For You

This blog is for you.

A few days ago I took my 85 year old mother to visit her 81 year old first cousin.

He was born on her fourth birthday. They were close as children, maybe because of that, and also Mother is an only child, so she was exceptionally close to her cousins.

They reminisced a bit about their childhood.

One of their memories was walking away from their grandparent's house (and his parent's home nearby), down a dirt road to fetch the mail. They had to cross a foot log over a creek to get to the mailbox, as that was as close as the post office would deliver at that time.

Mother was (and is) afraid of water, so she refused to walk the foot log and made her cousin do it. Since he was (and is) four years younger, I'm sure he was easily bossed.

He also talked about hearing Mother and her parents arriving way up the road. My grandfather always had a fairly new car, and they could hear it coming, and then he'd be blowing the horn. He always brought them candy or chewing gum. This was a special treat, as they lived way out in the country and gum nor candy was easy to come by.

Life was certainly different in many ways back in the 1930's, just as it was different in the 1960's, when I was very small. And like it was in the 1990's when Daughter was very small.

Time changes things all the time. Always has, always will.

But there are also some things that never change. Like 8 year olds bossing 4 year olds.

So, take a moment and go back to your own childhood and think about a simple, ordinary moment of your own, and cherish it. Because it belongs to no one but you and you must keep it fresh or it will be gone forever.

This blog is for you.