crazy nostalgia

I'm a super sappy and nostalgic person. My dreams are often images of my youth. Sledding runs, horseback rides, sometimes sadness. I don't remember exactly when we moved to Galesville, MD but I remember when we moved (I was 10) and a lot of the time in between. I think a lot about our street, "main st." ,and our house, and the AME church across the street, and riding bikes, getting chased by a dog, making a pickle olive and mustard sandwich on whole wheat, riding my bike to the playground, eating one bite and wondering what the hell I was thinking. Smells and tastes and senses abound in my memories. I learned to pick crabs when I was 5 or 6 and I drank a lot of Shirley Temples with old fashioned set ups (maraschino cherries and an orange slice.) Galesville was very segregated, and I learned about racism and assumptions and how to be bad from a very young age. I was lucky enough to unlearn things too. For that I'm grateful to people who confront ignorance in kids. You can learn lessons and remember them.

For whatever reason, I never had a chance to go back to Galesville until today. It's pretty much the same, people store their boats, go to church, go to school and live. And they eat a lot of crabs. I had no interest in resisting the urge to eat a crab cake so today after 20 years of being a vegetarian I ate shellfish on purpose. It was delicious.