A Simpler Time?

 Recently I reunited with my very first friends, Annette and Allison. 

We three came together in our innocent years, when all we really cared about was someone to play with. Together we learned how to ride bikes, jump rope and play hopscotch. Long forgotten conversations were had walking to school together and over slices of pizza at the local joint.

It was a simpler time.

I think that most, not all, think that about their youth and often hark back to those times as an example of what today should be like.

But were those times really simpler?

While reminiscing with Allison and Annette, I realized how different our memories are of both the time and the place. 

First families in the townhouses of Co-op City in the early ‘70s, we had the freedom to wander, seemingly without boundaries. As long as we returned home for dinner each night, we were mostly free to explore as we wished.

Some of our memories are the same, sledding, walking to school, playing in the courtyard. Others, not so much. I remembered the competition to name the schools, neither of them remembered our elementary school even having a name.

Annette fondly remembered trips to the local candy store, Cappy’s, while I remembered the store, but not its name.

Allison remembers walking to school by cutting through the shopping center while I remember getting to school by walking along the greenway (no streets to cross).

We all remember the playgrounds and the hills that seemed oh so steep while sledding but were really fairly tame.

Annette and I both moved away during our school years while Allison stayed through high school and later returned and to the home she grew up in. She still spends time in the courtyard where countless games of “red light, green light” were played.

Allison and I still remember the first time we met but I could not tell you anything about meeting Annette, just that she was always there when I needed a friend.

Childhood is revered as an easy time, when there were no real responsibilities, when friendships  were founded on nothing more than proximity.

Life is rarely so simple but isn’t it nice to think so.

***

I started out planning on writing about how Co-op City was in its early years as viewed through the eyes of a child. Somehow this essay morphed into something entirely different.

My recent reunion with my childhood buddies brought back floods of memories and have left me feeling a bit … well I can’t really put words to it. I am grateful that these ladies are back in my life and hope that we can continue the friendships we began so long ago.