Not worrying about the ills and problems of the world. Being pretty much carefree was so nice.

Being able to disappear from the house into the woods less than 50 yards behind the house where I could be alone, skip rocks across the pond, and sit listening to the old water wheel at our mill house creaking as it turned and turned while doing nothing. I miss scrambling across the beaver dam on the creak that backed up a fair sized lake upstream. I miss getting on my bike and riding for a couple of hours to get to the Silver Falls Park wilderness. Other that that, not much.

I miss all the things that were around. The cereals, the TV shows/cartoons, the fact that we actually had to go to our friends to see what was going on, more playing outside. Those were some pretty good days.

I grew up in a very rural area - no parish (not county - I grew up in Louisiana) library branch. I sooo looked forward to the thrill of going to the bookmobile every two weeks in the summer. The bookmobile was a mobile library that had regular route, with 20 minutes or so stops throughout the parish. I was a small in stature, bookish, sickly boy, but the bookmobile ladies would just bring me books they found on interlibrary loan that they knew I was interested in. SciFi, aviation, space, etc. I LOVED It.

On a side note, my grandfather passed away a few years back. At his funeral, one of those bookmobile ladies was there. I didn't recognize her, but she knew me and told me who she was. I got the chance to tell how very thankful I was for them bringing me a pile of books every two weeks. They truly broadened my horizons and help me see that there was a much bigger world outside of my tiny little home town....

I miss my mum.

I miss my uncle, grandmother and daddy.

my grandma

My Grandmother.

Snuggling up with my dad while he read me the Sunday comics, using all the cartoon voices. Well, he read some; but mostly he improvised. When I learned to read, I was disappointed to learn that comics were actually quite short.

This is difficult. I didn't really have a happy childhood. I do miss leaving the house in the morning, and hiking out to the woods, and exploring, all alone. It was extremely quiet and peaceful. I also went out in the fields after they were plowed and hunted arrow heads. Mushroom hunting in the spring. I miss being thin and agile. I can still do those things now that I live on the farm, but a lot slower, and more achey.

Naivety. Not having to fear going on a twenty mile bike trip and sharing a cantaloupe with a friend from a farmer's stand. Simply less people in my youth; most likely the same percentage of dangerous and good, trustible people as today, just not as many to cross paths with.

Being oblivious to what was happening in the world around me. Crime, hunger, genocide, corruption, rape, slavery...the list goes on.

Youth...

I miss diving into water to swim and play, no matter how cold out it was or the water temperature.

Living in Australia. The smell of a eucalyptus on a hot day. Swimming in the ocean.

Carefree days, endless summers, less traffic, innocence, and wonderful Edinburgh as a backdrop!

I miss the feeling of "anything was possible" or more honestly, the absentmindedness of just how hard the world can really be.

Papa and uncle shorty

Not liking girls. Life was sooo much simpler then

I miss perfectly platonic displays of affection being observed as perfectly platonic.

I miss that my family would get together every couple months.

The friends that I grew up with.

I feel so fortunate to have grown in the 50's&60's. It was a totally different world. And of course being young was fantastic. I kinda feel sorry for millianals and generation X. They really got born in the wrong era.I feel that somehow people were happier!

Nothing. My father was a monster. I was on edge every day of my life, nervous, scared.

In the back yard of my youth there was a gliding swing inside a grape arbor. I could swing back and forth surrounded by giant bunches of golf ball sized purple grapes. And woven through the Bush was a honeysuckle vine that smelled incredible.