Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 13, 2022

On the other hand, Sam, while living at Walden, you you probably won’t have to evacuate annually for wildfires and/or mudslides.

Back in the early 70s my family bought a holiday flat (condo?) in a new block built on dunes overlooking the sea and Freshwater East beach, about 6 km from where I now live. My sister’s and I (I as 6-7) would run wild on the dunes and the beach all day, totally free, we thought, of adult supervision. There was a wood with a stream just in front of the block, where we built dams and tied rope swings to trees. It was a massive summer playground.

I went back a few years ago. Now I am 6’2 and closer to 60 than 6, that wood is tiny, the stream little more than a trickle. I have not been back.

For such a small body of water, Walden Pond sure is deep!!

In fairness, I do believe Zonker called it “Walden Puddle” when he first discovered it.

Never the same when one returns to past homes.

Yes — the world was so much “bigger” when I was a young child; woods were denser, trees seemed to touch the sky and riding our bikes through town was the greatest feelings for us in our childhood. Revisiting those same spots 65 years later caused me to consider that my childhood was filled with false memories. I realized the difference was seeing my world, then, through the eyes and experiences of a 5 year old; now I see things through the eyes of a 70 year old, with 65 years of life experiences, triumphs & failures. I’ve realized that the memories I carry are real while the perceptions of life and joy have changed.

I still treasure those memories and I am so grateful I was born in the early ‘50s and grew up when I did.

The way the climate is out in California, Malibu might be washed up by high tides or tsunamis.

The water must be very cold with the snow falling.

I live about 10 miles from where I grew up, after being away for quite some time. I get back to my hometown regularly and Zonker’s right, everything’s smaller now.

Yep, as the saying goes, you can’t go home again! I remember an old Joe South song:

“But there’s a six-lane highway down by the creekWhere I went skinny-dippin’ as a childAnd a drive-in show where the meadow used to growAnd the strawberries used to grow wild”

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=don%27t+it+make+you+want+to+go+home+lyrics&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

That’s the way memories work. Magnifies the best and minimizes the worst. Until you start therapy…

Malibu to anywhere is sort of a shock.

From perpetual sun to perpetual snow flurries WILL take some adjusting.

And if you Alex Jones holding a tin cup,don’t give him anything

When Z was in his puddle, he was always wasted. Things seem different when you are in an altered state.

If memory serves, I believe in the day it was referred to as Walden Puddle not Walden Pond.

“Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are” – Meat Loaf

Yes. “You can’t go home again.”

It wasn’t any bigger back then.

You can’t go home again.

Walden Puddle?