Michael Kay’s voice coming from the radio of my dad’s rusty silver Plymouth Breeze on a summer afternoon while my brother and I pull weeds from the flower beds is the quintessence of my childhood.
If it wasn’t Michael Kay, it was John Sterling announcing “THEEEEE YANKEES WIN!!!!”
There are certain things about my childhood that I can picture so vividly and evoke the most intense feeling of nostalgia within me. When I was little, I never wanted to grow up. I always told my parents I wanted to stay young and live with them forever.
Unfortunately, I did grow up. And living with my parents forever is no longer a viable option for my career plans. But I do still like to think back to those moments from my childhood when I need a reminder of simpler times.
I often sit and close my eyes and reimagine myself in many of the following moments:
- My brother and I eating mac and cheese with cut-up hot dogs in it at a little wooden table drinking milk out of a Strawberry Shortcake cup.
- Dancing in the dining room with my dad and brother to “Change” by John Waite blaring from the computer speakers.
- Listening to WBEE with Terry, Steve and Newman in the car on the way to school with my mom and brother.
- Going to the Unique Toy Shop on Main Street just to look at the toys and play with them in the store but never buy them.
- Laying in my parents’ bed watching “Dancing with the Stars” with my mom before bedtime.
- Piling in my grandma’s Grand Caravan with my brother and cousins to get Happy Meals from McDonald’s just to play with the toys.
- Putting a CD in my bathroom radio before taking a shower (I still remember exactly where my “21” by Adele CD skips on the song “He Won’t Go”).
- My brother and I hiding behind boogie boards while my mom tried to spray us with the hose.
- Waking up on my birthday to a present next to my pillow.
- Whizzing back and forth around my lawn with my brother while my dad tried to throw a football at us (we used to beg him to do this, and I don’t know why).
- Lightsaber battling my brother in the side yard.
- Roller-skating with my cousin in my neighbor’s driveway.
- Sleeping with a spoon under my pillow, my pajamas inside out and ice cubes in the toilet hoping for a snow day.
- Waking up to afternoon light on a weekday when we did get a snow day.
- Laying on the couch waiting for my dad to dump clothes that had just come out of the dryer on me.
- Getting pedicures with my mom at laughing at the “massage” they would give us as our toes dried.
- Trying and failing to play “Star Wars Battlefront” on the PS2 (also all the LEGO Harry Potter and LEGO Star Wars games).
- Sleeping back-to-back with my mom in her bed on Fridays before my dad carried me to bed in the middle of the night.
- Playing mum on long car rides and almost always losing first because I couldn’t hold in my laughs.
- Filming silly movies with my cousin on iMovie.
- Going to the drive-in at the Charcoal Corral and getting to watch two movies in a row after a night of pizza, mini golf, and arcade games.
- Watching “Night at the Museum” for the nth time because it was one of the only movies we had in the car (bring back car DVD players!!!)
- Calling family meetings in my bedroom to discuss fake family beef (I was just bored and liked to organize meetings).
- Building forts with couch cushions and blankets in the living room.
- Family board game nights – “Apples to Apples”, “Tumblin’ Monkeys”, “Headbandz”, “Racko”, etc.
- The feeling of pride that came from having an A+ paper or test hung on the refrigerator.
- Exchanging Valentine’s with everyone in your class and then getting home and looking through the candy you got.
- Playing “Webkinz” on the desktop computer and perfectly arranging my pets’ bedrooms.
- Helping my mom and dad grade their students’ papers.
- Going to Ithaca for weekend trips.
- Pretending to fall asleep in the car so I could be carried inside.
- Sitting in my bedroom telling my dad stories while he wrote them down.
- Trying to stay perfectly still when a commercial came on when Mom said I had to go to bed at the next commercial break.
There are a million other things I could write and maybe for my own satisfaction, I’ll keep adding to this list as moments continue to come to my mind. It’s nice to have a record of these things to look back on. I miss these simpler times when my family lived under one roof, Barack Obama was in office, and summer was a time of true zero responsibility.
I don’t mean to live in the past – obviously I don’t want to miss what’s coming for me. But as I’m nearing graduation and about to take that step into official adulthood, it is comforting to know that I have a safe place to return to that is full of great memories of some of the best times of my life.