Spending time on the beach with my family. My mom was there, my grandmother, my grandfather, and if we were lucky my uncle and my aunt was there too. I have quite a couple of memories like this. Building sand castles. Splashing in the waves. Running after the guy selling ice cream on the beach. My grandfather taking me into 'the big sea', where there weren't any life guards or shark nets. I trusted him with all my heart to protect me though, I wasn't ever afraid. He held onto me so tight, no wave could take me away, and I loved it!
Then there are the memories of the time spent in Pretoria-North, playing in the Avocado tree at the house I grew up in during Primary School. Playing with my friends. Family time spent together. The big Christmas party's we had there. The huge swimming pool and all the games I played. My imagination went wild! There were countless times of running after the ice cream truck driving past our house because my grandfather sent me out with money, but I couldn't let my grandma see me because my grandfather wasn't allowed to eat the ice cream because he was sick. But he did it anyway. I loved it! Our hands dripping with ice cream because it was so hot it melted almost instantly sometimes. All the trouble I got into at the house was fun too! Like the time I threw a whole 5L ice cream bowl, full of sea shells, in the pool during winter, and my grandmother and mom and to get it out before my grandfather saw it. Or the time I played 'Green Peace' with my Avo tree when they wanted to cut down a couple of branches that were hanging over the neighbor's house. I chained myself to the tree and refused to budge. There was the time I ran away, the time my cat got into his first fight and we had to 'fix' him straight after. The times my dogs got into fights and the day my grandfather told me that he had to put one of them down. I remember the biltong hanging in the garage and always trying to steal a piece, dinner being at a certain time and the yummy breakfast's and lunches my grandmother always made me.
And even before that are the memories of me learning to swim and terrorizing the guards at our house in Waterkloof (I was an army brat!). The Christmas' we spent there and the parties we had. The crystal chandelier I always wanted to catch, but was too short to even come close to. The memories at Omdloti, in Durban, before school and during, fill me up the most.
The times my mom took me out, just the two of us. The stories she told me and they way I could always talk to her, depend on her, laugh with her, share with her. I still can.
I miss my childhood memories. The shaped me into the person I am today, along with all the hardships and pain, the happiness and rainbows. I wouldn't trade any of it for the world!
What about you??
2 comments:
Is it silly that I don't remember much of my childhood? (And, that most of my memories I do have aren't particularly happy or beloved?)
I think, the memories I hold closest to my heart are the small, simple ones.
Having conversations with teachers (even if I am only now beginning to understand what they were trying to tell me.)
Creating Christmas cards for people, looking out the window as snow falls in silence.
And, perhaps, lying in a grass field with a girl, staring up at a starry sky.
It's kind of... sad. Well I think so only because I have so many. But I really like that you remember the small things. Those are the things that count, I think.
=)
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