Sheils Writes

It’s 2024 I know, but in my head I prefer it to be the 1970’s to 1980’s and I consider this perfectly normal behavior for a 58 year old woman.  Every day I like to revisit parts of my childhood, in one small way or another.  I may pick up an old book I might’ve read back in those days or snack on a candy (see picture below) that evokes a memory to a simpler time.  Honestly, I think that’s what this is all about, just grasping at simpler times.

I have very good memories of the long gone days of the late 1970s to early 1980s.  I was a kid.  I didn’t have a lot of responsibility.  I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, although I thought maybe an actress or a ballerina seemed like perfectly normal professions (spoiler alert:  I became a secretary).  I once participated in a Miss Norwalk Seaport competition, however I did not win and this could be where things took a turn and I began to grow-up and out into a world where I became, gulp, responsible (ick).  Prior to that life altering moment, I have many great memories of just having fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I had fun after that major defeat, I just think it was a telling moment in my life where I knew I needed a different path.

There was no social media back then, no trying to impress my peers.  I do remember being genuinely happy back in those days and I think that’s why I want to revisit them more and more as I grow older.  Lately, the 24-hour news channels, although I get sucked in, are a bust in my eyes.  When I can tune into The Love Boat or Family Ties (thank you Pluto TV) for several hours, I’m much more relaxed.  Add in a bowl of Lucky Charms or Froot Loops, a few hours working on an old school craft project and my Trixie Belden books by my side, I’m happiest here and if that works for me, that’s really all that matters.