As I sit here eating lunch, I’m thinking about a birthday party I went to last night. This party was for a friend who is simultaneously a new and an old friend. She’s an old friend in the sense that we were good friends when I was really young, until I was 11 or so. She’s a new friend in the sense that I moved away when we were 12 or so, we lost touch, and only reconnected in the last month or so. The reconnection got me thinking about what aspects of the younger me are still present in the current me. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, as I don’t have many memories of those years, and I think my current personality was much more formed during my high-school years.
So what is still present from my boyhood days?
Well, I was interested in highways even then, although it manifested itself in collecting maps from the local gas stations. I loved maps, and still do.
I was connected in a sense to Judaism and the Wilshire Blvd Temple Camps, having attended in 1969, 1970, and 1971. For me, that gave me more of a sense of my Jewish self than did attendance at religious school.
I remember an interest in science, although we didn’t have computers as we do today. I do remember a fascination with space. Related to that, I enjoyed reading, but wasn’t hooked on science fiction yet. That came later, thanks to Bill Layton at Pali Hi.
I didn’t have a large friends set. There was the girl whose party I attended, and about 3-4 other kids. Perhaps that is the normal friend set size, but I remember it being small. Of this group, the only one I had a desire to reconnect with was the one I reconnected with.
I recall enjoying swimming, although I swim a lot less today. I suspect that’s because of our pool, which is shedding fiberglass. Other than that, no real interest in sports, which remains true to this day.
I remember a burgeoning interest in folk music, mostly acquired from my brother. I still have some of my folk records (mostly PP&M) from that era.
Hmmm, I guess quite a bit of my personality was there. More than I thought. So what about you? How much of your personality from when you were 10ish remains part of you today?
