We were going to live there -- jcarolek

Tim and I are 15 months apart in age, I being the elder sibling. We have an older sister and three younger brothers, but Tim and I were somehow "connected" in a way different from the others. I think part of it was that we were both dreamers. And we had BIG dreams.

I was thinking about the deserted island we were going to "discover" when we grew up. We already knew exactly what it looked like, for we had spent hours lying on our bellies on the living room floor, a huge sheet of brown paper serving as the "canvas" for our creation. While all of us enjoyed coloring in coloring books at that age, Tim and I found it more enjoyable to work "outside of the lines," creating our own world.

As I recall, the island was inhabited not only by us, but also by our "pets." In our REAL life, we had several pets, including a cat, a dog and a monkey....as well as the occasional "rodent" style pet. So, we did not waste our dreams on such mundane pets as these. No, in our island world, we had tigers, and panthers, and lions as pets.

And our houses were not of the standard fare. No, we had our houses built into the hills of our island, almost entirely underground. Basically, I believe our dream world was pretty much everything different from our reality world. The funny thing was, we REALLY believed this island was something we WOULD discover, and that we WOULD have this fabulous life living with our wild pets. We simply did not know we were dreamers.

I was thinking about that island today. Wondering how many other children have created similar islands on huge sheets of brown paper. Wondering whether, should I happen on that rolled up canvas that captured our long ago dreams, it would be as I recall. Wondering if we signed our names, or posted our ages. I know we were younger than 9 and 10, but beyond that I am unclear.

And I wonder if children today find as much pleasure in capturing the world of THEIR future, as we did back in the 60's. I really do not know whether even other children of my generation were so inclined. Perhaps it was that we were raised without a television. Perhaps it was that were raised in a family of six children spanning seven years, and the closeness of our ages afforded us a truly shared view of life. But I am certain that without the "dreamers" there would never have been the dream. Over the years my dreams have changed, as have, I'm certain, Tim's. But the fact remains, we are still both big dreamers. And who knows...maybe one day we will find that we HAVE discovered that island....perhaps not the physical one of our depiction, but rather the essence of the island...the dream fulfilled..