Attitude of Gratitude - Day Two - Hometown Lovin'

If you missed my post here is the Gratitude Video

DAY TWO

Today I want to express my gratitude to the little town I grew up in.

Topsham, Maine

Thank you for providing me with a quaint, small town, safe environment in my early years.

From first through mid-seventh grade I lived in this old little yellow house on Main Street. YES, Main Street USA ;)

I lived in this awesome area where all the homes around were in a square so there was a huge open field where we could all play in my back yard.  

I ate cherries, crab applies, green onions (chives) right off the trees and from the ground.  We picked blackberries and raspberries off bushes.

I had the most beautiful lilac bushes covering a white fence with an arbor known to man.

I was so lucky to grow up around acres and acres of woodlands.  My friends and I would hike trails for hours upon hours sometimes.  We had rope swings over creeks, a tree house and only the sun as our clock.

We used to WALK to the county fair every year and ride the rides, visit the midway and eat all the yummy food.  We rode our bikes all around town without a care in the world. I walked to Dairy Queen (7 houses down from me!!) daily in season for a dipped cone.

I grew up in this idealistic town in a much safer day and age when the only thing we did as kids was play outside.  Doors were left unlocked, kids roamed free.

Thank you to my little town upbringing for such a wonderful beginning to my life.  I truly think the imagination I grew as a child is what produced the writer in me as an adult.  I recall riding my bike to the small town library housed in an old home and loving it.  I recall the gorgeous old bed and breakfast that I used to pretend was where the "town rich family" lived. I recall playing under the Brunswick Bridge, ice skating on ponds, climbing to the top of the fire town behind the high school to look out over the town.

I moved away during Christmas break of seventh grade.  I recall how sad I was to leave my little town and the friends I had known for so long.  Life was never that idealistic again.  Topsham isn't the same town as it once was.  But, for a moment in time it was this perfect little place that helped shape me into who I am today and for that I am GRATEFUL.