My Happy Place

My husband just indulged me.  He took off from work for a couple of days and we traveled for two hours in the air-conditioned comfort of his Jeep Cherokee to escape from a stifling heat wave at home.  We vacationed for three glorious days in the Sullivan County Catskills.  It’s where I spent my childhood summers, not away at camp but with my family at a bungalow colony owned by our cousins. 

To me, reliving my childhood always circles around family. Some things in the familiar Catskills territory and terrain have changed over these past six decades from when I can first remember the fun-filled days "up the mountains," yet lots have stayed the same, even if only in my mind's eye.

The bungalows are dilapidated but I can still "see" myself playing outside and rolling down the dew-covered grassy lawn. The babbling brook I walked to with my mother in the early mornings all those years ago appears much smaller but I can "feel" my mother at my side. Like a soap opera, the scenes quickly flip through my mind, regularly floating back to recap the ones before. 

Time kind of moves on, yet sort of stands still. But for me, one thing is permanently etched and that is the sweet memory of the warmth of family. 

That's me pictured above! Sharon 1958 age five at Mountain View Bungalows in Livingston Manor, New York  Sullivan County Catskills