"Dad, what would you like for your birthday?"
Crap...Has that much time passed already? I looked over at my daughter, who had asked the question, and swallowed my food. I had not acknowledged the fact that my birthday was that close and that I would soon be turning another year older. So, to get by this embarrassing fact I started off on talking about my birthday and went off onto talking about work. I made sure the story was long.
"I told them that I would like to get Saturday off and do you know what they told me? That if I wanted Saturday off then all the other workers will want Saturday off. It's unbelievable!" I poked my fork into the steak we were eating and took a noticeably large amount and stuffed it into my mouth.
"Dad, don't get off track here. What do you want for your birthday?"
I swallowed my steak hard and took a long drink of ice cold milk before I answered. "I'd like Saturday off."
"Dad!" she said laughing.
"Alright, alright. I want to go to Yankee Stadium, but seeing how the gas prices are skyrocketing I don't see how that is possible. Can you get me the time and place to go hunting?"
She looked at me over her glasses.
"Okay, pumpkin," I laughed, "I actually was thinking about a new backpack for hiking." I paused. "Music CD's would be great too."
She smiled and said thoughtfully, "Like a long lost record you need to hear again?"
Laughing I replied, "Yes! A long lost record I need to hear again! That would be great!"
Only that happened about three hours ago and I was now standing in front of a closet that was full of records. Thousands of them; ones that used to be in order but now weren't. Although that didn't matter, their music was still great!
The door of the closet opened with a soft creek and, making a mental note to oil the door, I gazed on my collection, reading the titles. Lynard Skynard, Led Zeppelin, Charlie Daniels Band, the Monkeys...But I wasn't really thinking about them. My mind drifted back to when I had bought a specific Beatles record and rushed back home to listen to it. Not only were the pictures inside great, but the music was even better.
Somehow, between my reminiscing, I ended up in bed thinking over my childhood and how everything could have gone so quickly. There was the time my brother and I dropped water balloons on our sister and her friends from the roof. I can also remember we threw off GI Joes to watch them gently float down in their parachute. Or they had the opposite effect and just ended up hitting a passing car rather hard. Whoops!
Another thing, where did Pea Shooters go? We used to have so much fun shooting peas at one another through the large straw. They did annoy some people, I thought as a kid, but it was too hilarious!
I wondered: do I still possess the ability to play a musical instrument? This could be a possibility because all my life I could play by ear. However, I stopped playing the trumpet in high school so there was a good chance that the music had gone from me. The mandolin sitting in the corner of the room proved this theory wrong. The "learning to play by ear" philosophy made me a much quicker learner than if I wasn't able to "play by ear", and this was what made me good at the mandolin.
I would tell about the first date I had with my wife but I cannot remember it. You see, we went to see a movie in a movie theater and I fell asleep. As a kid, this wouldn't happen but as I got older it began to. So for that reason I can't tell about it.
Thinking back, I realize I was quite the troublemaker! Pushing kids off walls, getting lost on the beach, refusing to practice my instrument, throwing things off of roofs... (Dare I mention the pea shooting?) I suppose I should have paid more attention in class too because everything from high school on (well, everything that was taught to us) is now gone from my mind. Adieu! Adios! Farewell! Never to be thought of again. Shame.
We used to move to different houses a lot. As a baby I lived in the house my parents built together. Then we traveled from this place to that place to there and where and who knows. Maybe I do, but my eyelids are drooping so quickly my thoughts are becoming tangled and knotted. Wasn't I supposed to be thinking of what I wanted for my birthday?
Suppose that's what I wanted: to go through my childhood again, to live through it all once more. The time passed so quickly that yesterday I could have been graduating high school or even standing in front of the Babe Ruth picture in the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's a good thing we have plenty of pictures of them!
Looking over at my wife I saw her breathing soundlessly, peacefully. I thought back to our wedding when she lost her voice and could only whisper the most important words of the ceremony: "I do". (But I heard it!) Chuckling under by breath I considered it that I must have taken her breath away. Such a silly thing to think...
Incidents, like the ones described above, are only a select few that I remember from when I was younger. Many more could have occurred that simply slipped my mind completely. That shouldn't be the case for I remember more long-term things than I do short-term things. In that case I should be able to say things about my childhood so clearly you would find it amazing that it wasn't playing as a movie right before my eyes! "Amazing!" you would say, "I can't believe he did that!" And, incidentally, I can't believe I did it either. I can't believe I have all those records kept away in a closet, but not a record player. I should have asked for that for my birthday. I need a new one, even though they are always very expensive.
Branching off into different thoughts from my childhood, I suddenly remembered some DVD's my sister had made. It was a slide show of pictures from when we were kids, music included. I climbed out of bed with caution so my wife wouldn't be roused avoiding the places where the floor wouldn't creek. Soon the television was on and the DVD had started to play, the music muted for the sake of the people sleeping. Watching the pictures was like playing flashbacks when you are in a situation of terror. I was able to remember everything and everyone in the pictures. What they were doing, who they were standing next to, where they were...
Maybe that's what the "long lost record I need to hear again" is. My childhood: the very thing that slipped away from my grasp that I can't hold onto again.