Does this ever happen to you? You see, smell, or hear something that reminds you of something? Or, it sends you reeling back to a time in your past that you absolutely love so much that you’re left yearning to be back in that moment? It’s happened to me lately-a lot.
Mostly, it’s the smell of burning oak that sends me back to my pre-teens at PJ Hoffmaster State Park. I spent summers camping there with my grandparents. The smell of burning wood sends me back to lazy summer days when I was free to spend the day reading in the hammock or running amok with my cousin Mary-chasing boys and writing love notes. I can see clearly, long hot summer days slowly turning to dusk. There’s nothing like the ambiance of a lively camp ground suddenly quieting with the descending darkness.
Camp fires roar into life. Marshmallows are roasted. Smores devoured. Stories told and retold bigger and better than the year before.
Awning lights come on. Flash light beams dance along the winding roads. Laughter from the next site carries over. Inevitably, sparklers find there way to eager hands, sometimes even fireworks for the rule-breakers.
There is something magical about camping. Never mind that I’ve never been “real” camping. You know, without water, electricity, modern bathroom facilities, and certainly not without a really good ice cream joint within driving distance. I’m not that much of a nature girl, after all.
I suppose what I miss most is what is the most magical of all-grandparents, parents, my brothers, and cousins. Dinners together around a vinyl clothed picnic table. Macaroni salad, grilled hot dogs {oh how I miss a good hot dog}. I miss the care free, worry free, innocence of adolescence. I miss sunsets over Lake Michigan, camping breakfasts cooked on a Coleman stove. I miss having nothing to do and all day to do it.
I hope to catch a little bit of each-and soon. I’ll bottle it up. Cap it tightly. And, enjoy the magic again, like fireflies caught on warm summer evenings.
Gina I totally know what you mean. For me its the sounds of mowing and the smells of grass clippings. In a flash I am back at my desk in the tiny school in the tropical rain forest and at any moment I anticipate the flock of parrots that would fly through the gully squawking joyfully in the hot morning. Lige was so good back then. We never feared our fellow man and for us in the jungle it was alligators or anacondas or bushmasters (very poisonous snakes)…o, and the taratulas! But wonderful times
Wow I guess I am defective, because I read this and tried to think of good happy memories, and I thought about summer camp and mosquito bites. Camping, never did that as a kid I have as an adult and wish I hadn't. The things I think about are Sushi and Sake! Can we go have some RIGHT NOW!! MMMMMM!