25 Things I Miss

This list was influenced by Hula Seventy's List Forty-Two: Things I Miss.
- Being part of a culture in which we all knew how to sing and regularly broke out into four-part harmony
- The sweet smell of the glue you had to lick on the backs of postage stamps
- Red Tic Tacs
- The time before I knew the knowledge and fear that having cancer leaves you
- Hockey arena gravy on crinkle fries in little cardboard baskets
- My blue blankie
- Sneaking under the fence for a free concert at the Exhibition
- The comforting discomfort of pine needles between the sheets under a scratchy wool blanket at the lake
- The smell of the dirt floor root cellar where I used to escape from the summer heat
- Quarters hidden in birthday cakes
- Tinned strawberry jam
- Saturday morning cartoons with artistic character that aren't cheap-looking computer animations
- My first favourite pair of shoes that said Left on the left toe and Right on the right toe next to a little mouse racing a red car
- The squeak of chisel-tipped permanent markers on bristle board in Sunday School
- The sound of those hollow plastic Big Wheels tricycle tires crunching on gravel and asphalt
- Spending whole afternoons alphabetizing my books and rearranging my bedroom
- O'Ryans Sour Cream & Onion Chips, which were discontinued in the 90s
- My favourite summer dress, which was stolen from me during a break-in 14 years ago
- Being a little kid in a petting zoo when all the animals seemed so big
- Count Chocula
- Santa's Pizza, which was a restaurant I spent many, many, many nights in
- Watching The Flintstones at lunch
- The red ribbon on the lamp my grandmother received as a wedding gift in the 60s that faded and drooped but remained nonetheless over the next 30 years
- The town graveyard in Drake, Saskatchewan
- The velvet touch of a primer pencil on Hilroy notebook paper
What do you miss?