Will you remember?

Sometimes I wonder, will this make the list? Will you remember in 20 years? Will you be driving a country road, turn to your wife and say, "This reminds me of once, when I was six. My parents took me to the Amish country. I rode a ferris wheel all by myself, waved to my Dad and pretended I was flying."?

Will you tell her also about the way you cried when it was time to go, your heart so set on staying with Sami to catch lightning bugs? Will you think of that full moon, still yellow from having sun in its eyes, how you and your sister were sure it was chasing you, how you giggled at the thought of the moon playing peekaboo?

Will you laugh at the way you assumed every buggy must be Abe's? Will you smile at the thought of the baby goat that kept jumping the fence, remembering how your little sister yelled "He's a jumper! We've got a jumper!"?


Will you remember that sticky first taste of cotton candy, the way we teased about offering it only every six years, how you did the math and decided you couldn't wait until 12, how you made the case for 8?

And even if none of this makes the list, even if it all fades by the age of 8 such that you even forget to take up the case for your biannual allowance of cotton candy, I hope you'll carry this general feeling with you forever--the unshakable feeling that when you were young, you were so very happy about so very many things, that life was so very simple, so very good, that you were so very loved.