When I was around four-years-old my family took a trip to Wildwood, Georgia during one of those infamous hot, southern summers. That was a long drive from our hometown of Memphis, and it probably felt even further in our old Volkswagon van that didn’t have a working air-conditioner. I don’t quite remember the drive. In fact, since I was so young, I don’t remember much about the trip at all except that we stayed in an old white house in the country up on top of a hill. There is, however, one part of our vacation in Wildwood that I have always held on to.

It was almost bedtime. The summer sun had set and the first stars were just starting to peek through the darkening sky. My mom had gone out for the evening, but before she left she instructed my older siblings to help me read something that she had posted to the refrigerator door. Hanging by a magnet was a white paper plate with the following words etched out in her handwriting:

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

My brother helped me read the bedtime rhyme and at the end I was told that I could make a wish. So what does every little girl in the mid-1980s wish for? A Care Bear, of course.

I remember falling asleep that night, stretched out on an old couch since I was the smallest and there weren’t quite enough beds for us all, but not as well as I remember waking up the next morning. Before I even opened my eyes I felt my little arms wrapped around a soft something. I jumped up to find myself hugging my very own, green clover Care Bear! I was stunned. My wish had come true! Our vacation house was in the middle of nowhere, so I knew that without a doubt that the twinkling star and my mighty wishing powers were what made this happen.

Even though I’m now grown, and I know that my mom just had a really good “mom moment”, I still always hold this sparkle of hope and wonder in my heart. A feeling that anything is possible and that happiness is always just a star away. Now I have a little girl of my own who is the same age that I was on that trip. As I try my best to make each vacation special with Iris, I know that she might not remember each little detail, especially at her young age. It’s crazy how much we forget as we grow, but even the things that we don’t remember still help shape us into who we become. So I will never quit trying to make magical moments for her, just as my family did for me. You never know which memories will inspire us many years later. All it takes is a night sky and a white paper plate.

This post was inspired by the HomeAway® “Postcards from the Past” contest. Wish me luck!