Cru Jones Society

 

Seeing as Hart set this question up beautifully by letting us all know 5 Things He Didn’t Appreciate in His Youth, this week’s Confessional topic fit right in with our site’s theme. We asked you: What do you miss most from childhood? You’ll see a lot of similarities in the responses, but you won’t see them until you click that little “Read more” button, now will you? So click it, and let’s see what everyone said.

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Lee S. Hart: The uncertainty of each day felt incredibly liberating as a child. I miss that the most. Waking up on the weekends or a summer day and not knowing what the day had in store. The possibilities were endless. Maybe I was going to play basketball with my cousin, or explore the creek near my house with my best friend, maybe the day held certain doom for the Shredder at the hands of Spider-Man and He Man. I didn’t know. There was no set schedule and every day was a new adventure.

Having any uncertainty now is a frightening thing.  I have the next month of my life about 90% planned out. I used to never have more than 5 minutes of my life planned out. I am writing this on Wednesday and I know it will be read on Monday, and I know pretty much what I will be doing on Monday. As a child, I wouldn’t have a single idea what I would be doing in five days, and I loved that. That sounds fantastic. That sounds like freedom.

I also miss the ignorance and naivety of childhood. Not paying bills, trying to meet deadlines, not understanding that people were dying in wars, not worrying about my cholesterol; all the things that cause worry and stress. I miss not having those things in my life. Again, that sounds like freedom.

Those are what I miss most about childhood. Well, those and not having ulcerative colitis.

Senor Limon: Judging by most of the responses I’ve read so far, I’m not much different from our readers.  I miss summer vacation.  The blissful three months of the year when the biggest hassle of my day was making sure that I was home for dinner before I could go out again and do whatever it is that I was doing until it was dark outside.  A somewhat vague curfew that would frequently stress out my parents, as my low light adjusted eyes inevitably perceived darkness much later than my parents, who judged the dark based on how things looked through a screen door from a well lit living room.

The specific activity I miss most from my youth is playing roller hockey.  I can remember playing endlessly from the time I needed the hockey stick to keep me atop my neon green Target brand skates, where we played on a basketball court, and a goal was anything that we managed to put between the free-throw lines at either end of the court, right up to the point that we drove ourselves out to play roller hockey and drink beers while we watched spectacular night lightning at all hours of the morning from the parking lot of a local business, we all simply referred to as “the building”.  A location we chose because it had a tiered parking with concrete barriers that made for excellent side boards, and because we could play there, by and large, without being hassled by the police for curfew violations and occasionally underage consumption.

I’ve never played a game of actual hockey in my entire life, and I’ve been on actual ice skates perhaps twice, but I’m fairly certain that my friends and I could take on anyone in the world at our particular brand of street hockey.

E Dagger: I had a whole different response cooked up for this question, but the events of Easter Sunday made me change it. This was the first holiday I spent with my family without Marty, the one I wrote about here. We had a lovely day, and everything was going fine until I stood in the kitchen, looked at my dad talking to Marty’s son-in-law and thought to myself, “Dammit, where’s Marty?”

All of a sudden I was overcome with emotion and retreated to my childhood room to be alone because I didn’t want to bring down the happy vibe everyone put out on an otherwise happy Easter holiday. I sat on my futon and began to cry when little Paxton, Marty’s grandson, maybe 3 years old, wandered into my room and asked innocently, “What are you doin’?” I told him this is my old room and these are my old trophies, these are my posters, and this is where I used to live. He walked up to my blinds and said, “This one’s bent. I’ll fix it.” And he proceeded to fix a blind that had errantly gone astray at some point to which I said, “Thanks, buddy.” He replied, “You’re welcome,” and walked out of my room nonchalantly to tend to the business of his brother and cousins who were involved in an extremely serious game of playing with my old Matchbox cars.

I wanted to wallow in my own grief, but sweet little Paxton inadvertently wouldn’t let me. It was almost as if he was channeling the spirit of Marty telling me, “Hey, I’m not gone, I’ll always be here. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Live your life. You’re in the here and now, enjoy it.” And so I did, and I reveled in the rest of the night chatting with his wife, his kids, and his grandkids, whom he affectionately called “cheeseballs.”

