Get out your mood rings, your Ben Casey bracelets, your comic books and baseball cards.  Garbage Pail Kids cards, too.  It's time to assess what you saved from your youth and how it impacted your "adulting."

Wait a minute!  Are you saying what you liked as a child didn't impact your grown up lives?

I'm not claiming that my addiction to Nancy Drew books demanded I write a mystery series and Steve has never claimed that his baseball card collection (stolen, he's certain, by a classmate who shall go unnamed ) accounts for his early sports writing successes, but surely many of our youthful interests grew into passions and fed our careers.

Just for fun, think about a collection you might have treasured as a child.  Maybe those rocks and shells didn't lead you into the life of a geology professor, but maybe you did become a builder or a "rock solid" member of your community.  Sorry--couldn't help myself.  At least I didn't say "rock star."

Seriously though, our early likes and dislikes have played a part in our lives.  Maybe we even saved a few trinkets--or articles of clothing--that remind us of our own hippie happy days.

Or maybe we have our early homage to a great American novelist. Perhaps "It was a dark and stormy night," tapped out by Snoopy moved you to tell your own stories?

Enjoy this week's stories shared by writers who appreciate their youthful treasures.  Maybe you'll decide to rummage through a few drawers and closets and jewelry cases to find your own early influences. We'd love to read about them.

As for me, I lost track of my Ben Casey charm bracelet although I can still remember the gold-tone dangling symbols. Man. Woman. Birth. Death. Infinity. 

Who knows?  Maybe the loss of that bracelet is why I'm tapping this out on my laptop instead of saving lives as the doctor I might have been meant to be?

Alas...not my bracelet...

Sharon