Meme: 5 Things I Miss
The first time I saw the word “meme” on a blog, I decided it meant “theme about me” (hence the “me” “me”) and was pronounced “meem” to rhyme with theme. Eventually, I looked it up. It’s not in my 1978 dictionary, but the Wikepedia says that “meme,” which comes from the Greek word for memory, stems from a 1976 book by Richard Dawkins, “The Selfish Gene.” Dawkins defined the meme as “a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. But in casual use, the Wikepedia goes on to say, “the term meme often refers to any piece of information passed from one mind to another. This useage more closely resembles the analogy of “language as a virus” than Dawkins’ analogy of memes as replicating units.”
I got tagged with 2 memes over the weekend. This one, which came via JustaskJudy, asks: What 5 Things do you miss about your childhood? But first the rules to this meme game:
Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.
1. Solioquy http://nbond.blogspot.com
2. Lyvvie’s Limelight http://lyvvielimelight.blogspot.com
3. The Cerebral Outpost http://thecerebraloutpost.blogspot.com
4. JustaskJudy http://justaskjudy.blogspot.com
5. Loose Leaf https://looseleafnotes.com
Next: select four new friends to add to the pollen count. (No one is obligated to participate).
1. Lora http://blackcurrantjam.blogspot.com
2. Jeanne http://musingsofamiddle-agedwoman.blogspot.com/
3. Terrilynn http://seaandsky.typepad.com/
4. Sean http://seans.typepad.com
5. Lu http://luann919.blogspot.com
Five Things I Miss About My Childhood
I miss the house I grew up in, 10 ½ Spring Street in Hull, Massachusetts. We moved there from Quincy when I was 5 years old. When I was 20, the town took our property through eminent domain and burned the house to the ground, before building a sewage plant in its place. I still try to remember or imagine all the things I left in my bedroom closet. I am thrilled when I occasionally see the house again, in a dream.
I miss the granite boulder seawall that ran along the ocean in the back of our house. I ran on it, hopping from rock to rock, in my bare feet and never fell, which I think was formative in developing a “surefooted” self-confidence that carried over into some other parts of my life. We made forts in the boulder crevices that we were sure we could live in. We tried to start fires by rubbing two sticks together to heat up cans of soup.
I miss being with all my siblings as children and the sense of belonging I felt as one of nine. I miss the innocence of the prayer we said at night: God Bless Mommy, Daddy, Jimmy, Kathy, Colleen, Danny, Sherry, Johnny, Joey, Bobby, and Tricia…and believing in Santa Claus. I know we fought, like most siblings do, but even that helped to bond us, I think.
I miss the wild things and the land itself where I grew up. The blackberry patch was where I saw my first bat and black willow spider nest. In the winter the marshy land around it would sometimes fill in with water and freeze, and we could ice skate on it. We had forts and a tower and a cemetery, all within view of our house. The ocean ran along the back of our house and the bay was in front. Once, during a storm, we got flooded and the Coast Guard (who were our neighbors) came in rowboats to get us out.
I miss the lazy days of summer and sometimes even being bored. There was time to lie in the grass and watch clouds, or invent games. I miss the jump rope songs we sang and the game called 7-up. All you needed was a ball and a wall to play it. What ever happened to our paper dolls? Sometimes we played “teenager.” We wore sweaters on our heads for long hair and wrapped bath towels around us for skirts. We made glue from flour and water and looked at the Sears catalog for hours, making imaginary orders that felt real to us.
What do you miss about your childhood?
June 14th, 2005 11:07 am
I’d love to paricipate. It will take me a couple days to get it up though. I like the way you did it.
Sears catalogs! We lived overseas and the Sears catalog was one of our few connections back to the US and US products. I use to pour over it making long lists of toys that I just had to have.
June 14th, 2005 11:34 am
I miss nooks and crannies in closets to tell ghost stories in, I miss summers at Nana’s and walks to the corner store, I miss the innocence…luckily, i’m finding that one again in my own kids. ;0)
June 14th, 2005 12:05 pm
what i great post! i cant wait to do this meme!
will post it tomorrow…. 🙂
Lu
June 14th, 2005 1:29 pm
I miss the small dixie cups filled with ice cream we got in the summer in Hingham, especially exciting because the lids had pictures of movie stars on them!
June 14th, 2005 1:57 pm
I miss all those memories too for we share the same. Thanks for bringing them to mind.
BTW, I thought I was the one who found the bat stuck in the blackberry patch. Were you with me? I remember how embarrased I felt when I went around the neighborhood to gather together as many kids as I could find to come look at it…a REAL bat. When we all got back it was gone and no one believed me.
And remember too, if we didn’t have paperdolls we made our own. AND – I love the blog pyramid idea.
I think I’ll do it tomorrow or the next day over at my place.
Kathy
June 14th, 2005 3:08 pm
Colleen, an interesting and nostalgic piece, some of which we share. Sears Catalog was my wish book too, and I made my own paper dolls from it. I had real paper dolls too, of course, and played them for hours and hours. J&J’s mom reminds me that our group used to get into dark closets and tell ghost stories, scaring each other to death even if we had heard the stories a hundred times. Thanks for posting your meme.
June 14th, 2005 4:34 pm
I miss my childhood home as well. My parents could never really understand why I always missed it when we moved into a bigger/better house when I was 14. I tried to explain to them that bigger doesnt always mean better. That a part of me will always be in/with that little house I grew up in. It had my strawberry shortcake stickers plastered to the walls, I carved my name into the bed and the walls, I left pieces of me all through out my room. It was part of who I was. Even as a child.
You have managed to take a me me and turn it into a beautiful peice of writing 🙂
Ivy..
June 15th, 2005 6:33 am
What lovely imagery you have created here. I’m so glad you got tagged by Kenju. Bad enough I cheated on mine and added an extra person to the “please come out and play” list… I secretly wanted to add about 10 more!
It’s so nice to see that you had a charming childhood. Great stuff!
June 15th, 2005 7:17 am
I love this post. I’m so glad Kenju tagged you for it. Even though I cheated on mine and tagged five people, I would really like to have tagged about 10.
It’s lovely to see that you had such a warm and charming childhood. Great job!
June 15th, 2005 7:19 am
OH great. I meant to comment only once, but when I went back to see that it “took,” it hadn’t the first time out so I added my two cents yet again! So sorry.
June 15th, 2005 8:52 am
Loose Leaf: Notes from a Writer’s Journal: Meme: 5 Things I Miss
Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect…. David http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/ before…
June 15th, 2005 8:56 am
Colleen – this was so fun to read. It got me thinking back to my own childhood and it was interesting to re-ddiscover the things that have really stayed with me over time. Awesome post!