There are some things that make me feel the same as I did
when I was young and when I say young, I mean between the age of nine and
thirteen. The sight, smell or thought instantly reconnects me to the child that
still lives within.
Here are some of my time shift experiences:
1. The smell
of just-cut grass. I know for a lot of people smelling new-mown grass is a
positive experience as it reminds them of summer holidays and sunshine, but for
me it fills me with the dread of school sports. Somehow it’s easier to fake
sporting capability in winter; you can just whack anything that comes into
range with your hockey stick. With athletics and tennis, there’s no place to
hide.
2. Love
Hearts. I can’t eat a packet of Love Hearts without remembering the joy of
getting a sweet with a message that meant I was going to be with the love of my
life. Even if all the sweet said was
that I was cute, it still made me feel better. And still makes me feel better
now.
3. Rubik’s
cube. Every time I see the cube, I still remember some of the moves to get the
colours to line up. Not all of them, though. Just enough to make me realise I’m
not interested in solving it, the same as I felt when I saw all the true nerds
clicking away at it.
4. Conkers. I
may be nearly fifty but the sight of a fresh conker on the ground still makes
my heart soar, thinking I’ve found the one that no-one else can conquer. Nowadays,
my prize conker will just sit on a shelf for a few months before my
unsentimental side throws it away during a de-cluttering session. But there’s
always next autumn.
5. The Two
Ronnies. If I catch a glimpse of one of their programmes on Gold, it transports
me back to Saturday nights in front of the telly. When there were only three
channels but somehow there was still more to watch than there is today. And the
whole family would sit and watch. And we’d all be laughing at the same things.
Happy days.
6. Top Trumps.
Seeing a pack of Top Trumps takes me back to playing the game with my brothers.
The only pack we had was about motorcycles. Most of the facts meant nothing to
me (I still don’t know what a Wankel rotary engine is). I guess it was special
because I could play the game with my elder brothers. Not many games went
across the gender and age boundary.
7. Christmas
Radio Times. A highlight of advent (along with watching John Noakes make a pig’s
ear of building an advent crown out of tinsel and coat hangers). The
anticipation of what would be on the telly over the Christmas holidays has
never left me. And it’s only 165 sleeps till Christmas 2015 J
8. A pile of
Lego. While I admit to buying Lego kits, they’re not as much fun as a pile of
random Lego without instructions. I’m sure the pile we had at home only had a
few windows as the special items, so I only ever built a house, but the hours
of fun from that plastic bag full of plastic was magical.
9. Multi-coloured
biros – did you know they still make biros that have four inks? You flick down
the little switch and suddenly it’s a red pen, then a blue one, then a green
one, then a black one. Genius. And I felt like I was such a hip kid when I
whipped mine out of my pencil case. Still do, actually.
10. Fairy
Liquid. Trust me, if you ever want to be transported back to childhood, just
use original Fairy Liquid. The smell takes you back to a time when your Mum
made up bubble mixture instead of buying it. Of course, if the ratio of water
to Fairy wasn’t right, it didn’t make bubbles. But it was great fun trying.
Why not take a moment to reconnect with your younger self
today? I reckon it’s some of the best therapy going.
Jane
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