The Magic of Childhood

This is a bush.


During most of it's life it has been a normal, blooming, sitting in the woods minding it's own business bush.

Until this past weekend.



The Saturday before Easter this unassuming bush was promoted to Candy Bush.

(Wait a minute ... what was that?)

Growing up, my siblings, cousins, and I were treated to the candy tree. Any tree will do. If you have a tree or bush in your backyard, you have a candy tree.

(Did you see her? The one making the magic happen.)

This Easter, the Candy Tree was introduced to a new generation.

(Oops, you missed her.)

Really, it is just a glorified peanut scramble ... without the peanuts ... and beware of the flying tootsie rolls.


However, to a child, a glorified peanut scramble is something more, something magical, and something that will be passed on to the next generation.

Because I Said So

There was a bumper sticker lying around the house and JT asked if we could put it on my car. "No" was my immediate response.

Why was I so quick to say no?

On laundry day I sort my clothes, whites, colors, darks and jeans. I always start with my whites. Which I always chalked up to my Type A tendencies.

When you wash dishes you always start with the glasses, or is it the silverware? Next, you wash the silverware, or is it the glasses? I do neither, and every time there is that tiny voice of my mother telling me I'm washing my dishes in the wrong order.

Why did I say no to the bumper sticker on the car, and worry about the order of clothes and dishes? Because my parent's didn't put bumper stickers on their cars, and, as I already mentioned, my mother had a thing with sequences.

OK, in all fairness, each situation had a very good explanation as to why, but we can save those for another day.

My point for today is, what once may have not been given any thought (no bumper stickers on the car) or been considered a Type A oddity (laundry and dishes) is now given a little bit more scrutiny as I'm trying to explain to my children why we do what we do.

And, as previously mentioned "... each situation had a very good explanation ..." Take the laundry for instance, today's laundry technology, washing machines and detergent, allows us to mix our colors any way we want. Our grandmothers were limited to one load of water and lye soap; the water was heated once for the whites, and as the water cooled you washed the colors and then the darks.

However, no matter how advanced today's laundry technology may be, you still can't mix your reds and whites, and wash them in hot water.

What "traditions" do you find yourself passing down to your children, and can you remember why they are done that way?