I remember getting allowance

I remember saving up for china dolls

I remember when I wanted a $100 medieval dress

I remember when $100 was more money than seemed real

I remember getting the bikes at Toys R Us

I remember epi-tome
I remember mackabray
I remember heenious

I remember getting egg and cheese on a roll with ketchup when we came into the city for services

I remember Magic by the Lake

I remember butter mints

I remember finding anise seeds in the candy bowl by the door of Indian restaurants

I remember getting sick after eating Indian food that one time

I remember Tenafly Nature Center and Flat Rock Brook

I remember (trevor?) the troll

I remember the summer reading contests at the T- public library

I remember spelling out our names in pancakes

I remember finding L-'s samosas in the dark

I remember Rose's Restaurant
and that I couldn't spell restaurant--
Restauraunt
The extra vowels sounded French and fancy

I remember when airport security was less rigorous

(new huge rotary holo-scanner thing, I'm talking to you)

I remember when cars were loud

I remember when you had to crank the windows open and shut by hand

I remember when you had to rewind the VHS movies before returning them to the library

I remember before everywhere took credit cards

I remember when places actually took checks

I remember before we had air conditioning

I remember getting only 9 or so channels

3
4 (?)
7
9
11
13
25...
(50?)

I remember VHS tapes and cassette tapes

I remember taping things, like The Magic School Bus

Everything I know about science I learned from The Magic School Bus

I look like Mrs. Frizzle (I should be her for Halloween one year)

I wonder where the word "cassette" comes from

I remember ornament-making parties

I remember the Celtic Christmas CD and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

I remember heaving the solstice tree out of the front room window when it was time to throw it out

I remember biscuits

I remember when I burned everything

I remember Rose's Restaurant

I remember Llateric

I remember Caddie Woodlawn

poot

I remember the tooth fairy...

I remember the Hot Dog Fairy

I remember stirring up the peanut butter

I remember H's American Girl dolls

I remember stinging nettle

I remember finding horseshoe crabs at the Linger Longer by the sea

I remember the summer reading contest at the library

I remember sledding

I remember Hat!

I remember Hat on Ice

I remember Ms. Fader

I remember Ms. Gordon

I remember Rex and Jim

I remember when the computer was new

I remember Word Perfect

I remember AOL instant messenger

I remember the Rose News Weekly 

I remember Barbara

I remember the laundromat

I remember Buffalo Stampede

I remember Ewwww Bottomo

I remember 'bubble'

I remember 'bottom'

I remember using the shredder at Dad's work

I remember Abma's

I remember hayrides

I remember apple cider doughnuts

I remember Land of Make Believe

H-

I remember going though the Taylor Rental warehouse with Dad

I remember swinging on a rope in the warehouse

I remember chicken and broccoli with brown sauce, small, white rice...

...with extra baby corn and water chestnuts

I remember BFFITWWWFEAEAEAE

to infinity

I remember rounds

I remember Tom Chapin

I remember jars of iced tea in the summer

I remember Throat Coat

I remember Berry Zinger

I remember Bengal Spice

I remember seven digit phone numbers

I remember having phone numbers memorized

I remember asking who's calling

I remember Young Guinevere 


I remember Young Arthur 

I remember Ocean Grove

I remember the Sea Song

I remember Pig Latin

Iay ememberray igpay atlinlay

I remember Pale was the Wounded Knight


Sleep my child, and peace attend thee


Train whistle blowing 
makes a sleepy sound...

I remember leggings and Keds

I remember talking on the phone for hours

I remember "home phones" and asking if someone was available

I remember corded phones that could only reach so far into my bedroom

I remember being able to pick up the other phone and listen while someone was on the line

I remember dial-up internet that blocked the phone line, and listening to the sound it made while it dialed up

I remember plain ham sandwiches with mayonnaise

I remember pretending to be asleep

I remember hiding when it was time to be picked up from a friend's

I remember thinking four hours was the longest ever time for a play date

Now I think...why on earth do we call them "play dates." For God's sake.

I remember interceptions!

I remember Princess

I remember cooperative games

I remember that for Halloween I always wanted to be King Arthur, not Guinevere

I remember making fairy houses at the ridgewood house out of moss and acorn caps and pieces of slate

Lemon/Lime Seltzer

Vanilla cake with lemon filling and vanilla frosting.

What are you hungry for?

Helen and Sarah

Ocean Grove

The Lillagaard
The Sea Song
    with its colored rooms

How I long to return

Skara Brae sand "castles"

Drip towers

Seprin de Vanchitt

Lily
The Manatee
Smidgen 

Pecky
Yellow Beauty

The AMNH

There's so much to see at the muse-UMMMM
There's so much to see here and there...
There's so much to see at the muse-UMMMM
There's so much to see every-WHERE!


One, two, three Neadertal bones
Four, five, six Jaguars alone
And then comes seven and eight
Which means we have to wait
And wait and wait and wait to see-eee-EEE
FOUR OCTOPI IN JARS! 


Copyright The Author.

Tom Chapin

We really liked the stacking plastic donut toy

Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream was Grandpa's

Haagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream

Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream

I never could choose

Sometimes you just need the simple perfection of vanilla

I remember one time I poured maple syrup into my little yellow plastic bowl (though, not that little) and hid under the kitchen table and drank it

Appleface

I remember that we used to eat peanut butter and jelly in a bowl

I remember that L-, E- and I used to play that our blue living room rug was the ocean and our tan couch pieces (at the time set up in an L that ran under the windows and along the wall under the faded old Van Gogh prints) were sandy banks. I remember balancing myself on the end of the ridge of the couch back on the farthestmost couch section above the water, readying myself for a dive. I had a squishy rubbery ball with stretchy fringe sprouting on it all over like a plastic pom pom that was a sea anemone. We packed picnic lunches using my Velcro cut-apart play food

I remember when we started to mix better butter in the blender instead of how we had been doing it before--I think with the hand mixer (not literally by hand...?) I remember how smooth and homogeneous the texture was when using the blender--instead of a little grainy and prone to separation, as it had been before.

I wonder that I was never ever the one to make better butter. I don't even know the ratios. However, all you do is combine softened butter with olive oil (I think in equal parts, or with slightly more butter to oil). Don't use better butter for cooking eggs in a frying pan, though--for them not to stick, butter alone works better.

I remember that we used to buy orange juice in frozen canned concentrate before we started to buy it fresh

I remember when I used to be afraid of blowing my nose