by Steena Holmes
When you think back to your childhood and summer what’s the first thought that pops into your head? I would imagine that thought left a smile on your face, didn’t it? Did you remember a place, a memory, a smell? Or something that combined all three?
For me, there are three memories that seem to collide into one. The sound of the waves as it lapped the beach, the smell of the campfire that burned almost every weekend and the excitement of being free to do whatever I wanted as long as it was outdoors.
One of my favorite memories as a child was going to the local town fair. Back then, they were huge in the rural areas. All the small towns had one. I remember being able to plan my weekends by which town had a fair. I grew to love cotton candy, become an expert at eating candied apples without getting the sweet sugar stuck in between my teeth and knew what rides to not take after eating hotdogs. I remember running through the crowds with my best friends, throwing pies at my favorite teachers and I still feel the excitement of winning the largest stuffed bear in the world.
As I think back—almost every summer that I can remember has a town fair memory attached to it, even up to now, living in a city where the ‘largest outdoor show in the world’ is hosted—the Calgary Stampede. This is probably why the fair scene in my bestselling novel Finding Emma is so important to the story. It was also one of the hardest scenes for me to write.
Now it’s your turn. When you thought back to your childhood and summer, what was your first memory?
~ Steena
Steena is a woman who believes that 'in the end, all things succumb . . . to the passions of your heart'. Steena's life revolves around her family, friends and fiction. Add some chocolate into the mix and she's living the good life. She took those passions and made them a dream come true by pouring her heart into each of her stories.
Finding Emma has quickly become a bestseller. Proceeds from each book will be donated to The Missing Children's Society of Canada—an organization dedicated to reuniting families. Visit http://www.mcsc.ca/ for more information.
To find out more info about Steena and to view a list of her published titles visit http://www.steenaholmes.com/.
9 comments:
Great post and great memories. I still love fairs. :) I am so excited to participate in the childhood memory mass blogging day!! :)
I hope your book has great success, Steena, and thanks for donating part of your proceeds to the charity.
I think one of my worst fears is if that ever happens to my daughter.
I'd forgotten about our small town fairs while writing my post for this blogging event. (I talked about the junk fort and what it taught me. It involves a dead mouse!) Our hamlet used to have a parade and all us kids would decorate our bikes and ride in it. We had to go around the town twice to make the parade look "bigger." It was a tough choice though. Be in the parade (always cool) or watch it and get the candy off the floats (always cool as well).
Funny I was thinking about this just yesterday. Probably my favorite childhood memory is when I went to Girl Scout Day Camp. Our troop adopted a big bull snake at our camp site. He would come out and sun himself on the rocks. We would sit quietly and let him crawl across our legs. Bull snakes are harmless and our leader (my mom) would show us how to hold him without hurting him. All the girls loved him. We named him "Sheik."
Thanks everyone for sharing their stories! I can't wait to go read all the stories on the participating blogs - thank you everyone who is taking part!
I just spent the day at the zoo with my daughter on a school field trip. On the way home on the bus, she snuggled up to me and said "this was a good memory day, mom." Awwww ;)
I have read all the blogs and commented whenever the blogworld would let me. What a wonderful tour this has been and the memories have left me with a warm fuzzy right in my heart.
Thank you.
I am excited about hosting Steena in a few weeks. Come visit my childhood memories on my blog, too!
Steena, so glad to hear about this blog book tour via Margo Dill's blog.
Time to explore some more blogs!
What a great memory, Steena. No wonder the fair scene in Finding Emma drew me in. You wrote it so well, I felt like I was right there with your heroine!
Thank Sheila - that fair scene was probably the hardest scene to write yet the one I loved writing the most!
Linda - I can't wait to be on your blog - thank you for hosting me :)
Patricia - I hope you enjoy the blogs and thanks so much for taking time to read about my childhood memories!
Rita- fuzzies in your heart is the perfect choice of words for this!
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