Childhood portal

Childhood memory is mostly made of stories we have retold many times. The place itself usually remembers something else.

Pick one place rather than a route: a courtyard, a school fence, a shop, the road to your grandmother's. Go alone and unhurried — you need at least an hour there. First find the spot where you used to stand most often and stand there again: your height has changed, the view is different. Note what has disappeared, what has become smaller, what has stayed exactly the same — out loud or in three or four lines of notes. If people are using the place, do not explain or apologise, just stay nearby. On your way out, take one small thing as a keepsake: a pebble, a leaf, a photo from that exact spot.

What turned out smaller than you remembered, and what stayed the same size?