Squid Jiggin'

Wow! Squid Jiggin' Ground.

An old song from my childhood days,

suddenly taking on some meaning in my life once again.

In just a few weeks, Mark and I will be heading to Newfoundland for ten days.

Ten days to relive my childhood, visit the Navy base where I grew up, see my school, go to my old church, try to find the first house we lived in in a little fishing village called Placentia.

I sit and remember.

Remember days when the snow was so high we had trouble getting to school.

They didn't do snow days, so you got there any way you could.

I remember walking - delicately and deliberately - through snow as high as my waist and sometimes higher, trying to pick the safest routes, the safest steps, taking an extra set of clothes to change into once you got to school because every stitch you had on would be soaked.

I remember fishing with my dad on the northside pier. His jacket zipped up tight, cap on his head, fishing for cod, throwing back blowfish which used to scare me when I was little - they are some ugly fish, just sayin'! - trying not to get blown off the dock because the winds were that strong.

I remember going to the commissary one day, and Daddy telling me to hold on to the car door when I opened it. I did, but the wind was so strong it pulled me right out of the car and dumped me on the ground.

I remember hours spent playing on the hill of rock behind our home. Coloring on rocks with crayons, daydreaming for hours, singing, playing make-believe until I'd hear the van as Dad came looking for me for supper. 

And I remember the music.

Standing in the Navy Exchange testing a harmonica they just got in, playing the Canadian National Anthem, and the civilian employees stopping, standing still with a hand over their heart as I played.

I loved living there!

I can't wait to go home in a few weeks.

I know very few buildings remain on the base.

Our two different homes on the base itself are totally gone and trees stand in their places.

I know it's going to be sad,

but it's going to be happy, too,

and I just can't wait!

I'm sorry my new style squid drawing pulled me into the backstory.

Squid Jiggin' Ground is a good old Newfie song

and it just reminded me. 

Now, where did I leave those kleenexes?

(Might I just add this note on May 3rd, my readers are the best! Thank you for the comments you post and send to me - whether here or on facebook. I'm glad you shared some of your memories with me :). You made my day, too!)