When I was little ...

When I was little, I remember being amazed at hearing my birth-mother's voice (from a phone call she made by surprise in the other room) on the living room TV when she called into QVC (Actually I think it was still CVN at the time... the home shopping channel.)

My dad didn't know any lullabies so he used to quietly sing, "Two Irishmen diggin' in a ditch..." to get me to sleep, editing out the word after, "Son of a..." that rhymed of course.

My maternal grandma was the strongest maternal figure in my family until dad married my stepmom. She used to read me nursery rhymes for hours on end, taught me how to write basic words on a toy chalkboard, and once she got me reading and writing (between the ages of 2-4), I would wake her up first thing in the morning annoying her with, "Gigi, how do you spell cat, how do you spell dog, how do you spell school...?" etc.

I was obsessed with toy telephones and my first one was a pink touch-tone phone with purple dial buttons that had an extra black button and when that was pushed, a young woman's voice would talk like it was the other caller on the phone. The only thing I remember it saying off-hand was, "Can I come over and fix your hair?"

I had stuffed animals, dollies, and Barbies up the yin-yang! I always managed to give them the weirdest names too! I had a blonde baby doll named Dro-Dro, another baby doll named Stammaletta after a funny name my sister's boyfriend at the time had heard, a pink haired doll with sunglasses in an aerobic or gymnastic type outfit I just called my Weirdo Doll, my favorite bright red stuffed bear that, because he was red/Communist color, my parents named him Pinko Bear, one doll I had named Darqueetha after my mom had heard the name somewhere, and then there were the ones I named after medical terms like two babies Anesthesia and Amnesia and a plastic snake named Asthma.

My cousin and my big sister, both in their early 20's at the time, made me feel like a 4-year-old grown-up teenager whenever we would go "doodling around" and spend a day at the mall! I even thought snickerdoodle cookies were invented specifically for people who liked to doodle around and go on day trips! The car radio always flipped between jamming to Paula Abdul, rocking out to Journey, or just plain being a silly kid and cranking up some Raffi.

My oldest nephew was born when I was only 4, so we grew up together almost like a big sister and very pesky little brother! He was a holy terror who could destroy a 5-bedroom house in under 10 minutes getting into every kind of trouble you could imagine! His favorite annoying thing to get at me was ripping all the heads, arms and legs off my huge collection of Barbie dolls and it was more annoying for my poor parents who were better at putting the dismembered divas back together again! At the end of the day, he was really a sweet boy and I'd often find him in dad's back bedroom hugging on my PJ Sparkles doll or my Glow Worm as calm and gentle as anything ever. One of the silliest memories I have growing up with him was one morning as I was lying half-asleep in my huge water bed, I felt part of it sink a little heavier than when one of our cats was on it and with half-open eyes, I turned to find my nephew there with the remote for the big screen TV pointing at me trying to power me on to wake me up!

Music has always been my passion in life and mom and dad always nurtured that in some way or another, either by giving me a keyboard for Christmas, raising me on good old music, or sweet memories of watching MGM movies, stage musicals, and other movies with good music soundtracks with mom. I had such a knack and talent for picking up on songs that I barely recall and mom clearly remembered one night I had fallen asleep when we were watching Beaches with Bette Midler, but when the end credits and Wind Beneath My Wings came on, I woke up just enough to start singing along.

We made a lot of family outings to go shopping or go to different malls or stores and my favorite was the Imaginarium toy store. The storefront was set up with great big double doors for general use and off to the side there was a tiny door for kids to go through and feel like they had a special door just for them. I would goof around and make my pot-bellied 6'1" dad crawl through the tiny door while I spun in circles with my arms out wide through the big double doors.

My first year of summer camp was filled with interesting moments! Long story short, I can see a little bit but am classified legally blind, or partially sighted if you want to put it that way. There's a camp in Napa, CA called Enchanted Hills where parents can either bring their campers by private car like mine did with me or children can meet at the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco and take a shuttle bus. Mom was bent down making sure my suitcase, sleeping bag and other belongings were labeled properly and piled with the correct cabin group when suddenly, the shuttle pulled up and a herd of blind kids with white canes and all came barreling down single file and all crashed right into mom who jumped up and yelled, "Hey, why don't you watch where you're going!" When she blinked and took a second look, her face turned bright red with embarrassment!

And last memory in this long post, I used to drive my friends insane at slumber parties, whether I was hosting them at my house or going over to theirs! I would keep them up all night talking or making jokes and laughing and either they would get sleepy and frustrated or the supervising parental units would raid our room and tell us to shut up!

 

when i was little i thought the railroad passenger train, and being able to get on and off them in little towns of less the a thousand people like the one i grew up in, were things i thought would be there forever.

i guess because of living in that little town in the woods and all the other little towns along the line my dad used to be ticket clerk, and towerman for. train order operator was his official job title, which was more widely and popularly referred to as telegrapher.

mom watched tv a lot. i had my little toys, little trains and trucks and construction sets like legos and linkinlogs, that sort of thing that i'd play with in my room or the back yard or the half basement when we rented the house that was on the side of a hill, or go for long walks by myself in the woods. my favorite though was to bring my dad's lunch to him down at the station and sit there the rest of the day and watch the trains and explore everything i could that had to do with them.

oh and i used to draw plans of all the model railroad layouts i might have built if i could have. if my dad could have afforded all the parts and would have been willing to.

in grade school i got into band, and played the mellophone, and later in high school the french horn. he liked that, but i never ended up getting into music as a carreer.

i was more interested in technology things, but never had much chance to do a whole lot about that either. after i was an adult, every kind of creative thing was my hobby. whatever i really had the chance to do much about. even as a child i was interested in how to make things too.

i really was never very social, nor tried very hard to have very many friends, nor cared that much that i didn't. there were a few, and they were very good friends too. but people just weren't very much a part of what my life was about. all of both of my parant's families were on the other side of a continent so i almost never got to see any of them.

and of course i had no siblings to mess with my head. i'm greatful for that, and for being able to play quietly and peacefully alone. and learnning from my dad how to read before i even started kindergarten, which i'm almost postive i never would have, the way it was taught then.

(waves hi to grass valley. i'm in sparks nevada now, but that little town i grew up in was colfax)