SHARING and CARING…it’s what LIFE is all about!

Visions of Yesterday Danced in My Head

Posted by on Jul 7, 2012 in Blog, Memories | 0 comments

Memories have their place in our lives. Safely tucked away, they are very much a part of who we are.

On May 12th, I went back in time…to a place where my childhood revolved around my neighbourhood friends and my school. I had waited for over a year to attend my public school’s 100th anniversary celebration!

McMurrichPublic School, one hundred years old! Can you believe that? Did I travel down the road of yesterday? Most definitely! Did memories flood my brain when, “Do you remember…” began every conversation? Absolutely!

Knowing that time has a way of changing things, I was strangely moved when I recognized some constants scattered throughout the building. The old gymnasium in the basement remained unaffected by the passing of time! I found my Kindergarten classroom on the same floor and in the same place, with its curved outer wall and tall windows. And my Grade One classroom was still located right next door!

But computers and printers had long since erased the need for the alphabet banner that had bordered my Grade Three classroom blackboard. Staircases had been relocated, the principle’s office appeared to have shrunk, and the nurse and dentist stations no longer existed. (Yes, we had a school nurse who sat ready to comfort sick kids and a dentist who visited twice a month!)

Sadly, my childhood friends were noticeably absent among the throngs of people—I had to expect that, though, since I left McMurrich in the late 50s. But Bill and Vic were there (known to me back then as Billie and Vickie)…two brothers who lived across the road from the house where I was born and lived in for twelve years.

As the afternoon ended, I found myself yearning for my childhood. But as my husband and I drove away, I looked over my shoulder and envisioned the old playground: the swings, the sand box and the teeter-totters; the separate entrances: one for the boys and another for the girls; and the ice rink that joined the divided school yard each winter.

I smiled as visions of yesterday danced in my head and eased the pain of letting go of the past. I knew that moving on was important or I’d get lost somewhere between the past and the present.

 

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