Nostalgia tonight. Skip if you are cynical.
Mom making homemade pinatas for our birthdays. She'd wrap a balloon with paper mache and then use tissue paper to decorate. They always looked so much better than the kind you see now in the store.
Mom drawing cowboys, mermaids, astronauts on a poster board. She'd cut out the face and then take polaroids of us making silly faces.
Watching the moose cross our back yard in Alaska. Jumping on our neighbors waterbed. Looking over his stuffed bears and mooseheads. Sitting in his corvette. He was a pilot.
Staying up late talking to my sisters when we were supposed to be sleeping. Making a canope around our beds with toilet paper. Hanging from floor to ceiling.... long strips of toilet paper.
Singing the constipation song that we made up about my brother when he was sick. "Constipation, you rule the nation. With your constipation."
Our housekeeper that came once a week. Juanita. She chewed tobacco.
Swinging on our willow tree swing. Climbing to the top.
Talking about periods with Shelby in 4th grade. I didn't know what she was talking about. She said it was blood that came out of your cooter (so South Carolina-esk). I asked my mom about it and she told me that it was more like a drippy faucet then a gushing hose. Thank God for analogies.
Snow mobiling with my dad. We had a trailer behind it and one time we flipped over. It was the only time I've ever gotten a bloody nose.
Girl scouting.
Summer trips in the car. Riding backwards in the station wagon. Minnesota. Missouri. Florida. California. Nearly every state in the U.S.
Fake curse words. Watha = bitch. Boarwab = butthole of america, red, white and blue.
Mrs. Mims. 7th grade. She sang the Ave Maria like an opera singer. I thought she was about 100 years old. I bet she was only about 38.
Playing cards with my Grandma J. She could shuffle like a blackjack dealer.
Giving my other grandmother (did not call her grandma) back rubs. She had cancer and I remember helping her get dressed. Near the end, she smoked dope at our house during Christmas. Her skin was yellowed from a carrot juice diet thing.
Going to my cousins in Minnesota. Their house was haunted and someone wrote a book about it. We set up our own haunted houses in the basement. We also set traps up using pool balls, and gallon mayonaise jars to catch mice. My mom saw the ghost. She said it sat on the end of her bed and bounced up and down. She thought it was my cousins.
Swimming in my grandmothers pool in California. She drove a big cadillac. The based the movie Mame on one of her best friends. My grandmother looked like her. She wore Joy all the time and never messed up her hair. She had a 6 carat diamond she never took off. I look like her.
Going to the movies with my mom. Escape From Witch Mountain. The Man From Snowy River.
Seeing Air Force doctors. They sucked. One peeled a scab off my leg. My mother nearly fainted, and I have the hugest scars on my foot from that.
Thinking we only bumped heads. Sis #1 and I collided during a game. My teeth went into her forehead. She got some major stitches and I fractured 4 teeth. I never knew that you could get a cast on your teeth.
Wearing my purple velour Chic bell bottom hip huggers. I wore them all the time. I stopped wearing them when I left them out by the pool and a slug crawled on them.
Playing Pong on my dad's Radio Shack TRS 80. Later we played Leisure Suit Larry.
Having a crush on Stephen Hussey in 7th grade. I just found out he died recently. I never told anyone I thought he was cute.
Mrs. Doppelfield. Kindergarden or 1st grade. Alaska. Learning the alphabet in sign language. Later we used it in church to talk to each other.
Accidently hitting brother #2 in the head with a baseball bat. He now has 4 or 5 major scars on his face. It adds some serious charm.
Hot wheels loop the loops.
Picking rhubarb for my mom. She made pies for my dad.
Camping in Alaska with my family. My Grandma J would bring her cards.
Changing diapers. Second kid out of seven, I could change them when I was 5.
Playing nun/orphan with Brother #1. He was a baby. I'd dress him in rags, put him in a laundry basket and "discover" him on the front porch. I'd wear a blanket on my head like a nun. I'd take my brother in and dress him up in his Easter suit. I don't think he's ever recovered from this.
Drinking lots of grape koolaid. The kind you mix with sugar.
Sucking my thumb.
Evil Kenevil. Star Wars toys. Sharing a bathroom and stepping on their Star Wars toys in the tub.
Going to minor league baseball and hockey games in Alaska with my dad. Chewing the foot long bubble gum.
Playing in our red playhouse. We played school and I was always the teacher.
Sailing with my dad on his catamaran.
Going to the library every Saturday with my mom. Being in a play called Free to be You and Me. I recited the poem My Dog is a Plumber.
Ice cream men who weren't creepy.
Building sandcastles and making ice forts. Sledding.
Making real Christmas cookies from scratch. The kind that you roll out the dough, cut with shapes, and put sprinkles on.
Homework. Memorizing bible passages. Making molecule pizzas and DNA with pipe cleaners. Family trees and stories of the Nile. Science Fairs.
Playing "bulldozer" with my mom in her bed on Saturdays.
Singing to Grease records with my best friend Madeline. Her family was from Switzerland and owned the biggest house I've ever seen. Babysitting her brother Dominic and sister Gunny.
Good. Bad. They are all lovely. These are all the things I wish to share with my daughter. I wonder what she thinks all day. I wonder what her life is like.
I like that she sings to herself in the tub.
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