grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Goodbye Gilligan’s Island

By

Gilligan's Island

After school snack of peanut butter
 crackers, watching Gilligan’s
 Island 

at the 
lake
drive was long–I read Alice in Wonderland the entire
trip(s)
to the library while Momma was at Lucille’s Beauty
Shop(ping)
at Sterlings, the smell of
 popcorn
at
 Nana’s

drawing crazy ducks at
church

revival on hot, summer
days
 spent flat on our backs, naming the shapeof
clouds 
and cold, days spent playing jacks inside—too cold for
recess
spent upside down on the playground bars like a
Monkey
Island at the Memphis
Zoo
picnics, with homemade chicken, deep
fried
potatoes every
night(s)
spent telling ghost stories
become
memories
become
us.

These are a few of my random childhood memories layered like tree rings. Flashes, mere seconds in my life, vividly remembered years later. Each comes with a smell or a sound or a taste. Peel them back to find my thoughts, attitudes, opinions. Peel them back to find me.We have no control over what we remember. What sticks and what doesn’t?

Not all of my memories are strawberry-cupcake-filled. There were not-so-perfect memories too, those that sometimes kept me up at night. And regular run-of-the-mill life moments, easily forgotten. The sum of my life experiences furnished me with a love for reading and nature and cooking and family and home.

Now imagine….

What if instead of coming home from school to peanut butter crackers and Gilligan’s Island, I played Grand Theft Auto Vice City. Every day for years…

What if instead of attending church revival on hot summer days, I spent weeks holed up in my dark bedroom playing Hitman?

What if instead of checking out Nancy Drew books at the library, I checked out Splatterhouse?Would I be the same person?

The gun control debate has turned nasty. We can blame guns and mental health while calling for more control or taking up arms to fight for our rights. I don’t know what the magic answer is, but the problem stems from a complete breakdown of society including family and morals.
I grew up around guns yet never once considered shooting anyone on the school bus, even though my purse was ransacked and my lunch money was stolen nearly every day. And as bad as that was, the worst bully never considered pulling out a gun to steal my lunch money.
There were consequences—home, school, police, higher power.
When does virtual become reality? Shouldn’t Hollywood shoulder partial responsibility? Shouldn’t parents accept responsibility for not parenting?
How could we not be affected by something we are exposed to day in and day out, whether positive or negative?
If we smoke one cigarette, no harm done. Smoke cigarettes for five hours every day for years and see what happens.

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening

Musical Pairing:

In This World We Created, Queen

“Memory is the diary we all carry about with us.” ― Oscar Wilde

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Comments

  2. Wow! You’ve gone to preaching!! Good for you. Nice poem,too. New pattern? Your own invention? Impressive. I’m working on a new form: anaphora. It’s interesting, too.

    • I guess I was feeling the spirit this morning Pat:) All those church revivals – LOL. And with respect to the pattern, not sure what it is, just rambling thoughts, one leading into the next. Thanks for the comment!

  4. I loved, loved this one. The format was interesting; I liked it. “Shouldn’t parents accept responsibility for not parenting?” You hit the nail on the head right there.B

  5. I had a lot of the same kind of wholesome memories from childhood that you did. My childhood didn’t include video games and all this crazy violence that kids today deal with. While I let my kids play video games, none of them that are allowed are the killing ones. I also am a real stickler for balance which means they need to be doing other things too. Great post.

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

  11. A straightforward, reasonable argument regarding cause and effect. How many otherwise wonderful people have been obscured or misdirected by bad influence and bad habits? Great poem too!

    I will be sharing this.

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