Until this weekend I think that I believed that my childhood lasted for about thirty years; from birth until the age of 16. erm yes, I know the maths doesn't really add up. And actually Mum doesn't really believe that I have grown up at all (although I refute this, I have to admit that the evidence is on her side - I got Playmobil for Christmas and J came home with robots for me the other day.... but I digress) My reasoning goes thus; I remember doing many different activities, each one for a very long time, I had lots of toys each of which I played with for decades. I went to three primary schools and was convinced that I went to each for about three years. So you see, when you look at it like that my maths was not so skewed. But this weekend I popped into my parents attic to find some more age-appropriate toys for my own two children, and then it happened, I started opening boxes, finding memories and re-calculating my age. It went something like this; "Wow here's my brownie uniform, oh I was living in Berlin then so I must have been 8ish and I went for YEARS, we did LOADS of stuff and then when I went to guides I was SOOOO grown up and mature, I must have been, what 16? Or there abouts - ah yes here's my guide handbook, let me see I was ....10!!!!! I was 10!! Noooooooooo 10 is still little!! But I was so BIG when I went up to guides, quick close the box"
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| The 'uniforms' suitcase |
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Next box "oohhh pony riding stuff, yippee, the rosettes I won, the speical badge to wear as a "helper" for the show - oh yeah, that was when we were allowed to tend a stall over the lunch break, and here's my sweatshirt for riding, dear me Mum must have shrunk it in the wash it's tiny, but I was nearly fully grown by then, what with riding and taking part in shows and being trusted to sell things to people, Heeeey here's the programme let's have a look at the date......... AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH I was 11" And so on. And then the toys....... I now realise that I must only have played with some of them for a few years, maybe sometimes only a couple of years.. but they seemed to last for decades. Anyway, painful as it was I now realise two things, a lifetime is exactly that when you are a child, the whole of your life, and it needs to be filled with fun and activities and memories in the making. And secondly; don't open boxes.