Very few plants bring back childhood memories for me. This one does. Milkweed. As a kid, we would break off the green stems and have mock fights with them. The McMurdo, Karr, and McCarthy kids were hellions & whacking each other with milkweed and dried cat o nine tails was right up our alley. The sticky white sap from the milkweed would get all over us and the silky seeds from the cat tails would fly everywhere.
I could share a lot of stories of the trouble that we collectively generated as kids but, those stories should be savored at another time. Let's just say that it is a good thing that the local police sergeant was a family friend.
tim mcmurdo 