Thank you for your childhood...

Sometimes I miss Mayberry*. I didn’t grow up in Mayberry, but I would have to say by all accounts my childhood was “Mayberry-ish”. When I think back (that makes me sound old) about what we did as kids, the activities we engaged in, the things that we thought were so fun, and what “mattered most” I have to wonder if Michael will be satisfied with the same type of childhood I had. I know his wont be the same, and that he will grow up in a different time, but I wonder if our stories will just sound old fashioned. In honor of days gone by, here are just a few childhood moments that popped into my head this week.

When I was a kid there was a grocery store on the other side of town called “Ralph’s”. We didn’t go there often because it was across town, but during school break after trips to the library my mom would take us. There wasn’t anything exceptional about this store except for the candy aisle. They had all the normal packaged candy, but they also had candy in bulk… lots of fun candy. Unlike most places they charged one flat per pound price for all the candy, which meant that you could mix whatever you wanted in your bag and pay for it all once. We had to pay for the candy out of our allowance which meant that not only did you have to save your money for these trips, but you also had to bring it with you and limit your selection to what you could afford. Standing in the candy aisle was always both fun and overwhelming, there were just so many choices and you had to be careful not to mix the wrong flavors- sour candies and mints didn’t go, chocolate was just heavy and picked up other flavors, and gum… well that was just lame. My youngest brother and sister always went straight for the sprinkle filled fruit shaped gumballs- they loved these. My other brother went straight for the sour straws, sour belts, and sour patch kids, and me, I went for the pastel melty mints. After we made our selection, we would head to the checkout, count out our coins, and head home, home was where the real fun began. Home meant trading, despite each of us having the opportunity to pick out and purchase our own candy trading always occurred. Sometimes trades were fair, and sometimes they weren’t, sometimes one person would end up with a ton more candy, sometimes one person would steal from the others, and sometimes my mom threatened not to take us back (usually because someone cried, screamed, or was grumpy from too much sugar), but all in all it was great fun… cheap (because I think we were limited to $2 worth), safe, and entertaining.

My San Diego grandparents love buffets and on occasion (usually when everyone did well on their report cards) my parents would load us in the minivan and we would go to lunch with my grandparents at a buffet. While buffets don’t appeal to me now, as I child I loved them. There were no rules about what to eat when we went with our grandparents, granted everyone’s favorite choice was “Souplantation” or “Sweet Tomatoes” which if you haven’t ever been is a fairly healthy place. If you wanted to eat 12 corn muffins, 2 pieces of pizza, and 3 frozen yogurt cones that was okay. If you wanted a salad that was just mini corns, olives, and noodles, that was okay too. If you wanted 5 bowls of soup and nothing else that was an option. We loved buffets, we thought they were more delicious and exciting that home. This was the one place where we could choose our own meals and didn’t have to share- we rarely ever went out to eat, and when we did we always had to share (no kids meals for our family). Going out to eat with my grandparents also meant that you had to sit and make polite conversation with the adults, behave yourself, and on occasion meet some of my grandparents’ friends- while today this doesn’t sound like a ton of fun, I thought it was great and looked forward to going.

During the summers we used to play an incredibly dangerous game we named "Surfin' USA". In order to play you need a large raised trampoline, a costco sized bottle of dish detergent, and a hose. Basically you wet down the trampoline, cover it with a thick layer of soap, then run the hose over it while you run and then jump/slide across and scream "surfin' USA". Yes people get hurt when they play this game... sometimes people fall off the trampoline, get stuck in the sides, and get horrible "rug" burn, but it was an adventure.

Someday Michael will think my stories are dumb, he probably wont think that these activities and experiences are as appealing as I remember them, but I liked them. In the words of the “Giver”, “Thank you for your childhood”.

*Question: What is “Mayberry” a reference to? Hint: there is a song and a TV show.