Memories

I used to keep a journal of things that I remembered as a child.  It was great fun to think back, so I decided to make a list of 100 things that I remember from childhood.  I didn't think I'd get to 100 in a day, much less just over an hour.  But I discovered that I remembered many more than just 100.  Maybe there will be a list of 101-200 later...

For now, here's 100 things I remember:

1. being given water with food coloring to "paint" my swingset
2. swinging on the old swingset at Gram and Gramps' house with Josh and seeing a gardner snake   2(a) I still don't know if it's actually a gardner snake or garter snake or perhaps a thrid choice.
3. visiting Aunt Gail and Uncle Mike's house in AZ and using their coffee table, which had a base made of metal slats, as a jail for my Princess of Power dolls.  Sheila was the leader.  (That table is now in my parents' living room, and it still reminds me of a jail.)
4. not being fond of the name Sheila
5. hiking across the river with my mom and Gramps, and always returning with a bouquette for Gram.
6. I would usually hide the flowers to trick Gram into thinking that I hadn't picked anything for her...then Surprise!  It worked every time:)
7. being trusted to leave kindergarten to catch a bus, switch buses at a different stop, and then walk several blocks to day care.  (Not sure if it's a statement about today's society, but I would die before letting Dominic--a 1st grader--walk even a few blocks by himself)
8. getting my two front teeth knocked out in kindergarten by another little girl in PE class.  (We were running laps around the gym, and she ran the wrong direction.)
9. Jellies shoes
10. reading Nancy Drew and The Boxcar Children
11. when there was an actual island (The Island) across the river.
12. Malaleuka
13. my T-Rex pajama shirt
14. when I wore the T-Rex, I would roar at my dad before getting into bed.  It scared him.
15. the recliner that belonged to Gram and the recliner that belonged to Gramps...and never the two would mix.
16. all of my rainbows were colored:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black.  (I felt too guilty to leave the last 2 perfectly good colors off)
17. attending Montesory school with a boy named Grant
18. never liking the name Grant (I was rather judgmental when it came to names)
19. (a more embarassing one:) at some point I came to believe (or was told) that those big plastic water tanks seen in the backs of trucks and in fields were actually cow incubators, you know, for premie calves.  (That's not the embarassing part...)
20. I was nearly 20 years old before I learned that the "incubators" were really just water tanks.  (That was the embarassing part.)
21. every day at daycare, my friend Chrystal and I would put on sunglasses and dance to "Locomotion."
22. Chrystal always wore the cool sunglasses, and I got the other ones.
23. glow-in-the-dark zebra-striped high top sneakers
24. they made me run the fastest out of all my shoes.
25. not knowing what sideburns were, but imagining that they probably were painful.  (My dad had them and I felt bad for him.)
26. cow tea
27. believing that green had to be my favorite color because of my Irish herritage.
28. then hating green because everyone told me that I should wear it...something to do with hair color.
29. the lady at the grocery store who called me her little Rojo.
30. being coached that the correct response to "Where did you get your red hair?" was always, "It was a gift."
31. my mom putting apple juice in my Rice Crispies cereal once because we were out of milk, but I insisted on cereal.  (She will deny this if asked.)
32. the day my mom came to pick me up from daycare in our fancy new '86 charcoal gray Subaru station wagon.
33. playing in the enormous space that was the bed of my parents' white Chevy Luv.
34. when we had a huge satellite dish in our front yard.
35. drinking Shirley Temples at the Oasis.  (I ended up at the Police Academy with the bartender's grandson.)  (I don't know if real Shirley Temples have alcohol in them, but just for the record, mine of course did not.)
36. my mom reading Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp
37. I love that Mike's boys love that story, but I recently realized tht both my mom and I mispronouce Gobblygook, one of the story's villains.
38. I still like "Gobbledygook" better.
39. diving boards were built a lot, lot, taller back in the '80s.
40. spiders used to be fascinating.
41. Taylor park had a giant barrel to run in, like a hamster wheel.
