I have a board on Pinterest  called “Childhood memories,” on which I pin things that, not surprisingly, remind me of my childhood. They usually bring back strong and compelling memories, things I haven’t thought of in a long ass time.

1.

Baby Sitters Club & Sweet Valley High books.  I remember my first Baby Sitters Club (BSC) book. It was number six.  When I got it, I didn’t realize it was a series and had five more before it.  It wasn’t until Scholastic came out the next month or so with another BSC book that I figured it out. And then Sweet Valley High (SVH) books… I didn’t read those as often; didn’t like the characters as much, but I had a whole shelf of them as a kid.  At work yesterday, in one of the donation rooms, I saw several stacks of SVH books, and I nabbed a couple of them.

2.

There was a family that we went to church with that had a station wagon, and I remember riding in the back.  We only had a small four door, and I was always sitting up in the back seat, so to have a whole span of back-of-station wagon was so exciting for me.  Also because I was playing with my friends. Good times.

3.

Where, oh where would I be without this movie? I adored this movie.  I had never seen anything like it, and nothing had gotten my imagination like this movie.  It made me think in a way that other things hadn’t. At the time, I wanted to be an astronaut, and this movie was just proof of why.  I wanted to walk among those clouded stars and feel the ground on those asteroid-like worlds.  I was in second grade the first time I saw it, in class.