Crawdads and Memories

I brought this guy and some of his kin home from Fitts Seafood the other day. My kids had a blast.

I bought them because I remember catching crawdads and eating them when I was a kid.

I also remember catching minnows from the rocky banks of the Willamette River in Keizer, I remember digging for treasure in the backyard, playing Wiffle ball in the empty lot next door, having dirt clod fights, climbing trees and eating young apples and feeling ill. I remember standing on a plywood sheet held up only by the blackberry bushes beneath it over the side of a hill, picking and eating until my fingertips were black. I remember the road trip I took with my grandparents and brother through the Redwoods, by the Great Salt Lake and to the red desert. I remember my pony. I remember having fun.

Memories.