I had the chicken pox, and I have never seen so many exclamation points in one place in my life. I have no doubt I was very cheered by it. I also found a secret code we had made up for our secret game, and number seven was "let's hide from K." Ironically enough, Kimberly was reading this one out loud without having read it through first, and this part brought a little howl of protest.

I also discovered early signs of familial loyalty and protectiveness. I suggested that we put the following sign on our door: "The answer is yes or no. Which ever you want. Please don't knock unless you must. My father is sick of it. After all its the SABBATH." And there were also early evidences of later friendships with siblings, despite the above paragraph.

Mama found this list of my age 9 ambitions:
1. Cashier
2. Nurse
3. Teacher
4. Table Captain

Actually, go back and read that list with about a 3 minute pause between number 3 and number 4. That is about how long it took Mama to stop laughing enough to read it out loud.

It was a fun, fascinating evening of revisiting my childhood. I went to bed with the overwhelming feeling that I had had the happiest of childhoods.