Going Through My Scrapbook

Today's prompt: "Dig out a childhood photo and share something you remember happening during that time the photo was taken."

I’ve decided to talk about one of my birthday parties that I remember pretty clearly, even though my scrapbook says that I was only five. Back when I was little, I loved dressing up. I can remember an even further back memory, of another birthday, where I got this little red, yellow, and blue suit case full of dress up clothes and that night I put on a fashion show for my family. The white dress that I’m wearing in these pictures was one of my favorites from this collection (as well as a purple ballerina outfit mixed with a silver hero’s cape.) It always was some type of frosty fairy’s dress in my mind, with its sparkles and white plastic snowflakes around the collar. It still amazes me that I loved wearing skirts and dresses so much back then, because I can barely stand to wear those things now; my favorite article of clothing nowadays is jeans.

This was one of the most memorable birthday parties I have had, mainly because as far as I can remember it was one of the last larger ones that I invited friends over for (or rather, my parents did!) As I got older, I began to like smaller parties that involved less fuss. All of my friends came, 3 or 4, not counting my brother. When I look at the pictures, I recognize all the different gifts that I got, but the only one I clearly remember actually opening was a little notebook covered in red silk with golden Chinese dragons and patterns embroidered on it; along with a matching pen with a red fluffy feather on the end. It’s interesting that that’s what I remember the most, from a five year old’s perspective, over all the other toys I got.

So that’s some of my memories from childhood. Sometimes, I feel as if putting these types of things into words doesn’t do the memories justice. They are a mixture of colors, feelings, and factual as well as some fictional details, as well as what I’ll call “The Good Ol’ Days” syndrome, where everything is gilded golden with time. My greatest desire would be to transfer them from the storehouses of my memory onto film, unaltered from the way I see them in my mind. Words can’t always do that; but I have found that it’s an interesting challenge to always be trying to make the words bend to my visions as closely as possible.

These pictures were scanned from my scrapbook, that's why there's borders and balloons all around them.