![]() Here is a photo outside our first home in Fredonia. I'm not sure what the occasion for flowers, albeit fake ones, was. Photos were saved for special occasions. ![]() My sister and I in the coolest house ever. I do not recall that crazy floral wall paper, but I loved those columns. It's time to celebrate another year traveling around the sun and all I could think about is "I wish I could call my mom." After all, without her, I wouldn't be here. She's not with us anymore and I can't express how many times I say to myself, "I have to call my mom."
It was a pleasant and low-key weekend with the exception of a visit from Lucy and Oliver (and their parents) on Sunday. We baked and ate to our heart's content. It was all good. The farther from my childhood I travel, the closer the memories of those days become. Working with a variety of ages can be a challenge. Someone pointed out to me that I am 40 years older than some of our youth directors. Nice. Thanks for the reminder. I already feel like I am fading, fading, fading from the workforce. IT'S A GOOD THING. I'm ready to turn the world over to people with new ideas and energy. I want to focus on my creative side and writing. Something I cannot accept easily is how difficult it is to be a child in today's world. Yes, I have grandchildren that are even younger than the people I work with. The stories I hear. With social media and cell phones, they will never ever experience the freedom we had as children. When walking to school the biggest danger to our lives was only what we could cook up in our own minds. Playing make-believe and climbing trees. Pretending to jump off a cliff that I later realized was a mere rise in the schoolyard. But add an enormous snowbank and some recesses and we were having a ball. We would stop and watch the birds in the fields, flush crayfish from their homes in the slough we passed by; picked Pasque flowers in the spring when the earth was waking up. I loved to go to school in the chill of the morning and break the thin layers of ice coating the water puddles. The cracking sound, the crooked spider-web designs all the while trying not to get my shoes wet. You know, I probably only owned one pair at that time. We knew all the children in town and either played together or not, depending on the day. Yes, there was one youngster in my class that licked the flag pole. It must have been really painful cause he couldn't talk very well until it healed. We took turns putting up the flag, taking it down at the end of the day and folding it properly for storage. Once school was out we experienced summer to its fullest. From the time we got up in the morning until supper, we ran wild around the town. Everything seemed so large and city blocks seemed so long. Nowadays, everyone is under lock and key and followed by cameras and never going anywhere without a "snack." There's no real dark, or quiet anymore; ours is a world far removed from the electronic age. Boy, where do we go from here? Because I need to get back to work, I have to end my reminiscing and make use of this tool that allows me to connect with people miles apart. My plan, however, is to disconnect as soon as possible and go back to the garden. The best part of my birthday is timing. The end of March, the weather warming. Time to look for April showers and think about planting veggies and flowers. Until next time.
1 Comment
Carmen
4/1/2019 09:51:44 pm
I can so relate. Took me back to the simple fun of stepping onto thin sheets of ice and hearing the crackle underfoot. I loved the feeling of my cold cheeks and breathing the fresh clean air. I miss being a kid, but no, I wouldn’t want to be a kid today. Too much technology and not enough imagination. And the violence! Violence in games, on the news, everywhere! On the farm the most violence I knew was watching my grandma chopping the heads off chickens and feeling like I was being chased by headless chickens!
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Sue B. Balcom
Writing, or maybe talking, comes naturally to me and under the guidance of a great newspaper editor I have acquired skills that led me to author four books. Archives
January 2023
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