Harper's woods vs. "the back"

Last week I shared how via Netflix I

was reminiscing my childhood through

watching every episode of the wonder years.

Each episode brings back at least one

childhood memory that I have forgotten

or haven't thought of for many years.

Last night I watch the episode

"Who's woods is it anyway?"

Oh the memories that brought back.

Kevin, Winnie, and Paul's woods were being

torn down for a shopping mall.

Same thing happened to our Dursette street "back"

when the new road came to Golden Meadow.

We, at the time didn't know what that meant to

us kids and by that time, most of the kids of Dursette

were older and had moved on from our woods playing.

Watching that episode last night though brought back

so many wonderful memories of us Dursette kids playing

in the back. We made trails and camps, picked blackberries.

We went back there when two kids in the street wanted to fight.

Sometimes you went back there alone just to get away.

Our parents didn't worry about us, we didn't need cell phones

to check in because it was a safe world.

Our back was in some ways even better than Harper's woods

as we had a waterway and a dump site.

I wonder if my love of garage sales comes from my

childhood memories of going through that dump site

to find treasures of my own.

That dump site was more than just waste as people

put there all they no longer wanted in their home.

It was a heaven, our "back"

We sometimes even swam in those waterways,

against our parents rules. It was probably the

worst thing I ever did when it comes to rules

broken that my parents made.

I do have a memory of being a teenager and walking

the torn down trees, where only the dirt was were

the new road was to be laid.

I remember of being sad about that part of my life

being over, of the memories that were torn down with

those woods. But I was a teenager and moving on to

other stuff by then, driving, liking boys, fixing my hair.

Had it happened when I was younger I wonder had I

felt like Kevin Arnold and want to fight it,

I mean Kevin and Winnie had their first kiss there

in Harper's woods.

Kevin goes to the parish meeting in hopes of stopping

the shopping center from being built.

He never got to speak his peace, he fell asleep

before he got a chance but in his dream he did speak his mind:

"...THERE'S A LITTLE PIECE OF LAND CALLED

HARPER'S WOODS. YOU MAY HAVE PASSED IT ON YOUR

WAY TO HERE OR THERE. IT'S NOT MUCH TO LOOK AT,

A FEW ACRES OF TREES, SOME BOULDERS, COUPLE

SQUIRRELS AND SOME BIRDS. BUT THERE IS SOMETHING

ELSE THAT LIVES THERE, SOMETHING YOU CAN'T SEE.

BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING IN THOSE WOODS THAT

YOU CAN'T SEE WITH YOUR EYES, YOU HAVE TO LOOK

WITH YOUR HEART. IT'S MY CHILDHOOD, AND HIS, AND HERS.

OURS IS A WORLD TO CARELESS WITH IT'S MEMORIES.

PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU, DON'T TAKE OUR CHILDHOOD."

Well little Kevin Arnold's speech there about choked me up.

So many childhood memories lived in our "back"

I am so glad we had them to grow up in.

I am thankful that my own children had the 40 acre canal

to make their own memories in.

I am sad for the children of today for even if they had

"the back or the woods" to play in, their world is not

one that you can just let them loose to play.

Oh memories, how I love when they come flowing back freely.