Triggers

I was thinking of triggers today, no I’m not talking about Roy Roger’s horse or what you pull on a gun or rifle. I’m talking about triggers that come and go throughout your life that spark a memory, such as a song, or a smell of a certain food, or a scent of perfume or cologne. I watched a movie today and for some reason or another it triggered me back to my childhood remembering things from days gone by.

I remember on a warm spring night leaving my bedroom window open hearing the crickets and smelling fresh cut grass from the afternoon mowing. Or the startling wake up call to the 2 a.m. sounds of the milkman delivering milk through the neighborhood. Hearing his starts and stops at each house and the rattle of the glass bottles being placed in the insulated metal milk box on our porch.

I drifted to the summer days when I couldn’t wait to have my breakfast and hurriedly do my chores so I could go outside and play at the playground up the hill from my house. I would swing, hang on the monkey bars, and get dizzy on the merry go round for hours. Then it was a quick lunch and back outside to collect empty soda bottles with my friends in a wagon so we could make the trip to the local market to buy penny candy. We would laugh all the way home and sit under somebody’s tree and eat the candy until we thought we would bust.

I especially loved the nights of organizing the entire neighborhood into a game of kick the can. My house was usually home base and the places to hide were spectacular. I even remember stealing a kiss from one of my crushes up in a tree. I was quite the tom boy growing up and the carefree life I had as a kid was perfect.

As I look back, I truly believe those days in my neighborhood presented so many opportunities of friendship, growing and learning, and just plain fun of being a kid. I’m thankful for it. So, if you have a trigger, I hope it makes you smile just as mine did, because I wouldn’t change a single thing.

What are your triggers from your past that make you smile?