Being human as I am and being a child, as I once was I remember wanting a couple of things that just never came to be. Let me state for the record however that this is not a rant on how horrible my childhood was. In fact quite the opposite, I had a great childhood. But human nature being what it is, thinking of things we don't have, there were a couple of things I can remember wanting and just never getting. I laugh now as I recall just what it was that I so wanted. Remember I was a child. I wanted a gate. We had a lovely home in a lovely neighborhood and our large backyard was fenced except there wasn't a gate. There was an opening so all could freely come and go. My brother and I and many, many kids on the block and Gomer our dog spent endless hours running through that opening and all over the yard playing various games. Kick the Can was a favorite. But we didn't have a gate and I wanted one. The other thing I really, really wanted was a frosty stand between my house and my school so that on my way home I could get a frosty. The lot my parents built our house on was chosen because it was close and convenient to our school. No room for a frosty stand. Only two houses separated me and the school grounds. Only two houses between my house and the bike racks if you lived far enough away to ride your bike. My purple banana seat bike did not get ridden to school or by a frosty stand. It took me longer to get it out of the garage and park it in the bike racks than to just walk. So I in my child mind thought that this was somehow unfair that I should live so close to the school and be deprived of getting a frosty on the way home and unlatching my gate.
Oh that humanness. Having so much and still just wanting a little bit more, not able to see until much later on the riches that were all mine. A childhood in a time when you didn't lock up your yard or your bike and no one bothered them. How I would love it if my own children and grandchildren knew that world.
How often have I said, everything I want is exactly what I have. I don't need more because what I have is more than I need. Not often enough. So now as a grown up I have a beautiful fenced yard with not one gate but two. I live within a block of two places in which I can walk to or drive through and get a frosty. Guess you could say, I have everything I ever wanted.