The Way It Was

I don't claim to have particularly fantastic recall of childhood - not as strong as that of author Roddy Doyle, I suspect - but I know I remember some things (incidents, people, places) with a vivid particularity that lets me drift unstuck in time if I so wish. And there are some more general feelings I experienced as a child, peculiar to childhood, that I can recall to the extent of almost feeling them again.

For example, I know for an absolute certainty that I felt extremely irritated with adults reminding me, and they did so often, that childhood was the best time of life - or words to that effect. In fact, on more than one occasion I vowed to remember as an adult that much of the time I - the junior version of myself - felt either slightly worried or very worried about a thousand and one things that I never quite got under control. I also knew as a child that I wasn't an unusually anxious child and that other kids felt pretty much the same way I did in this respect.

So now I'm remembering my vow and honouring the peculiar little lad who came up with it. And I'm also thinking that essentially I remained a happy little soul despite all my worries, perhaps because whatever it was I felt in those days was felt with such intensity that you could always lose yourself in that intensity.