Childhood Memories – Zuzu and Papa

August 24, 2012June 18, 2013

High School

I went to open house at the high school last night. I had such a nostalgic feeling as I walked through the halls and smelled the science lab and the gym. Do you remember the smell of the gym? That floor wax smell? It hasn’t changed a bit.

There are all kinds of new gadgets and gizmos that weren’t around 30 years ago when I was in high school, but basically, kids are the same. They’re trying to find their place. They’re trying not to stand out or be different. Well, most of them anyway.

I got a little excited as I walked from class to class to meet the teachers. What was my teacher (my daughter’s teacher) going to be like? Should I sit in the front or the back? I found myself sending my daughter a text when I found out that she was having two tests today. “You’re having a Spanish test! Are you studying?”

And another text, “Oh, my goodness, sweetie! You’re having a vocab test in English! Are you studying?”

The reply: “Mom. Yes.”

If I had to go back and ‘do’ high school all over again, with the wisdom I have gained through the years, I would tell myself to branch out some. I wouldn’t be so afraid of the ‘potheads’ or the kids who smoked outside. I would get to know more people.

I would most definitely put a little more effort into my work. I made good grades, but I could have made better. I could have pushed myself more.

I would tell myself to not worry so much about fashion or style or where my friends bought their clothes.

But, all that stuff was important then and it’s still important now to teenagers. It may take them 30 years to realize that what really mattered was how they treated people. That’s what they will remember.

July 9, 2012June 18, 2013

Playhouses

My sister and I cultivated our housekeeping skills at an early age by always keeping a ‘playhouse’ somewhere in the house and outside. We would set up play areas here and there, usually with Barbie dolls and baby dolls in the house. One special place I remember in the basement was at the bottom of the stairs, underneath the stairwell, in between the stairs and the hot water heater. There was a piece of furniture that made the third wall of our playhouse and a ledge under the steps. This was a fantastic playhouse, especially since we could really hide and hear the goings on of the grown ups while we were carrying on our own little life.

In the summers, things got a lot more elaborate. There was a trail from our house into the woods and we found a relatively flat spot to be our playhouse. There were lots of large grape vines and these were used as couches, beds and shelves. They were also good room partitions for our kitchen and bathroom. We saved Mother’s empty Merle Norman jars and bottles for our playhouse bathroom and carried armloads of empty Campbell’s soup cans and spice jars for our kitchen. Probably these relics are still down there underneath years of leaves.

Imaginative play is so very important for children. I always tried to foster a love of pretend in my little ones. They loved boxes – the bigger the better – and they would have so many adventures in their little hiding places.

Of course, couch cushions were the perfect building materials for their walls and tunnels. I never minded my den being destroyed because I knew the children were using their wonderful imaginations and more importantly, were not watching t.v.! Of course, all the extra blankets were pulled out to make the roofs for the houses and tunnels.

So, here’s to playhouses, clubhouses, forts, tunnels and tree houses! Hours and days spent in wonderful worlds far away.

Mindy Hill said…

I loved the day mom washed the sheets and let us play with the ones she took off the beds. We would make tents like crazy with them. Also, mom would make me Barbie cars, table, etc from the cardboard Tide boxes. I loved those cars so much because she would do a backseat also and four of my Barbies could fix in it.