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.

Paper Dolls!

 Back in November I got together with my childhood buddies, Annette and Allison. The three of us met as “first families” in Co-op City in the Bronx back in the early ‘70s. For 6 years we played together, walked to school together and had sleepovers. All the things that kids do (or at least did back then). Co-op City in its early years was a magical place for a little kid. 

We lived in the townhouses in section 2, Cooper Place. For those of you with no idea of what I am talking about, let me pause and give an overview.

Co-op City is one of many housing projects spread throughout New York City. Composed of 5 sections, there are townhouses with three bedroom duplexes and one bedroom garden apartments allowing for mixed generational living. The garden apartments held older couples while the duplexes housed families. There were also single core towers, double core chevron shaped buildings and triple core buildings similar to the building that I currently live in.

Much like my current home in the Penn South Co-op, there is a lot of green space and tons of places for kids to play. Our earliest playspace was the courtyard that separated our banks of townhouses. To get to the courtyard all we had to do was leave our townhouse. That’s it. No cars allowed. The Cooper Place courtyard is where I learned to play hopscotch, jump rope and ride a bike. We walked on stilts, used pogo sticks and, in the winter, had snowball fights. We could walk to school without ever crossing a street.

My friends and I started kindergarten in the community center and were the first, first graders in the spanking new educational complex.

We endured the experiment that was the open classroom and one of us even graduated from the high school, making her a member of the first set of graduates to go all the way through that set of schools. 

Over the years we drifted apart. I was the first to move as my family broke apart and was later reassembled in a different, healthier form. Next, one  went another off to the suburbs. The last of us remained, left as an adult and then returned to her childhood home as her parents aged in place.

During our breakfast outing back in November, we shared our memories of a childhood viewed through three different lenses. It was fascinating to see what the others remembered and what I forgot. 

Fast forward a few weeks and you find me trying to figure out what a retirement wardrobe should look like. I’m watching youtubes videos on capsule wardrobes and listening to podcasts on “finding your style.” Then I wander over to the Seamwork website and discover their “Design Your Wardrobe” course. No, I haven’t taken it but I have scrolled through the course materials. And what did I find? Paper dolls! O.k., not really but sort of. There are line drawings of different adult silhouettes and you can match up line drawings of the sewing patterns to go with your silhouette. Look like paper dolls to me!, 

(not the Seamwork silhouettes)

That immediately sent me down memory lane, playing with and making our own paper dolls and paper doll clothing. Happy memories of a time when our responsibilities were mostly limited to doing homework and practicing our instruments. When free time was spent playing in the courtyard or riding our bikes or playing board games. A simpler time that we can never return to but that will always put a small smile on our faces when we think of it.

Here’s to simple times and the memories they bring.

Who wants to play paper dolls with me?!