There are a few things that bring back strong memories of my past - one of them is Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme candy bars. A frozen Snicker's bar will bring it back, too: hot summer days at the riding stable. There was a vending machine in one of the tack rooms that kept all the candy refrigerated so it wouldn't melt, and as often as I had four quarters to get a candy bar, I did. (My spendthrift started early, as evidenced here.)

I think back on those days and there was so much drama in my life back then, most of it created in my own head. Church girls though I was a rich horse snob, while the rich horse snob girls at the stable thought I was lower class scum. Sure, I wore second-hand jodhpur pants and didn't have the nicest tack and would groom and ride scutwork (just exercising and putting through paces - much like playing scales on the piano, just for practice not pleasure) on the school horses out of desperation to be near horses....but apparently that was just too lower-class for the rich horse snob girls. Or maybe I was too much of a self-absorbed little snot myself.

But I still like these Cookies 'n' Creme bars. Somehow the bad memories didn't stick very well to them, and they mostly remind me of afternoons spent with a bar of saddle soap and a rag, cleaning school tack just for the fun of it. And the dust kicked up by the different classes held in the main arena. And the names of all the horses: Strawberry, Blue, Chaco Taco, Jonathan, Diablo, Lady, Classy, Scarlet, Skye and others.

Old memories. :)