My Youth

I can remember as early as 4 years old. In fact my oldest memory is of my Father and I walking through the park (Menlo Park in Edison NJ) in the fall. I can remember the crunch of amber colored leaves under our feet, the earthy smell of the forest, the swings and other kids with their parents laughing and smiling…. Well at least the kids. It’s strange how I can remember seeing some parents that looked annoyed or bored or in general, not as happy as the children they were with, but I was happy and my father looked happy too and my life was "Great"

I have many memories from that starting point.

I can remember the simple things that caused hours and hours of enjoyment and made my life at that time “great”:

 Sliding down grassy hills on waxed cardboard for hours and hours, then coming back the next day to do it all again, while my grandfather waxed his car, or sat in the sun listening to 1010WINS.

Making things out of lego’s for hours at a time. Not things that made any sense either. Cars with 34 wheels on them, after all, shouldn’t every car be able to still ride down the road no matter which of its 7 sides it’s on?

Having water gun fights inside the house while my grandmother was trying to watch her soap operas on tv. When it got out of hand, the threat of the belt would be announced, and we would not have water gun fights any longer that day, at least inside the house.

Riding bicycles around town and not having to worry about getting kidnapped or mugged or any of the wonderful things that families now have to worry about.

There are many other events in my early childhood that made life seem great. I’m not going to list them all, because that would take forever. The bottom line is that what constitutes great when you’re a child, is vastly different than what constitutes great, when you’re an adult.

When your young and people say "Youth is wasted on the young" as a child , your response is "Those old people have no idea what they are talking about" as an adult, you start to reflect on your youth and agree with "Those old People". I'm not saying that I reget my youth or what I have done during my youth. Our youth is what shapes our lives and steers us on a course that brings us to where we are today.