42. spending time with Uncle Dean at Stacy's
43. pronouncing wall "wa-wul."
44. looking at cool souveniers when Kelly got back from Japan.  She gave me a book that was way cool, even though I'll never be able to read it.  I still have it.
45. finding a hole in the seam of my awsome white and pink polkadot cotton pants.
46. being upset at that, and ripping the hole bigger out of frustration.  (It was a hole in the crotch seam, by the way.)
47. forgetting about the now-huge hole and wearing the pants to school days later.
48. Gram having to prick her finger to test her bloodsugar.
49. she always tried to get me to "give it a try."
50. I never did, and still would not.
51. Josh teaching me how to pop my knuckles.
52. Josh (and I) trying to convince Kathleen that Big Hunk candy bars were made of cat hair.
53. don't know what his motivation was, but I just didn't want to share.
54. not knowing who the New Kids on the Block were until they were way uncool.  (I still couldn't name any of their songs.)
55. climbing inside our neighbor Teresa's giant pumpkins that she grew every year.
56. the huge fish in the pet store in the mall.
57. when there was a pet store in the mall.
58. Gramps' quick naps in the afternoon on the living room floor with his big pillow (now residing in my living room).
59. being paid in change for polishing my dad's boots.
60. he refuses to pay me now, even though I have to polish boots every week...yeah, they're my own boots, but that shouldn't matter.
61. morell hunting
62. morell eating
63. skinning my knee badly at Taylor Park and having to be carried home.
64. slightly dislocating my knee at the ice rink at Taylor Park kand having to be carried home.
65. falling off of the bleachers and knocking the wind out of me at Taylor Park (may have been carried home, I don't recall.)
66. never taking the hint to stay away from Taylor Park.
67. wearing my  bangs in a ponytail because that's how one of my Barbies wore her hair.
68. well...it looked good on the Barbie.
69. Popples
70. never wanting to throw away old markers or pens.
71. how would you feel if you had been a great marker, and now your owner just wanted to throw you away?!
72. Smurfs
73. Mr. Belvedere
74. cleaning our desks and lockers at the end of the school year with what I now believe was shaving cream.
75. inflatable zebra pool toy, Zeebie.
76. being very angry when Kathleen got an inflatable giraff pool toy, and named it Geebie.
77. doing gymnastics on mom's clothes line pole.
78. doing gymnastics on Gram's vinyl ottoman out in the yard.
79. Aunt Kay's rock at the river
80. when 3rd graders were "the big kids."
81. a small earthquake that occurred before school.  Both parents had already gone to work.
82. it caused their brass horse to fall off the shelf and brake it's leg.
83. I knew that I would get in trouble for doing it.  (I didn't...thanks, Mom.)
84. my friend Corrie who pronounced put "pert."
85. we built an entire Barbie town by the creek that ran near her house.
86. the town did not fair well during the spring flood.
87. 4-square was the greatest recess game ever.
88. Amelia Bedelia
89. catching grass hoppers
90. my dad built Corrie and I an ant farm.
91. the ants found an escape route somewhere.
92. Squeeze-Its--the funnest drink ever.
93. being devastated at the prospect of missing a day of school.  (Oh, to have that kind of dedication again.)
94. having to write on weird recycled brownish paper that was impossible to erase on.
95. being so excited to get to 3rd grade where they got to write on normal notebook paper.
96. getting your name on the board was the end of the world.
97. a check mark by your name was even worse!
98. I only got my name on the board twice--1st and 5th grade, and never a check mark.  (4th grade didn't count, because the teacher had a different system of stickers and "marks")
99. if you're my mom; then nevermind #98.  I was perfect.
100. running and running and running, and never being out of breath.  (When did running get so hard?)

 

Comments

[Mandy]

Katie I love your list! It's so much fun to read about others' childhoods. Great post!

[Kelly]

I love this, Katie! Several of them made me laugh out loud. Like Cow Tea! I had totally forgotten about that delicacy.

I was also judgmental about names. I hated the name Keith because of a yucky kid in my 3rd grade class. I was quite disappointed that was Keith's name. And, I hated writing on that icky flaky brownish paper.

This was great -- can't wait for 101-200.