Being a kid

I was walking home from the subway last night and began to think about what it was like to be a kid. I know everyone does that, some more than others. This particular incident was based around Christmas time and how my mother always made really great cookies and fudge every Christmas. She used to put this amazing Christmas music on and I would sit in front of the stereo just hanging out, eating cookies.

I think I was all of 5 years old, but this memory stands out in my head. We had a pretty big "stereo" which had 2 tape decks and 1 turntable on the top. I remember that the tape deck on the left could record, so all the buttons were in red, while the one on the right could only play, and the buttons were blue. Also, you had to hold down both the "play" and "record" buttons on the red-buttoned deck to get it to record. I never understood why you needed both. By the time I was born, the turntable was broken, but I always tried to figure out how to play a vinyl record without the belt that made the turntable turn.

This isn't really going anywhere other than sometimes, a specific memory stands out so vividly in your mind that you remember every specific detail about the situation. I remember the color carpet on the floor (beige), the song that I liked the most ("Silver Bells") and even what time of day it was (afternoon, but snowing, so it was darker out). Point is, in my daily life now, I hardly notice anything that's not directly related to something that I do everyday. As a kid, you notice everything, you take it all in, and you remember what you want. It seems as adults, we lose that capability and just have a tunnel vision approach to everything. It would be nice to be a kid again and take it all in. Of course, with my luck, while I was taking it all in, I'd probably be struck by that bus screaming down 7th Ave because I'm too busy "noticing" things.....