childhood memory meme

Julana at "Life in the Slow Lane" has tagged me to write on "Five things I miss from my childhood." Okay, here goes:

1. My dad. He died in 1975. Sometimes now, I can hardly remember him – what he looked and sounded like. Here is an early memory I have of him.

Sometimes on Saturday night, I sat on his knee as he listened to the hockey game. Our radio was a brown box, covered with some crocodile-textured material. Its black on-off switch was in the centre of its front, between two squares, one filled in with dark fabric that covered the speaker, the other one light, illuminated from inside to show the dial. The radio front looked like a face. Its two squares were the eyes, the on-off switch the nose and beneath that the two buttons which controlled tuning and volume, were a stern mouth.

I would lay my head on Daddy's shoulder and we would rock back forth in the rocking chair. In the background was the rise and fall of Foster Hewitt's voice, the slap of the puck on the boards and the hum of the cheering crowd which became a roar after "He scores!"
I studied the radio. If you looked carefully between the plastic cover of the lit square on the front you could see a light inside. I imagined the man who announced the hockey game, a little hockey rink and the crowd, all somewhere within that radio. I wished I were small enough to get inside.

2. Faspah* at my Grandma’s house. This would include the smell of coffee, and looking forward to zwiebak,** cheese, dill pickles, jam and cake or matrimonial squares.

3. Childhood Christmases. They were beyond exciting. The buildup started with studying the Eaton’s and Sear’s catalogues in October, to getting ready for the Christmas concert at school beginning the end of November, to waking on the dark Christmas morning and getting all excited and sweaty in bed till it was time to get up. When Dad had finally finished his chores, we were allowed downstairs to the dining room.

Our parents didn’t wrap our presents but had arranged them in the open the night before so that when we turned on the light, there was everything laid out – a play mat with roads and trees drawn on it, blocks which Dad had cut and painted and built into houses and stores and even grain elevators. There was a red wagon for someone and dolls for my sisters. Best of all, there was a wooden toy sink and stove for me. With lots of kids (nine of us in total), it looked like a toy store!

4. The first-waking-up sound of chickens clucking and cackling on a summer morning.

5. Running barefoot outside after a thunderstorm and squishing my toes in the warm mud.

* Low-German word meaning a light lunch – similar to an English tea
** Double-decker buns

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I'm supposed to offer it to four people. I’m going to pass on that. But if anyone who reads this would like to jump in and do it, just leave a comment and I’ll link to you pronto!

If you decide to do this, here are the instructions for what to do next:

Remove the blog at No.1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog’s name in the No.5 spot. Blog names are linked to their posts on childhood, with the URLs for you as well:

1. Loose Leaf - 5 things I miss
2. Black Currant Jam - 5 things I miss
3. Allthings2all - I wanted green hair
4. Life In the Slow Lane - Five things I miss about my Childhood
5. promptings - childhood memory meme

And then you pick four people. Thank you.