25 Things I Miss

This list was influenced by Hula Seventy's List Forty-Two: Things I Miss.

1. Being part of a culture in which we all knew how to sing and regularly broke out into four-part harmony
2. The sweet smell of the glue you had to lick on the backs of postage stamps
3. Red Tic Tacs
4. The time before I knew the knowledge and fear that having cancer leaves you
5. Hockey arena gravy on crinkle fries in little cardboard baskets
6. My blue blankie
7. Sneaking under the fence for a free concert at the Exhibition
8. The comforting discomfort of pine needles between the sheets under a scratchy wool blanket at the lake
9. The smell of the dirt floor root cellar where I used to escape from the summer heat
10. Quarters hidden in birthday cakes
11. Tinned strawberry jam
12. Saturday morning cartoons with artistic character that aren't cheap-looking computer animations
13. 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
14. The squeak of chisel-tipped permanent markers on bristle board in Sunday School
15. The sound of those hollow plastic Big Wheels tricycle tires crunching on gravel and asphalt
16. Spending whole afternoons alphabetizing my books and rearranging my bedroom
17. O'Ryans Sour Cream & Onion Chips, which were discontinued in the 90s
18. My favourite summer dress, which was stolen from me during a break-in 14 years ago
19. Being a little kid in a petting zoo when all the animals seemed so big
20. Count Chocula
21. Santa's Pizza, which was a restaurant I spent many, many, many nights in
22. Watching The Flintstones at lunch
23. 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
24. The town graveyard in Drake, Saskatchewan
25. The velvet touch of a primer pencil on Hilroy notebook paper

What do you miss?