I Reminisce...

So today is Easter. While I was sitting in church observing all of the families and kids running around in their brightly colored Easter dresses, suits, pressed and curled hair and fresh haircuts, I begin to think about the time I was once that little kid. As the days of our lives speed by, it’s easy to feel like we were born an adult. But on days like today, I miss those simpler times when the biggest challenge I had to look forward to was finding the golden egg during the Easter Egg hunt.

Other things I miss from my childhood are:

 

Family cookouts: Whether they were in someone’s backyard, the beach, or my personal favorite, Hannah Park, family cookouts were and are the best. My fondest memory would be my dad and uncles on the grill while my mom, grandma, and aunts were in the kitchen making the sides. My cousins and I would run around outside and with the boom box blasting someone would eventually start a dance contest. The grown-ups would try to get all of the kids to do the latest dance moves, and then my Uncle Bruce would jump into the Georgia Slop while Uncle Daryl would hit a split. Those were good times.

 

Short sets: Okay so if you grew up in the South, you know about short sets, you probably owned a couple. They were basically automatic outfits that you could get from the mall or more than likely the flea market. Maybe I don’t miss those as much lol.

 

Honey drippers: These were the bomb during hot, summer days. You can make them yourself or go to the nearest candy lady. They were simply frozen juice in a cup and on a good day they would have fruit at the bottom.

 

The candy lady: Speaking of honey drippers, as I mentioned your neighborhood candy lady probably had an assortment of these. Back during simpler times, a candy lady was a woman who sold candy, cookies, chips, sodas and pickles to the all of the kids in the neighborhood. Our candy lady was Ms. Jones. She was so old she was the candy lady even when my mom was a little girl. After a day of playing, my cousins and I would walk to her house and purchase all of the above. It’s amazing how much stuff we could get with just a couple of dollars back then.

 

Wood Stock Park: This park was around the corner from my grandma’s house. It was like any old park except maybe it was in the hood, but it didn’t matter because we would have a good time. Men would play basketball while women watched and the kids would see who could touch the sky on the swings. Some of my best memories were when my grandma would take us to the park and buy us ice cream, the kind that came in a plastic cup and had a wooden stick for a spoon or my Uncle Robert would fix all of the kids lunch, then we would all pile on the back of his pick-up truck and he would drive us to the park.

 

Free summer lunches: Since school was out during the summer, neighborhood associations would gather at parks and pass out free lunches to all of the kids. The lunches were so good. They were just sandwiches, fruit and chocolate milk.

Kick ball, freeze tag, hide and seek, etc.: Back before Wii and PSP, we would stay outside ALL DAY. It didn’t matter if we had the latest toys and gadgets because we would manage to make up a game that was just as fun. We would play kick ball in the middle of the street and freeze tag, since I was the youngest I was always “It.”

 

Man, those were the days. I can go on and on. Thanks for coming along with me on my time machine to the past. What are things you miss from your childhood?

 

Ms. Jas

Motherhood and Marriage vs. Career...what to do, what to do...?

So it’s a few days after my 27^th birthday and shit just got real. I have always been very ambitious, but admittedly, I have been on auto-pilot for the last couple of years. Like most people, I got caught up in the everyday strife of working just to get by. It felt as though my 20s would never be over and then 27 cold-cocked me in the forehead.  My 30s are around the corner and I still have a lot of stuff to accomplish. Now, I do know that I am still very young and I have a lot of living to do, but it’s something about coming upon the end of a decade that makes you put everything into perspective.

With this in mind, I was talking with a co-worker about careers, college, etc. and she asked me, “What about a husband and kids?” And I stopped myself from saying with a hint of stankness, “What about a husband and kids?” Despite my ambitiousness, I never thought I couldn’t have it all, but whenever someone meets me and observes my drive or singleness, I always get the same responses. “Don’t you want to settle down?” “You’re one of those career girls, aren’t you?”

My frustration with these questions is that it’s pretty much assumed and accepted that as a woman you have to choose one or the other….you can’t have both. That annoys the shitake out of me. Yes, I can be very ambitious and lost in my dreams probably more so than the next person, but WHY can’t I have BOTH.


Perhaps I watch too many damn romantic comedies or maybe I shouldn’t have taken the Huxtables at face value, but I want it all: the career, the man, and the kids. And I think it’s possible. The ironic thing is that these questions are always asked by other women. I very rarely get this response from men. I actually get the complete opposite. They usually tell me to run far, far away from the idea of marriage until I’ve gotten all of the shenanigans of my youth out.

Basically, what I’m saying, is it’s nothing wrong with wanting marriage and motherhood, but there also isn’t anything wrong with wanting a great career either. So don’t try to make me choose!