I guess the thing I miss most about childhood is the innocence. Paxton had no idea what I was feeling, and unbeknownst to him, randomly strolled into my room and made me feel better about missing the man I’d spent every holiday with from the time I was 1 until my 27^th Christmas. You are un-jaded by the world as a kid, and without knowing it, you have unbelievable powers to heal. I miss the innocence of it all, and I miss the absence of pain that comes with living in a world that’s tough, sometimes cruel, and altogether too real. If you’re raised right, childhood is bliss. And if you hang out with little kids from time to time, you get a glimpse into that nirvana once again. Little kids are life unspoiled. And it’s wonderful to think back on that time in your own life, because it only comes around once.

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As you’ll see from the reader responses, we’re going to hit a lot of the same themes. Childhood is ultimately about freedom assuming you grew up happy. Adulthood is about structure, responsibility, schedules. We suppose it’s only natural that our responses would follow this basic philosophical shift. So instead of offering commentary introducing each similar set of responses, here’s all the ones we received right in a row. Each one touches upon a similar nostalgia for the unstructured nature of a playful childhood, yet each is poignant in its specificity. These responses offer a unique snapshot into the growing up of each of our respondents, so in that way, this has been one of our favorite Confessionals to date. Read on and enjoy.

Dana H: I miss summer days and what that meant – not having a care in the world and each day was a new adventure! We’d ride our bikes “up town” to go have fries at the local diner, go play video games for hours, buy pogs, go get ice cream, go swimming in the reservoir, stop by grandmas, eat some more…And then go home for dinner and scarf our food so we could go back outside and play. A perfect summer day capped off with a sleepover on the trampoline…those were the days!

Maristredfox: The thing I miss most from childhood is having summers off, and I mean completely off: no summer camp, no reading lists, no crummy $5-an-hour dishwashing job.  June, July and August were just a big blank slate that you could fill with backyard baseball, riding bikes, Nintendo, Tonka trucks or whatever you wanted.  I would be outside from the time I finished breakfast until dinner.  You couldn’t get me back inside if you offered me a million bucks.  My coworkers who have kids complain that they can’t get their kids off the couch!

Jitterrawks: What I miss most about childhood also covers what I feel most kids are missing out on with their current childhoods.  The freedom to be kids.  When I was a kid, in the summer, I’d leave my house at 9, and be back when the street lights came on.  We’d ride our bikes to the movies, eat candy, hang out…it was great.  Now, everyone is super safe.  Kids here don’t play in the front yard.  They don’t run next door to play-there are play dates for that.  Come on, we have tons of structure in our adult lives…I miss the freedom to just be a kid and have fun.  Maybe you fall off the jungle gym and knock the wind out…you learn.  You don’t prevent that playground from being built, because some kid may get hurt.  Seriously.

Daggersgirl: The thing I miss most is how carefree everything was. The biggest worry of the day was who would beat who out to the garage to get the first hug from dad when he got home. There were no bills or student loans, and we had the summer off to play by the pool all day long. My number two thing that I miss is playing in/by the pool all day long all summer long.

Gutter: The thing I miss most from childhood is the amount of free time I had to do whatever the hell I wanted. Back then the only thing I was really worrying about was if I had enough time to finish another game of NHL ’96 on the Sega before bed or school or worrying about losing another tennis ball over one of our neighbor’s fences while playing home run Derby with my brother in our backyard. Today between work, family time, and the occasional night out with friends I barely have enough time to take a dump. I have about 4 video games that I have yet to complete because there is no time to play especially with the little one up, you can’t exactly go around shooting gangsters and picking up hookers, she is only 1 and is already drawn to the TV like a moth to a flame, damn you marketing people and your colorful and catchy commercials. Anyway, don’t get me wrong I am more than happy with where my life is right now and with tax season almost done (thank God!!!) and no longer having to study for the CPA exam (thank God, Jewish God, or Tom Cruise) I will get some time back in the relax column, but I will never be able to play another full season of NHL ’96 in a month like I did back when I was a kid.

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Since we enjoyed this question so much, we’re going to follow up on it. This question comes courtesy of CJS Regular CassieB, and it’s a damn fine one. She wrote to us, “Hey, you guys should do a question asking what your readers wanted to be when they grew up. My sister (Lady E, for those not in the know), wanted to be a fire truck when she was a kid. Not a firefighter, a fire truck. How cute is that?” Adorable indeed. So we ask you: What did you want to be when you grew up? Everyone had a dream job when they were a kid, what was yours? Send your responses to staff@crujonessociety.com and you’ll see them here next week. We welcome all comers, so if you’ve been hesitant to respond, don’t be. We can’t wait to hear from you. Especially if you wanted to be a fire truck as a little girl. That’s just too much to handle.

Hart, Limon, and Dagger