Reliving Childhood Memories……

I was reading a post from one of my favorite bloggers, Jan, of The JanBierens Dot Com, http://janbierens.com who is from the Netherlands, about traveling and childhood.  This got me to thinking about when I was a kid waaaaay back in the 1960’s, yep I’m that old. Over the holidays we watched some home movies that my Dad took of the three of us kids in the early 1960’s. There we were, riding our bikes faster than the speed of light, skipping, jumping and just plain having fun.  There was also a glimpse of my Mom, watching over us in our backyard, with her blonde hair rolled up on the sides, wearing her denim capris and starched white blouse.  And when he was not busy filming his family behind the lens of the movie camera, there was my Dad looking tall, slender, handsome and confident.  After all, he was the smartest man I had ever known, then and now.

My brother was only about three years old, a cute, chubby little boy with blue jeans, whitish-blonde hair, and a smile to melt your heart. There he was in a white tee shirt riding his bike so fast that his short legs were just a blur. My sister was a couple of years younger than me, and she looked determined as she jumped rope and rode her bicycle up and down the sidewalk until dusk. It was easy being a kid back then. Playing outside all day long was just what we did, no questions asked.  We didn’t have to fear strangers then, so we were allowed to wander all over what seemed like a gigantic neighborhood, though in retrospect it was just a quiet little street in a German neighborhood.   We even learned to ride our bikes free-hand down the street, when our parents weren’t looking!

We lived in the Midwest, so we were far from any ocean, but my Dad took us to the lakes and rivers in Missouri to go boating or swimming. We learned to fish, climb trees and stay out until the lightning bugs lit up the night sky. Watching that home movie brought back memories that had been long forgotten. My kids got a kick out of watching their Mom when she was just a kid.  Though the movie was filmed without sound, I could still imagine what it must have sounded like. I’m lucky to have home movies from my childhood, thanks Dad!  It’s a blast from the past, and one that I will always enjoy sharing with my own kids.