Childhood

Dear childhood,
I miss you. If i had a penny for everytime an adult had told me growing up to take advantage of being young i would, first of all, be a millionaire, and secondly, id be called a good listener. Clearly i was not keen on that advice and even at the tender age of 7 i dreamt of being an adult. I can specifically remember my best friend and I came up with Grown-up Fridays. I think this all started when because when we were just about 7 was when we were allowed to walk by ourselves to our corner store. before i go any further let me paint you a picture of this store because it was a staple of my childhood. Shout out to Shafts Grocery!!!!! A quaint little shop that somehow fit everything you would possibly need into a 600 square foot space built in an old house. Conveniently located in a manner where i could walk care free though a few backyards and be there lickety split! The owners knew us. It didnt take much to thrill us either, a dollar went a long way. Sometimes it was a "juicy" which was that ridiculously sweet high fructose corn syrup mixed with the flavor of fruit punch or my favorite which was some sort of pineapple concoction in a green container or sometimes it was a bag of chips and some candy. Any way you sliced it, this store saw me ATLEAST twice a week, if not every day after school. In the case of Grown up Fridays we would go up there and purchase a bottle of birch beer (it was in a glass bottle closely resembling that of actual beer)and a pack of candy cigarettes, i preferred the hard candy white cigarettes as opposed to the ones my friends liked that "smoked" when you blew them. They were gum, and they were gross. Ironically, even though i thought the idea of gum cigarettes that blew out sugary dust were gross i later became an actual smoker which is even more disgusting!! Anyhoot- So my friend and i would take our birch beer and candy cigarettes to the ditch at the end of our street which was adjacent to the "woods". A scary neverending mob of trees and shrubery to a 7 year old that now i realize just seperated our neighborhood from the next, and is no big deal. We hand made our own version of fishing poles from sticks and twine that we stole from my parents storage shed. So there we would sit "fishing" from the ditch with our beer and cigarettes, because thats what grownups do on Fridays(duhh!)! How simple it was. And when the street lights came on we knew it was time to go inside. And if we didnt promptly return home with the hum and orange hew of the street lights glow... my mom would whitsle from the front porch so that towns in Utah could hear!
Today i worked the standard 8 hours, i paid rent and a car payment that made my checking account go from yay to nay with a quickness. I took my medication in the morning and made sure i let out the dog. I put gas in my car, thank goodness! I went to lunch with a salesman. I worried about my health and the health of others close to me. I tried to make plans for future weeks to come. I missed my parents and wrote to my mom. i dropped my cell phone and hapily gasped when i saw it was still working because i dont have the money to replace it. I clipped swome coupons. i read the paper and took note of my horoscope. I thought about my yard and what i would plant to make it more appealing to visitors. I stamped teh mail and loaded the dishwasher. I will do laundry tonight and get ready for tomorrow which will undoubtedly bring much of the same.... and on Friday if i were to have a beer and some cigarettes with my friends i would only have a few because id have to worry about how i was going to get home. Id regret the smoking the next day when i pulled at the wrinkles at the corners of my eyes.

Its not too far fetched for me to say, maybe i will go home and have some milk and cookies and do some coloring in front of the television instead. Oh childhood, how i miss you!
love, Me Mousepants