“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”

“The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remaining over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves"

Memories of a childhood...

Bedtime stories: There are certain children’s books that I have clear memory of from my childhood, my mother would read to my sister and I a lot when we were growing up. My favorite books... One Kitten for Kim, Where the Wild Things , Goodnight Moon, and Tikki Tikki Tembo (my dad used to read me this one). I wonder if parents still take the time to read to their children. It seems like too often it is easier to turn on the tv, computer, or video game and allow a child to zone out rather than take the time to read and encourage creative thinking in a young child’s mind...I have to assume that my love for reading and writing partly spawned from my parents reading to me at night and discouraging television and video games.

Playing outside: Again something I don’t see many children or teenagers doing a lot of today. As a young kid growing up on East Tall Timbers and Greentree Drive, I was always outside, exploring the woods, playing sports, building forts. When I lived on East Tall Timbers , we were one of the first houses to be built on the street, so the whole neighborhood was mostly forest. There was also a small pond where cattails and pussy willows grew. I would constantly be outside playing near the pond, embarking on a journey into the woods, building lean to’s. When I was really young, my dad would put me on his back and take me cross country skiing into these woods. Nature at its purest... a fresh blanket of snow covering a New England forest, the only sounds one hears is the snow slowly falling onto the ground, my dad would be slowly prodding through the woods on his skis. I have seen pictures of this in our old family photo albums, its the type of picture that makes me want children, to have those special moments with.

Even in high middle school and high school I was outside, in our families second house there was miles of trails in our neighborhood that my friends and I would hike. We always discovered something new, a hidden cave or crevice, a small creek or pond, once we discovered these orange and green rocks which were in perfect triangles buried into the ground. We thought we had discovered gold. Many times we would sleep outside in a tree house or makeshift cabin, scaring ourselves with stories and eerie sounds.

Family Vacations: Despite being very dysfunctional at times, our family took a family vacation once or twice every year. I was lucky as a kid to see so much of the U.S.... North Captiva, the Blue Ridge Mts, the Outer Banks, Grand Tetons, Quiche Gorge, Kennebunkport are just a few of my favorite childhood vacation spots. We would fill a week or two with tennis, golf, basketball, sailing, hiking, or boating. My family was always outdoor and exercise oriented. I call my dad Clark Griswold, because like my favorite vacation character, he always wanted to make the most of the day/vacation. Up and adam early in the morning, fit as much activity into the day as possible, get a good nights rest. My dad and I still take a vacation every year in March and its much of the same thing... I want to lay on the beach, read, and relax. My dad wants to do his version of a triathlon... bike, tennis , golf, or swim. At night however he is ready to paint the town, go out, stay up late, while I am the one who doesn’t mind going to bed early. My father though has become my best friend because of these vacations, and i am forever grateful.