My Childhood Haunts

Remaining Static shouldn’t be an option.

Like many people, I often think about my hometown and my childhood haunts. They often come up in my dreams or when I take some time to reflect.The memories are vivid, bright and always bring a smile to my face. Childhood days are often filled with great times, good memories, smiles, laughter and fun.

I remember vividly the school ovals, consisting of two footy fields, plus two cricket fields.  The ovals were huge, and we had to cross a street to reach them. These were the days on the Sunshine Coast that kids would show up to school without shoes, and usually without a care in the world. I remember the Mini-Rainforest that we cultivated at the edge of one of the cricket ovals and was a integral piece of an entry we did for a Tidy Schools competition.

I remember the trails near the beach and the rocky outcrop that sat next to the mouth of the river. The trails amongst the dunes and the vegetation that seemed to take forever to traipse through to get the beach proper. The stretch of beach stretched for ages, and the walk along the beach back to the Surf Club took forever.

Recently I returned to my childhood haunts and my memories now are wrong. The river has ravaged the long stretches of beach that I knew, the dunes and the brush has gone and the caravan park now stretches to the mouth of the river. The river has shifted and the Rocky Outcrop that used to be a main point for us kids, was now on the other side of the mouth and unreachable from our side.The walk back to the surf club, was now less than half of what I remembered but this wasn’t the end.

The school ovals I remember have been dissected by a busy highway and the huge expanse of oval with so many fond memories is gone, as has the Mini-Rainforest. Progress has changed my childhood memories.

Surfing off the Headland now was also a different experience as the hope of seeing the girl across the road, (who I had a huge crush on) has been removed as the house had been replaced by a unit complex.

My hometown had not stood still. The town had changed and my ability to now see the world as I do in my memories has been removed.

Yet as people, many of us want to stay static. We want our routine, we want our certainty, we want to cuddle down in our own comfort. Imagine if my beach wanted to remain static, yet the river had other ideas, while progress took away any chance for the school ovals to remain the same.

And the same happens with us. If we refuse to grow, the world will change around us. The change around us will ultimately force change onto us. And to grow then stops being an option as the usual reaction is for us to lash out in anger and despair.

The choice is there for us to make.. Remaining static is never an option. 

Tony Curl – tonycurl.com

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