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Friday, September 28, 2012

101 Random Remembrances From Childhood

1. Rocks caught in the lawnmower and rock candy

2. George and May

3. The first book I owned: Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights

4. Aunt Vivien and Bud and the Indian Reservation

5. Uncle Ozzie drowning

6. My mother singing

7. House fire at 48th Street

8. Following the fire truck up the hill and the fear I felt when it stopped in front of my house

9. Paper bag Halloween costumes with Jimmy in Hollywood Park Projects

10. Playing in the street with the neighborhood kids

11. Wetting my pants in front of all the kids

12. Lipstick tube hitting me in the face on Christmas morning

13. The IGA at the bottom of the hill

14. Trick or treating

15. Camano Island

16. Crabbing

17. Waterskiing

18. My mother waterskiing

19. Burning my hip on the wood stove

20. Miriam Loucks

21. My love for reading

22. My parents fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis

23. My father’s bar/recreation room

24. My mother and father dancing at their house parties

25. Phil and Phyllis Haskell

26. The string game my parents and their friends played

27. My mother discovering that I was reading Peyton Place

28. Mr. Geyer

29. My dad listening to jazz

30. My dad drinking rum and coke

31. Jimmy spitting in my milk

32. Mr. Mott

33. The day John Kennedy was assassinated

34. Playing in the woods

35. The two story tree house my brother and his friends built

36. Sleeping in the tree house

37. The woods across from my house

38. The creek in the woods

39. The Tarzan swing we used to cross the creek

40. Stump rot fights

41. Following the creek from our neighborhood to the airport

42. Angle Lake

43. Lily pads in Angle Lake and getting caught in them

44. Sneaking out of the house through the basement window

45. My grandpa Ben and the oxygen tank

46. Grandpa Ben unhooking the tank so he could smoke

47. Uncle Darryl and how handsome he was

48. Teresa as my best friend

49. Spending the night at Teresa’s house

50. Going to seminary with Teresa early in the morning

51. Santa Claus in the window of the Fredericks and Nelson in downtown Seattle

52. Driving home from my Grandparents house on Christmas Eve

53. My dad singing We Three Kings

54. The Christmas tree on Christmas morning

55. The magic of snow falling

56. Winning a pink Schwinn bike at an Albertson’s raffle

57. Being left in the woods

58. Riding my bike down 216th

59. Getting caught stealing Red Hots with Teresa

60. Riding my bike down 216th with my brother Mark on the handlebars when he put his foot in the spokes and flipped the bike. 

61. Mark breaking his leg and me being scared half to death

62. Des Moines Field House

63. Breaking my toe playing softball in bare feet

64. Winning most Inspirational Player in Basketball

65. Changing elementary schools

66. The green shoes with the hole in them

67. Standing in front of the class at a new school being introduced as Constance while wearing clear plastic rain boots with no shoes

68. Burgundy hip-hugger dress

69. Kirie Peterson

70. Cutting through the pastures walking to school in the rain

71. Trying out for cheerleader…and losing

72. Waterland Festival – every year

73. The birth of Mark

74. The birth of Matthew

75. My mother getting sick

76. Donna Jacobs

77. Lance and Lynn St. Laurent

78. The neighbor who spoke Korean and molested my brother while I was babysitting

79. Linda Jensen

80. My mother calling my name from the deck of our house telling me to come home for dinner

81. Stamping prices on cans of food at Albertson. 

82. Babysitting for Meredith’s twins the summer I was twelve

83. Buying my first pair of contacts with babysitting money and scratching my cornea and not being able to wear them

84. Charlotte wearing wet underpants on her head

85. Listening to Jimmy and the St. Laurent boys through the floor vent in my room while they talked about my how flat my chest was

86. The McMartin boys from next door

87. Des Moines Terrace

88. Teresa and I flirting with Ed Tonseth

89. Learning that Teresa was a lesbian

90. The cool stuff Teresa’s dad brought home from his job as a Purser for PanAm Airlines

91. The smell of fried pork chops

92. Avocado green shag carpet

93. Raking the carpet before my mother came home from work

94. The smells of the Indian bakery

95. Tuffley’s market

96. Spending my lunch money on candy at Tuffley’s – six different packages for a quarter

97. Walking to the corner store on Des Moines Way feeling like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird

98. The weeping willow tree along the way

99. Des Moines theatre – Saturday movies for 10 cents

100. Eczema covering my hands and arms and the way kids teased me

101. Being a tomboy

And so it goes on September 28, 2012.

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