Sweetheart boats

This dreary weather we've had these past few days got me to thinking about Sweetheart Candy boxes. It was either late February or early March (obviously because of the Valentine's candy) that C.J. and I crafted boats. We were living in Pennsylvania at the time and must have had a bout of wet weather. Our parking lot always flooded when the snow melted, or we had lots of rain (basement flooded as well and toys were ruined, but that's another story). C.J. and I were sick of being cooped up inside on those long winter days.*

*A little fact about my time in Pennsylvania: we lived in Edinboro which is on the Lake Erie side of the state. It started snowing that year, '93, on Halloween, no lie. It was frigid, to say the least, that winter and two kids can only do so much in an apartment before going stir crazy. Think, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," from 'The Shining.'

So, sometime after Valentine's we decided to play in the puddles in the drive. I think that it was C.J. who had the idea of making little boats out of the box. If I remember correctly the boxes had that waxy sheen on them so it made them ideal for floating. We cut them up used toothpicks as masts and tissues (I think) as sails. We raced our boats by blowing on them, we tested their ability to hold weight by loading them with rocks until they sunk. Life was simple.

I really get to missing my brother when little things like the Sweetheart boats come back to me. I guess I really get to missing my childhood, a case of nostalgia. And you know, what really gets my head spinning now, 20 years down the road from this moment, I will miss these simple days and this time as a youth. I wonder if we do live multiple lives, if we get do overs. I don't think so. But if we could, could we come back with the memory of our short comings from our previous life and make things better? Or at least different? Could we come back with a greater sense of appreciation for the moments that we are in? Probably not. But perhaps we could teach ourselves to slow it down a little and reflect on the present because as they say, it goes too fast.