Tonight Tatum called us as she was having family home evening with her mom and dad and little sister Penny. They were learning about families and she wanted to ask us some questions. Among them were "will you tell me a story about when you were little?" Grandpa and I both proceeded to tell her scary stories. What is wrong with us? I told her about man eating pigs chasing my brother and I as we scrambled up the side of a car and stood on the roof screaming for help. They were blood thirsty I tell you. He told of cracking his head open at the swimming pool and needing stitches. We are fabulous grandparents. I think he may have saved the day by recalling, at the last second, how he found "Tigger" a cute orange kitten and brought him home in his duffel bag. Happy ending, he got to keep the cat.
It is always the drama rich, near death experience, fight to the death, nightmares and unfairnesses of childhood that are recalled first. Why is that?
I do have a few fun stories as well. For example: I remember mom and dad calling to tell us that Michael had been born. Aunt Marie Jeanne was staying with us and she helped us make a welcome home poster for him.
We often played in the backyard. We had a tire swing that we loved and a good climbing tree at our little H-7 house. We loved to watch Star Trek and would often play that we were an away crew using my barrettes as communicators and looking for aliens. I was, of course, the Captain.
Mom wanted us to take herbs at one point. She thought they'd be good for us. I could not swallow a pill however so I had the brilliant idea of breaking it open into a cup of water. I, erroneously, thought that a lot of water to dilute it would be a good idea. It was a terrible idea. A little bit in a quick swallow would have been much more doable.
My favorite food as a little kid was Kraft mac and cheese. I remember going to the dentist to get some teeth pulled and coming home and sitting at the island in our kitchen and eating the cheesy goodness one noodle at a time.
I don't remember many of our toys but I have some memories of a few favorites. I had a little people doll house that I liked to play with. I remember laying in my bed, it was yellow and my quilt was purple with raggedy ann dolls on it which my mom had made, and wondering about the little people in the house. Did they think they were real? Was there some giant playing with my family like dolls in a dollhouse? I used to think the sky looked fake, like someone threw a big black blanket across a box with twinkly lights in it.
I also remember getting a Bionic Woman doll one Christmas that I really wanted, and a pair of white roller skates with orange wheels that I also really wanted a different year. Lana and I took skating lessons. Our moms made us matching skating dresses and we would go to the rink and skate around with Olympic dreams in our heads. Roller skating never did make it into the Olympic line up but were were convinced it would.
Back in the day we went to church several times on Sunday. I remember sitting in junior Sunday school and taking the sacrament. I don't recall if this was a weekly occurrence or if it was for stake conference or what but I do remember sitting by my friend Shelly. We both had gloves on and she told me to take my right glove off and take the sacrament with that hand.
I remember the TV shows we watched. First of all the TV didn't play shows all the time. At some point the channels turned to a repeated loop of a flag waving and the star spangled banner playing. None the less we had some favorites. On Sunday nights our whole family would watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, followed by "The Wonderful World of Disney". Each week we'd watch Little House on the Prairie and The Walton's. Of course we watched Star Trek and for some reason we watched Kung Fu. Later on a remember my mom watching "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" but were were not allowed too because it was too mature. Sometimes Alec and I would sneak out of bed and lay behind the couch where we could see the TV but she couldn't see us. TV was not a big part of my life growing up, I always preferred to read. Lana and I would walk to the library every week and get a stack of books to read. I do remember Val and Anna watching "My Little Ponies", and liking some shows as a teen like "The Dukes of Hazard", "CHiPs" and "The Brady Bunch".
When we moved to our Camolin house I had a green and white gingham bedroom with a secret safe in the floor. Lana and I both read Nancy Drews and wanted to be detectives so this was endlessly fascinating to us. We walked to school many many blocks with a bunch of kids, and back again in the afternoon. We walked slowly, talking and stopping.
My brothers and many strange pets. We had a lot of dogs, many named Rex and one named Fritz before Michael eventually got Cleo and she stuck. We had Heidi our cat forever. Then there was the menagerie. We had Captain, the conure, many a fish, lots of snakes, turtles, a chicken (mine- who died the same summer I won him :( ) , bugs and spiders, more cats and puppies, lizards, parakeets, hamsters and I don't know what else. Captain ate our wall paper. He also sat on Michael's shoulder while he rode his bike around the neighborhood. One night I woke up to use the bathroom and found a snake curled up by the bathtub. I went to wake up the boys and was asked in sleepy voices "what color is it?" and when I replied they said, "oh don't worry that's not a poisonous one".
We spent time each season working at the church farm. Also picking fruit for ourselves.
Every year we went to the beach to camp for a week.
Hanging out in the desert was a real activity , as was riding our bikes, riding horses, laying on the grass, practicing our mind reading skills, climbing up onto the roof and other fun things.
My favorite game was Chinese checkers, favorite ice cream was mint chip (From Thrifty), favorite color was red, number 7 and music was anything by John Denver.
I remember one fun birthday party that Alec had. His birthday was the day before Halloween and we had a costume party for him one year. We played lots of games and ate hot dogs on a big sheet spread out in the living room.
Mom had a big black trunk with old clothes and dance recital gowns and stuff in it. At Halloween we would open the trunk and rummage. One year I was a pink princess and was mad because I had to wear an ugly sweater under the dress.
We had the pinewood derby in our backyard when Alec was a cub scout and twice we went to Disneyland.
Next time I'll be better prepared with a happy story!
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