Childhood Memories

It had been a while. You know those feelings we all had when we were a little kids. It's the feeling we got when we were at the peak of excitement doing the very thing we loved the most. For each of us, it was different. For some it was the wooden gun that had the like-real bolt action. For others it was teaching themselves to hit a volleyball against the side of their dad's garage. Well, this past month, I've been blessed to be reintroduced to two of my childhood loves.

As some of you know, my second job is working as a substitute teacher. This job allows me the opportunity to get caught up on fire department literature, practice my instructor capacities, and be home with my family at the very best hours of the day. Another thing that I get to witness is what the youth of today enjoy. Usually this depresses me--rap music, self-depressing poetry, cars to get away from cops, and drugs. Two incidents during the month of April gave me a little hope.

The first occurred at Bostic Elementary. I was subbing for a gifted class and it was time for them to begin silent sustained reading. Without hesitation, a little brown-haired girl pulled out a book that made my heart jump. Hank the Cowdog. For an instant I was taken back. Back to the days when our library first got this series and I spent hours reading about Hank and his sidekick Drover and the lame-brained escapades that occured on their Texas farm. Various parts of Dickerson's stories flooded my mind; taking a bath in the sewage lagoon, being convinced that he could capture the giant flying bird (air force bomber), and getting the crap beat out of him by many other dogs (I remember a boxer did him in quite well). Oh, the realities of growing up on my dad's farm began to come through and for a second I was back there out in the south pasture.

Once the brown-haired girl could get her book back from me, I realized I needed to return back to that time of innocence and adventure. I bought a lot of 10 Hank the Cowdog books that night on eBay!!!

The second memory-jumping experience occured this past Wednesday. I was subbing for a interrelated class for special needs students (elementary level). After looking through the lesson plans, the teacher wrote, 'If these don't work, just give them some crossword puzzles to do.' I laughed to myself and thought how this was a complete waste. But then I saw their subject. The very first puzzle made my heart jump even higher than seeing a Hank the Cowdog book. The crossword was entirely devoted to ... DINOSAURS.

Many of you will not understand the fascination, but as a kid I was infatuated with them. I even expected my kindgarden teacher to look up how to spell "paleontologist," because at age six all I wanted to do was dig up dinosaur bones. I had dinosaur books, posters, action figures, drawings, videos, computer games, and an imagination that convinced me every day that there was a Dienonychus constantly stalking me on the farm. It was one of the greatest periods of my life. I'm sad that it is not still a part of me.



But that sadness was soon removed. I grabbed an orange highlighter and within five minutes I had completed the crossword finding monsters such as Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Allosaurus. I kept that crossword. It is in the book I'm currently reading. I plan on keeping it as a reminder of the fun and dreams I had as a kid. Everytime I've seen it, I just get a big smile on my face and think to myself, 'Where is that Dienonychus now?'

I hope you, too, some day will run across the things that made your childhood come alive. There are few better feelings in this world.