Some of my clearest childhood memories can be boiled down to a few quirky moments that still make me smile.
1. I was the only kid I knew with a worm bin. If you didn’t grow up with hippie parents in the Pacific Northwest, that probably sounds strange—but it was normal for us.
2. In 1994 the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a Fantastic Sticker Maker. Instead I received 17 nature books about orca whales and their life cycles.
3. We had scones every Sunday. “Every Sunday” is the key phrase—no two batches were ever exactly the same. Substitutions were routine: my dad sometimes used orange juice, or we’d toss in sour cream that was nearly past its prime. Occasionally a batch burned because my mom would get distracted talking on the phone and wander away from the kitchen.
Recently my mom admitted in an email, “On a Sunday morning with a little butter, raspberry jam, and a cup of fresh coffee even the slightly burnt ones taste great!”
She’s not wrong.
