Home Hunting

A few months ago, my Dad sold the home I grew up in and, since I live an ocean away, much of what I had stored there got moved to the new place with him. 

Part of my recent holiday was spent sorting boxes of keepsakes into keep and toss piles, which was surprisingly more emotional for me than I thought it would be.  I have always chosen to take part or to go places rather than to buy things so discovering I was so sentimental came as quite a shock.  I dug through a mass of books, school assignments, posters, cassette tapes, playbills, ticket stubs, favourite toys as well as boxes of items made by my grandparents, given to me by family, and created by my mother. It struck me that all that I kept reminded me of what made me who I am.  Unfortunately, some of it had been damaged beyond repair. Other items just seemed too silly to keep. 

Celebrating the Fourth

It’s the Fourth of July today and I’m thankful the weather is sunny and warm, bringing back some wonderful childhood memories.  Camping often coincided with the holiday.  My parents took me camping when I was about nine months old and by the time I was old enough to remember any of it they were seasoned campers, complete with a home-made food box that transformed the trunk of our car into a well organized pantry.  The car and trailer would be packed in expert tetris style, each item having a special place to go so that everything would fit.  The cloth bags for the various necessities had unspoken color codes; the blue one held kitchen foil and trash bags, the red one for beach towels. Amongst them was a brown bag, full of toys and games saved especially for camping.  Part of setting up the campsite was creating a matchbox town for our dirt caked cars to reside.

We always packed books, crayons, and various other bits and pieces that could keep us busy when it rained, which it inevitably would at some point during the stay, but ultimately we were outside as much as possible.  We had treats like chocolate pancakes, gorp, s’mores.  I thought my Dad was the smartest man ever when he cut my mini cereal box open, poured milk in it, and let me eat straight out of it – a cardboard cereal bowl? Genius.