where do the children play?

I like childhood.

I wouldn't mind going back there; to the days I watched Jem and The Land Before Time and cried when Little Foot's mum died (oh, my, god) and thought the leaves he ate looked pretty yummy. Back to the days when my friend would faint, when we made secret clubs and made club-houses beneath trees, and the near-death experiences, ohh, those near-death experiences, when we would explore my father's mill and accidently press machine buttons. When the turkeys used to roam the farm, when the peacocks used to nest in the mill, when the possums would scare us as we walked home from each other's houses.

When I had crushes on boys from school and used to show off immensely about my cool pencil with the bird cage on the end of it. He broke it. When I swore I would never swear that day when we were climbing under the desks, and one boy said, "Don't worry, Jamie, one day you will, trust me." And I eventually did. I saw that boy the other day. He's old now and looks weird. I doubt he even recognised me.

Back to when I was afraid of Bus 1 and I had to ride it one day, for some reason, with my sand saucer; I clutched it, terrified, and when we went over a bump the sand saucer went everywhere. I still remember the way my bottom lip trembled when the bus driver sighed, staring at my 7 year old self.

Back to the days when the boy I had a crush on sold his horse to someone else and not me, even when he blatantly knew I wanted a horse. Little shite.

Back to when animals were my life. I honestly would never stop trying to save all those rabbits and mice my cat would catch. I realised that streak hasn't left me - last year I spent hours getting dried calf milk off a little bird. Weird story, but it had rained and flooded these milk bags; one of the bags ripped open and a bird landed in it. Poor babe.

Dirt was good.

Rain was good.

You'd jump in the river and sometimes pool with your clothes on.

You were young, you were free. You didn't drink alcohol. You listened to 5ive. If you were lonely you didn't think about it the way you do now.