Revisiting Childhood

One of my fondest memories of childhood reading was the book Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Not always a reader, when I was young my mother thought it a good idea that we children devote at least one hour a day during the summer reading. The activity proved both to instill in my siblings and I the importance of literature as well as giving my mother the needed break from us run rampant kids.

I remember the three of us, my older brother Rick, my twin sister Barb, and I sitting with books in hand in the living room looking at each other while the outside call to play was still at hand. I remember looking at the same page, rereading the same sentence thinking how unfair it was to be restrained in such a manner. But then one sentence became another, and as paragraphs turned into pages before I knew it I was immersed in the great adventures of Mole, Rat, Badger, and Mr. Toad.

Recently my sister came across the same edition of the book I had read at a used book sale and gave it to me as a gift. I just finished reading it again after some 38 years and it was just as enjoyable if not more so, as not only was I able to once more join my animal friends on their journey but revisit my childhood in the process.