Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Moving On. . .

After making the commitment yesterday to relive parts of my childhood through pictures right here on the blog, I realized I just don't have a lot of pictures of the very next phase of my life. In fact, I couldn't find one picture from the two years we spent in Twin Falls when I was in 1st and 2nd grade. This will just make my brain work a little bit harder as I pull very old memories up without a trigger picture!





Like I said yesterday, I dropped out of Kindergarten when my family moved from Boise to Twin Falls which must have been in 1972 or 1973. Some of the things that come to mind when I go back to this time are:




-The day I packed my little pink paisley suitcase with my Raggedy Ann and attempted to run away. I was around the corner and halfway down the street when my family drove up to let me know they were going out to eat. I forgot my worries and jumped in the car.





-The neighbors across the street had a teenage girl that was mentally retarded (the word we used for it at the time) and she was allowed to run through the sprinkler in their front yard. Topless.




-I got married for a second time, this time to my neighbor Doug, who put a small washer on my finger as a wedding ring and then we couldn't get it off. We also ate a custom designed dirt cake to celebrate.





-My 2 favorite songs were, "One Is The Loneliest Number" and "Sing, Sing A Song (Make it Happy, To Last Your Whole Life Long)" which I would sing at the top of my lungs.





-One of my best friends down the street was from Mexico and her mama made the most amazing handmade tortillas. Their house always smelled delicious.




-There was an older woman down the street named Mrs. Smith and I adopted her as my grandma. Her house was full of afghans and Good Housekeeping Magazines and I loved to spend time with her.





-The carpet in our dining room had a pattern that was perfect for driving my hot wheel cars around on.





-The kids that lived in the house behind us abused a little white Chihuahua that we soon rescued and kept as our own. We named her Mitzi and she was one of my most beloved pets. Ever.




-We had a peacock find it's way into our backyard. He was beautiful.





-My mom worked full time and I remember her telling me one time that "one of these days" she and I could both come home for lunch in the middle of the day and spend some time together. I took it literally and walked home for lunch the very next day. To an empty house. I sat on the couch looking out the window at the driveway and felt very sad. I think she came home when I called and took me back to school.




-We were in a car accident shortly after we moved to Twin Falls. It happened as we were going across the bridge over the canyon and turning onto the freeway. I always had a terrible fear of canyons and cliffs and even though we were hit broadside as we were turning onto the freeway, I believed it was a miracle that we hadn't been hit as we went across the canyon where we surely would have died. It was that same accident that my daddy was asked by a police officer if he had been drinking and he said no. I couldn't believe my father lied to an officer when I knew for a fact that he had been drinking a coke that we just got at Burger King.

-Halfway through the second grade we moved away from Twin Falls because my dad got transferred to another branch in Idaho Falls.



This picture says "age 8" but I think it was probably taken in Idaho Falls in 2nd grade. . .

2 comments:

Gregg Koskela said...

I love the one about your dad lying about drinking! :)

My Crazy Beautiful Life said...

It's funny how clearly I remember that day ...