Recipe for Childhood

Childhood…

·         Should include warm surroundings, words, people, and copper tip winged wooden geese perched above a fireplace  - continuously flying towards adventure.

·         Should take the form of manually spinning park rides, paper mâché afternoons, and marching parade twirling batons. 

·         Should read like Children’s encyclopedias – they come one at a time, little by little,  one a month  - and  line the bookcase along each side of zenith TV kit consoles – the ones with rabbit ear antennas. 

·         Should summons for Sunday evening fellowship and movies  – the wizard of Oz, Chitty, chitty bang bang, and the Magic Kingdom – all without the need of a stream.   

·         Should be uncertain as the lump between orange in the toe and cane poking out the edge of the Christmas stocking.

·         Should allow no chills of bare scampering feet but instead pave with olive shag and cover with chenille spread.

·         Should be written with golden pen on maps that mark a path, either to Micky or Hoover Damn -whichever vacation fills the view-o-matic. 

·         Should circulate on sticks topped with stuffed horse heads while cowboy hats bounce against fringed vest. 

·         Should evade those leashes some employ to harness wild safari in untamed crowds. 

·         Should join parades – gliding along with braided crepe paper spoke on banana seat -restrained by ambient air perfumed with eucalyptus and almond blossom.

·         Should create homemade Holly Hobby clothing – matching for mothers, children, and dolls – each small hand nestled under raggedy pinafore pocket.  

·         Should include painting – walls with murals of Winnie the Pooh, puppet theaters, windows for the holidays, canvases filled with atomic style poppies.

·         Should mean bamboo and persimmons grow in separate backyard corners.

·         Should mean velvet dining chairs that compliment felted entry in hues of cotton candy clouds.

·         Should mean naps across covered sectionals and song of blissful lullaby echoing Weekend football.

·         Should undo unholy mistakes – such as feeding geese stale bread, no seatbelt along the back row of fully loaded station wagon, and visits along rocky shorelines.

·         Should remake special occasion – frozen TV dinner off caster wheeled trays that fold up against the wall once tummies fill and pocketing the nickel from the bottled carbonated treat. 

·         Should punctuate walking tippy-toed wearing polyester zip-up jacket introducing bare ankle where bubbles meet the sand.

·         Should be dreams of playdough, coloring books, and what’s found on the next page when Tinkerbell rings her little bell.

·         Should tell us of fathers in bolo ties and sports jackets who sing western songs and playing acoustic guitar or hunting jack rabbits with wrist rockets.

·         Should include forms of mothers in moo-moos and plastic hair curlers pinned with clips, covered with shear matching hair scarf. 

·         Should prompt and drive answers such as why the world proclaims to love as Oral Roberts preached and Jesus did but actually - loves all things Hawaiian.

·         Should be unfinished while we hate Germans, and Russians, and Japanese, and hippies.

·         Should include moments of rockets, missions, hopes, and fears.  Of endless sunshine, pacific breezes, and even nuclear drills.

·         Should be netted bonnets, white gloves, and patten leather Mary Janes warn to Easter service by little girls and vacuum rings warn by those that clean...

·         But even though we all went to Bluebirds camp, the thrift store shelfs are always empty.

·         All these ingredients are required – no substitutions allowed when forming a childhood challenged with thriving on asbestos tiles and drinking water from lead pipes.

·         Mix well and hold close until wings are fully spread - enjoy with others

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