Sweet Emma Grace opened a can full of memories for me the other night when she asked me to tell her stories about when I was her age. Ooh, to be in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade again!
My happiest childhood memories of friends and adventures happened when we lived on Morning Dew Court in Springfield Virginia. Or rather, I should say, I remember so much about life in this blue house- walking to the nearby community pool, chasing down the ice cream truck so we could buy candy, playing Capture the Flag and Cops and Robbers after dark, adventuring in the woods behind our house, catching crayfish in the creek, riding bikes to the bigger creek that was sometimes overflowing with spring runoff, my first babysitting job, playing Barbies at my frenemy Meredith's house, making plans to meet at the 'green box' after school, bus patrol, proudly singing the Newington Forest fight song, finding out that I was selected to be in the gifted and talented program in 4th and 5th, but not 6th grade (oh, the embarrassment of having to walk back to class!).
I remember telling my 5th grade class that in Mali people eat peanuts with the shells on- we were supposed to bring a food from the country (back in the day when the only way you learned anything about anything was by going to the library and reading up on it. There was no Googling Mali cuisine back then and I brought in a major export from the African country only to find out that we were supposed to bring in an actual dish and I make up this ridiculous story instead). Another time I presented a commercial about string cheese, and another time I told my mom a night or two before that I had signed up to bring baklava to culture day (again, no Googling recipes back then! I can only imagine what cookbook she had on hand that happened to have a recipe for baklava in it), dressing up for colonial day (the 13 original colonies are a really big deal when you live in one of them!), growing and releasing butterflies in 4th grade, all of my teachers and assemblies and class plays and feeling real school pride as a Newington Forest Knight. This was a great place to grow up!
I remember playing in the cul-de-sac and in all of the backyards on this street. One time I didn't go home when I supposed to, and my mom had left and locked me out of the house! I learned to always go home on time after that. Another time I wanted to make stilts out of wood and I wasn't happy when my dad (who worked in the Pentagon and probably would classify this as the most stressful stint of his Army career) said not right now so I pulled out a saw and proceeded to cut my thumb instead of the wood. It was in this house that I snooped around for presents and then had to act extra excited about the strap-on roller blades that I received on Christmas morning.
This neighborhood holds my only trick-or-treating memories, and I could probably still point out the jackpot house that had the full-sized candy bars. This was the neighborhood where I sold Valentines Day cakes to neighbors, and then asked my mom how I could fulfill the orders.
Look closely at my fifth grade class picture- no not at the feathery bangs, check out that golden lizard pin on my shirt!
Thanks to Grandpa Mark for holding on to this treasure of a clay creation from my childhood- this was originally supposed to be George Washington, but somehow it morphed into Mr. Holderbaum, the principal at my elementary school.
Grandpa also had the Morning Dew Court poem that Bob wrote for all of the kids on the street- it must have been a magical place for everyone who lived there. "On a wonderful street with the name Morning Dew live many dear children, more than a few.... It's really amazing, amazing but true. This street is blessed, our street Morning Dew".
There really were a lot of kids on this street!
In some ways, the Morning Dew Court era marked the end of my early childhood. I was in a standard K-6 elementary school here, and halfway through my 6th grade year in Mrs. Banks' classroom our family moved to upstate New York, where I started attending a 6-12 junior/high school along with Aaron and Heather. There were no more pods and playgrounds and class plays and field day, suddenly I was surrounded by lockers and marching band and puberty and moustaches and science labs and a pregnant senior on my bus... That shocking contrast might be part of the reason that I am trying so hard to preserve childhood in this house for just as long as I can. Yep, my kids are growing up to be the beautiful people they are meant to be, and we still have lots of Legos and moon sand and trampoline jumping and snuggles and G and PG movies and happy days and nights at home around here. I like to think we're easing out of childhood here. For better or for worse I can't really recreate that dive into the deep end of growing up that I experienced when we moved from Virginia to New York anymore than we can recreate the one-childhood, one-house experience that Jason had growing up.
So when I think of my happy childhood, I think of growing up in Virginia! and Rhode Island and Alabama and Washington too. :)
In lots of ways this era reminds me of our family's time on 31st Street. Lots of friends to choose from, a great school and awesome pool nearby, block parties and night games and ice cream trucks and discoveries at the pond and adventures that shaped up to equal a very happy childhood!
