I wish I could have appreciated what I had when I was a child...

[WillParkinson]

Many years ago my parents used to take me to our trailer in Babcock Wisconsin. A very small unincorporated town in the middle of the state. I hated it there. There were no kids my age for the most part and it was so boring. I could not wait to get out of there.

Then there was my Uncle Herman and Aunt Cottie (Locadia). They owned a farm in Stratford Wisconsin. Another small town and we'd go up and visit them when we were in Babcock. It was always awful. The place smelled of old people. I was so glad when I got old enough to be left home alone. I never wanted to have to go there again.

Flash forward.

Now I'm 46 years old and we're looking at a property in a small town where life is quieter. I'm tired of being in a house that's so close you can almost reach across and touch it. As for my Aunt and Uncle I work with a man from Poland named Witold. Every time he speaks I hear my Uncles voice. He sounds eerily like him and it makes me miss him so much.

I really wish I could have had an appreciation for these things when I was a child and could have grown up a better person.

[gateley]

1. K&R - Beautiful post, WillParkinson. nt

[T Wolf]

2. Though we have "gained" much in certain areas of life over my 58 years on the planet, there are

almost as many things of value that have been lost.

Most of these loses are in "quality of life" areas such as relationships, pride in work, perceived worth to society, and things like you talk about.

I think that as conditions continue to deteriorate for most of us, the physical/economic hardships that are forced on more and more of us will also produce more longing for "the good old days" directly because of the degradation of the quality of our lives rather than a desire for economic security.

People have always struggled to survive. We now have that in spades, but we also have lost many of the things that made economic hardships a little more bearable.

[Warpy]

3. I was a country club kid who hated every minute of being at that place

UNTIL I discovered the catering kitchen and explored it completely and the area in back of the bar where I used to open cans and wash glasses and get paid in snacks and sodas (I was eight) and a path into the woods near the golf course where I could explore and a half sunk, leaky rowboat on the other side of the lake that I could use a board to paddle around if I could con some other kid into bailing as we went.

I think if you think back a little harder you'll think of things you explored, too, that have stayed with you in one way or another.

People, though, have gone forever and there's nothing we can do about that. We never got to appreciate them when we were kids because appreciating them wasn't our job. We can only do it in retrospect when someone else jogs our memory.

[chemenger]

4. I don't mean to be a smart ass but I was going to start off by saying

better late than never. What I really mean to say is that you realize it now which is better than not realizing it at all. My wife would tell you that, for some spiritual reason, you weren't meant to realize it until now because you didn't need to realize it until now. Knowing it back then wouldn't have had as much of an influence on you as it does by knowing it now. Nes pa?

[ljm2002]

5. That's why they say...

...that "youth is wasted on the young".

Don't worry about it. Our perspectives change as we get older. I remember once reading that, as much as children may seem to hate family vacations, and spend the time squabbling, when they get older, what do they remember fondly? Yep, those dreaded family vacations.

It's just the nature of the beast. Nice that you are coming around, and that something reminds you of your uncle, and that you realize these outings did indeed seep into your consciousness and contributed to making you who you are.