tiny memories (we all have 'em)

[Judy Thompson]

the sound of the RedSox on the radio, prop. planes droning slowly overhead, summer in the city

 

the way roller skates ran differently on different kinds of sidewalks

 

double dutch jump rope

 

tetherball in the school yard at recess

 

lemonade and viciously hard gingersnaps on the shadowy cool porch at Mrs. Hanchett's

 

what Christmas smelled like

[Simon Halliday]

Christmas smells (which I believe you can now buy in aerosol cans in those 'Christmas Stores' which mysteriously appear in malls from time to time).

Ah ! The viciously hard ginger snap; and that about sums it up. Well done.

[Judy Thompson]

My mother used to use Ivory Flakes (dreadful stuff, it burned your hands) mixed with a small amount of water, to make a thick paste, and we would glob this stuff on the branches of the Christmas tree. It did look a great deal like snow;   the smell mingled  with the scent of the tree itself, and has become embedded  in my memory as the Way Christmas Should Smell.   Interesting, everyone comments on the roller skates.  I love that, and thank you.

[bolton carley]

this is so poetic.  love that about it.  and i can hear the rollerskates.

[Angela]

The roller skates connected me to this post.  Nice glimpses into your past.

[Mike Handley]

Ah, the smell of Christmas! The perfect way to put it.

[Judy Thompson]

I was a country kid, Toby, spent two years in the city and loved it. I cried when we moved back to the country. Without that two years Id have never had rollerskates, or a bicycle, or those amazing girlfriends, or double dutch jumprope.
When we left, it was time , and looking back, it was enchanted. Everyone needs that kind of time to remember.

I never was interested in baseball at that age, but my dad was, and I can still hear Curt Gowdy calling the games as a kind of background music to whatever I was doing. "A swing and a miss. Strike three."

No one did it better.

I didnt say I liked gingersnaps, and I hated lemonade too, but when you went visiting you ate what they gave you and said "oh, it's my favorite". =)

[Ron. Lavalette]

I didn't have the attention span for radio baseball, counted on the sporadic outbursts of the grown men to keep me updated on the action.

Very cool list.  Not many of them my memories, but I musta been smellin the same Christmas.  You rock, JT.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

I, too, loved the roller skate memory.  I wonder if we kids who grew up in a city have more vivid (and exciting) memories of our childhood than the rural kids.

[Joey Delgado]

I love all of them, especially your second line. I, too, remember the click roll click roll as the wheels of my roller skates hit the cracks in  the sidewalk. A nice snapshot into your childhood.

[Teresa]

These make me miss those days, though I never liked gingersnaps.  Make those peanut butter cookies and I'm in.  Number one was a thorough sensory hit.  Very nice.