Memories of childhood are bright at Christmas

“Because I Said So” column for The Commercial Appeal

December 25, 2008

As a small child I received one of those plastic, green inchworm riding toys for Christmas one year. It’s the wheeled conveyance with a little yellow hat and saddle on its middle hump for sitting.

The story goes that I was given this gift, played with it for a day, deemed too young for it by my mother, and it was put back in the attic for the next year. So there are faded photos from the early 1970s of me with my inchworm, and then more photos from one year later with the very same toy.

My mom recycled before recycling was fashionable … (read more)