The time machine can take you anywhere in your childhood.
To a taste. A feeling. A moment. A year. A sensation.
It won’t take you somewhere nasty. Nowhere you wouldn’t want to return to, just somewhere you’ve been and loved in those innocent days of being a kid.
How utterly fascinating it would be to return, to revisit. To relive. ABC radio host Richard Glover had this very same chat with former television host and children’s author Gretel Killeen when talking about her new children’s book.
She spoke about how she loved being transported back into the headspace of a child when she was writing kids’ fiction and Richard asked her which moments of her childhood would she want to recapture if she could.
Gretel answered that she missed Fearlessness. Learning to ride a bike by climbing on it and hurtling down a hill until you hit something. How a mother’s kiss really did make things better. The smell of burning-off. And of uncontrollable giggling when you knew you weren’t allowed to laugh.
Me? I’d go back and revel in the wonder. The awe of being a speck of a human living out days that seemed to stretch forever.
As a very young boy I honestly believed I could fly. Not just in a plane or helicopter but by myself, under the power of my own ill-equipped little limbs.
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Endless summers of surfing, climbing rocks, checking out the critters in rock pools, snorkelling, playing cricket and soccer at the beach. My cousins and friends climbing trees, riding dirt bikes in the bush, doing mad tricks on our skateboards and BMX bikes. Going 2 streets away to play knock and run, pitching a tent in the back yard and 'camping' because it was too hot and stuffy to sleep inside.
In winter it be travelling all over the state and country with my granddad in his massive Mac truck, he would let me toot the horn and change gears. All that stopped when he passed away when I was 14. To go back in time and relive just one day with him driving to Coober Pedy would be awesome!
When people would ask the child me "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I would reply "a horse." I truly believed I could grow up to be a horse - and I planned to be one of those big, mystical white ones with the wildly flowing mane and tail, rearing in front of a full moon. I thought I would do a lot of wild galloping around. And rearing in front of full moons.
This, made my day. LOLOLOLOL.
Horses were my life as a kid and even though i dont ride now i can still remember the wonderful feeling of freedom galloping down the tracks on our farm and how lucky i was to have the most amazing childhood ,something i think of alot..