Memory Lane

 We all have one.  The places we grew up, where we went to school, the good times and the bad.  There’s a place on facebook dedicated to the area of the town I grew up in.  It’s funny to see what gets posted there now, not funny ha-ha, but funny in that way that reminds you of what it was like to be a child.
 I can remember all kinds of events from my childhood in that area but names and faces, not so much.  I see things posted that I remember but I don’t remember the people.  That’s kind of sad to me.  Of course, I’m also old.  That could account for a lot of not remembering the people, but it still doesn’t keep it from bothering me.
 I remember some of the trouble I got into.  I remember the goose egg not on my head when I had an accident on my brother’s bike, boy did he get into trouble for that one.  My dad was extremely old fashion when it came to his daughter.  Boys rode bikes, not girls.  The flip side of that was I got away with more than my brothers did when it came to my dad.  My mom, nope.
 I do remember a couple of the kids I hung out with.  There were a couple of sisters, one was named Lynn but the young sister, don’t have a clue what her name was.  They had a cousin who was a few years younger than us and ended up hanging with her after we got older for a while.  When I say old, I mean after three or four years didn’t make that much difference.  Everything is relative.
 We all grew up, or at least most of us did.  Most of us got older, a lot older.  Some didn’t.  Most of us went on to lead reasonably normal productive lives, some of us didn’t.
 The nice thing about childhood is we are often sheltered from the worst the world has to offer, but as we get older, that changes.  There are things from my teen years on up that leave devastating scars on our psyches.  Things we experience, things we see, things we do.  They can all leave an indelible mark on our soul that nothing can remove.  These are also the things that make us who we are, good or bad.
 Whatever you have experienced in life it is up to you to make your path.  It is up to you which one you’ll take.  Try not to take the wrong one.