Monday, February 26, 2018

8 Minute Memoir, Day 48: Childhood Toy


My most beloved childhood toy is a stuffed dog that I got from my parents' as a Valentine's day present.  The dog was small and white with red ears and wore a cute little dress and had a bow.  I named her Courtney and she was my security blanket.  I still have her, actually; right now, she is in a storage bin in my closest here in the apartment with a bunch of notebooks and stuff from work. That bow on her small, stuffed dog head is barely hanging on after over two decades of love, worn in on the paws, incredibly soft after all these years.

The other thing that came to mind was... our playhouse.  We had a playhouse in the backyard, with swings and a bright yellow slide attached to the second level (that moved as the evergreen tree across from the structure grew wider and in the direct way of the landing zone).  At one point, there was an open space for a potential fire pole (that was eventually closed up, probably for the best).  The playhouse was built at my grandpa's house and then brought over to our backyard on the back of a trailer.  It was anchored to the earth with posts buried deep into the ground... even the most vigorous of swinging couldn't move it from the foundation, even if we felt that motion on the top level.

It was the home to our wildest imaginations.  Once, I brought all of my worldly possessions from inside the house out to the playhouse and declared that my new home.  I also have a memory of my little brother throwing my stuffed animals over the side and me yelling at him about it, haha.  I remember swinging, pumping my legs back and forth, over and over.  Setting up a home in the prime real estate, the "balcony" next to the slide, cozying up in the middle of summer in a Disney sleeping bag and an old pillow.  Eventually, we grew up and it became a place we could get a little peace and quiet...  And when we were old enough, we sat out there with our friends and drank cold beers and reminisced on our younger years, just barely on the other side of them.

Someday, I hope we have a backyard, and I hope we can give our kids a playhouse, treehouse, what have you.  I hope we can give them a space to create entirely new worlds, an opportunity like I got all those years ago.

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