God I used to go through bowls....wait...i still do...hmm..

I miss not having to watch every word I say.
Not being aware of how I look.
Not spending every spare minute thinking, planning, worrying.


That one's the wierdest. I remember the first time I looked in a mirror and it registered that that was...me.

Horse riding camps, endless school holidays full of mucking about that always dissipeared before you knew it. Entire weeks spent building lego worlds, I'm talking turning entire rooms into gigantic spaceports or pirate bases. Building bases, tree forts, various ingenious pieces of weaponary, day-long waterpistol fights. I miss my supersoaker50.

All bought back to me recently by visiting my best friend from my first few years of school who left when we were 7 or so, moved to Oman then England, tailing his dad's job in the Oil biz.

Roadtrips to Florida for vacation. Piling into the car, the family would somehow make the trek the hundreds and hundreds of miles to get deep into the center of the state or visit the beach. The smell of the air conditioner in the hotel was intoxicating (literally -- it might have been leaking) and that scent still reminds me of summers now gone. The beach, Disney, hotel swimming pools... and people call me crazy for moving to FL.

There is nothing that can quite compare to enjoying a good solid three months of summer vacation. Screw school, screw responsibilities -- just riding the bike for no damn reason until you nearly collapsed, water gun fights into the night that was illuminated by lightning bugs, and the ability to willingly get up early on Saturday to stare at bad animation for several hours.

I miss washing the car with Dad, who was pleased to have my help even if I did scratch the paint a couple times or "accidentally" sprayed him with the hose.

Without a doubt, I still live a lot of these experiences because I choose to. How boring is it, I mean, to be an adult and act as one? Fuck that -- give me the remote so I can put on cartoons and pass me that box of Coco Puffs. There are two things that I simply cannot relive because, well, you just can't: the amazing feeling of awe on discovering something for the first time (all the way from Dad giving me my first pocket knife to the glorious moment of getting my learner's permit to drive) and the time spent as a child with my parents who were surprisingly tolerant of my nagging questions, injuries, and screw-ups that resulted in property damage. If I could have anything back, it'd be the ability to rewind and experience those events all over again.

That one's the wierdest. I remember the first time I looked in a mirror and it registered that that was...me.

It was even worse for me, today -- when I woke up I was a year older when I looked in the mirror. I realized that not only is that person in the mirror me, but I'm going to continue on an unstoppable ride into old age and eventually die.

Shit. I'll be in my pillow-fort if you need me.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're older still.

TIME! Is marching on.
And time.. is still marching on.
This day will soon be at an end and now it's even sooner.
And now it's even sooner.
And now it's even sooner.
This day will soon be at an end and now it's even sooner.
And now it's even sooner.
And now it's sooner still.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.
And now you're even older.

You're older than you've ever been.
And now you're even older.
And now you're older still.
- They Might Be Giants

Jebus you just described my perrenial insomniac nightmare!

funny lyrics.

Is the song funny? I've never heard it.

I envy you. I cannot recall ever not being conscious of how I looked. I had a very very severe and disfiguring skin condition throughout my childhood....and also (less severely)a largish chunk of my adulthood. ...*grins* consequently I feel wholly justified in my newfound vanity. I consider that this duckling grew into a swan:P

That description of being a bike ridin kid with no schedule except food and play made me smile OC , I recognise much of that . It also reminded me of somethin else I loved....Judy Blume's books

I had a very very severe and disfiguring skin condition throughout my childhood

Noting the above, I think its important we put this whole "missing one's childhood" into perspective. I mean, what about all the things you don't miss about childhood? What about forced, crappy education? What about bullies, that "tasty" school lunch you had to eat everyday, and the lack of freedom to go places? And who can forget the demands placed on you in your early teenage years to look and act a certain way? Oh, the joys of forced conformity and exclusion from certain social groups! Bleh.

Not much different than adulthood, admittedly.

OOoh ... cross country car trips before car seats were mandatory, and seat belts were in cars but you never used them ... laying in the "wayback" part of the station wagon, with a coloring book, a blanket, a box of 64 Crayolas and a bag of Cheetos.

That was the life.

wow... thanks folks I was feeling somewhat chipper 'til I read all of this..

My friends and I would spend the entire day in the woods down by the river... just running around.. playing 'army' (bb guns, low pumps no headshots) riding bikes.. whatever.. and never ever did it cross our minds to be afraid (except for when it was getting dark out :) .. stay off the Moors...that movie still kinda freaks me out) the thing that I was wondering though.. are there really more psychos/perverts etc. now than there were then or does it just get more press? (scaring people sells papers..)

ah. saturday morning cartoons.. everynow and again I lament the lack of decent cartoons, I mean some of the newer ones (samuri jack, powerpuff girls, animaniacs etc.) are good.. they just don't hold a cande to the old hannah-barbera (sp?) looney toons cartoons.. or the original 'land of the lost' (eek! sleestax!) and sigmund the seamonster.. H.R.Puffinstuff (yeah, not cartoons.. but surealistic enough they might as well have been).


mmmm.. dry cereal... boo-berry...

Memories...

Before we moved "in town", I'd spend my days off visiting friends or riding around with them on my Welsh pony... Cowboys and Indians is a lot more fun from horseback :)

After we moved, it was going to the lbrary to check out a grocery sack full of books (25 or 30) dumping them into the basket on the bike, and then riding home. Spend all day every day reading them and return them all a week later and get the next batch. {sigh} I never have time to read now.

I have to agree with BryanD about the horseback riding. When I was young we lived on a little farm about an hour out of town by horseback. Every once and while, my mother, my sister, and I would take the horses (well two ponies and a horse) and head into town via the back trails, or just decide to wander for a bit.

I used to love those rides.

going on family road trips to all of the national parks.

Both my parents were teachers for a while, so we would have three months off in the summer. we'd spend at least one on the road to somewhere.

-sm

The lack of bills...oh do I miss those days.