When I Was a kid

When I was a kid
I wanted to live inside Jeanie’s bottle
and travel by magic carpet

be chosen as a contestant on
the Price is Right
get slimed on Nickelodeon’s
You Can’t Do That on Television
make it to bucket number six on
Bozo’s Grand Prize Game
walk off stage with a pile of prizes,
a brand new bike

When I was a kid
I wanted to eat SpaghettiOs
we never had in our house
raise cute little sea monkeys
what would I name them?
shrink myself to ride
Mister Rogers’s trolley
go on a real field trip with him
feed his fish

When I was a kid
I wanted to
sit on the steps of a brownstone
on Sesame Street
even though I might have been
too old
dance in a fire hydrant’s fountain
releasing its cool spray
on a hot summer day
claim the top bunk
at camp
write letters home by flashlight
swat at mosquitoes on
my neck
sticky with sweat

When I was a kid
I wanted to explore the woods and
Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Falling Water
even though I didn’t
know about architecture
listen to babbling brooks
as snowmelt
swelled streams and creeks and rivers
I wanted to wave at Santa
from Broadway
at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade
catch snowflakes on my tongue
wave at the camera
to kids watching from home
ride a subway

When I was a kid
I wanted to teach the
world to
sing
in perfect
harmony

and then I grew up

Thursday, March 26, 2026

6 thoughts on “When I Was a kid

  1. I love all the details here. Picturing entering the worlds of Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. I’m not sure I’ve grown up because I still want to do so many of those things!

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  2. I love this slice. It’s such a peek into who you are…were? Funny story. I had tickets to see Bozo. I was not called for the Grand Prize Game. I sobbed the whole way home.

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  3. Thanks for taking me along on your ride down Memory Lane. I remember reading the ads for the Sea Monkeys in the back pages of the comic books my mom would buy us on base, on our way to the pool during the summer. We never got any…

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  4. I must still be a kid because I still want to do most of these. Not the spaghetios though. We never has them at our house either, but my cousin did and I was not a fan. But I was a big fan of Mr. Rogers.

    Thanks for this imaginative trip down memory lane.

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