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ENTS,
I bet all of you think James has lost his ol' noodle when you
opened this post? But think about it, A. A. Milne's stories on
Winnie-The-Pooh took place in the hundred acre wood.
As a child I loved the Winnie-The-Pooh stories and had read both
of Milne's books by the age of eight. I loved them and I can
still remember the stories and the illustrations. I had Pooh
records and I had a viewmaster with Pooh disks. But I oddly
never had a desire for a stuffed bear. But I associate it mostly
with my carefree childhood. I lived on Briggs Rd, near Oteen in
the Swannanoa valley at that time, up to the age of ten when we
moved to Starnes Cove. We had some woods behind the house on
Briggs and they were the first woods I ever explored. First with
dad and then alone. Between my eighth and tenth year I had
explored all of those woods on the hill, mostly alone. These
woods amounted to several acres but in my imagination they were
the " hundred aker wood " of A.A. Milne's stories. When not
playing or in school I was either in these woods or up on the
Wilson farm at the end of the road. I walked nearly half a mile
in the morning to the bus stop down on Moffitt Rd. Things were
so different in those days. How many people do you know whose
kids at eight walk the woods alone or wait at a bus stop so far
from adult supervision? It was a different world back then. A
better one.
Last Wednesday I stumbled across Kenny Loggins song " Return to
Pooh Corner ". Listening to it the memories flooded back. Of
Winnie The Pooh. Of Briggs Rd. Those woods, The nearby mountain
in fall colors. Jumping in the leaves with dad. Fireflies. A
November snow. Monarch butterflies. The dew covered spiderwebs
in late summer. Crocuses in our yard in late winter/early
spring. I remember all of these things as if it were yesterday.
That night I returned to Pooh Corner after all those years.
Tears welled in my eyes and ran gently down my cheeks. Life has
been hard lately and it is nice to go back to more pleasant
times. That song served as the vessel for transport.
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