Childhood is a strange country. It’s a place you come from or go to – at least in your mind. For me it has an endless, spellbound something in it that feels remote. It’s like a little sealed-vault country of cake breath and grass stains where what you do instead of work is spin until you’re dizzy. Lyall Bush
Executive director of Richard Hugo House, a center for writers and readers.
Found on the side of a Starbucks coffee cup, my sister’s and my eyes teared as we remembered our childhood in reading this quote. I remember in the summer time playing a game with my best friend, Melanie: The Spinning Game. We would spin until one fell down. If you fell down you could not get up until all but one was left standing. The last one spinning won the game. I can still smell the summer air, and see the lightning bugs as the sun was setting, and we were spinning ourselves sick…. and having the time of our lives.
I then wanted to share that with my daughters. Their laughter at simply spinning as fast as they can is such a joyful sound I cannot replace. While childhood may be a country that once you move away you can never be a citizen again, with your children and grandchildren you can visit now and again. Just don’t forget to visit before they move away, too.
What is your favorite childhood memory?