Random Childhood Memories

1965
We live at the house on Lake Sawyer. Sister and Uncle Bobby are eating dry dog food. Sister holds a caterpillar in one hand. She makes a mistake and looks very surprised as something fuzzy is in her mouth.

My Father flies us in his 6 seater plane to Grandmas. There’s enough room in the back to play with trucks. Grandma waits for us down below standing in front of her sky blue Cadillac, always a new sky blue Cadillac. She waves to us from below as we land on the dirt farm road.

Aunt Donna is on the patio washing laundry. We’re at the chicken farm, the other Grandmas. I stand on the other side of the machine as she pushes the clothes through the rollers. I wait to catch them. She hangs them on the line and I’m in charge of the clothes pins.

Uncle Bobby takes us to collect the chicken eggs. He shows us how to grab the chicken by the neck and fling them across the coop to steal their eggs before they come back and peck us. Grandpa finds us doing this on another day and yells for Bobby.

I’ve just had my bath and Mom has put me in my PJ’s, the ones with feet. It’s a warm evening and I’m at the front window of the split level house. I reach way out the window trying to pick the rose that’s below. I hear a shout and look up and see our neighbor Mick running across the road. I’m falling.

1966
The process server came to the house shortly after Dad came home from work. Mom and Dad argue in the living room. Sister sits on the couch with my mom. I feel sorry for dad and crawl up into his lazy boy chair with him.

Sister and I are playing at the side of the house. We’re looking at mushrooms. Sister invites me to eat one. I eat the toad stool. I get to ride in neighbor Mick’s patrol car to the hospital. Sister’s in trouble. I’m her third victim in as many weeks.

I’m riding in Dad’s pale yellow MG convertible. We pass the Nike Base. I know that’s where the bomb is kept. I know to duck and cover but I don’t know what it means. We pass the grocery store and the large sign at the edge of the parking lot. It says: Nalley’s Potato Chips 29 cents.

We go to our old neighbor’s house, Mick & Jean are having a barbecue. I sneak across the street to go see my Dad. The house is different. The furniture is gone. Only Dad’s lazy boy and a small TV are left. Dad is very sad. Mom comes and finds me and takes me back across the street.

I’m the only one awake in the morning. I go into the kitchen and pull out the drawer to stand on. I take the peanut butter down and eat a big spoonful. I go crawl in bed with Sister. Sister yells out “Mom! He’s got peanut butter breath again!”

1967
We’ve moved to ‘Joe’s house’ Joe lives down the road. It’s just Mom, Sis and I now. My bed has a new blue cover with little white balls on the fringe. I don’t like it. It’s for girls. I get a new spread with guns and cars on it.

The older boys in the neighborhood take my Smokey the Bear away from me. Sister finds him high up in a tree. His hat and belt are missing and he’s leg is nearly ripped off. I cry. A lot. Sister makes new overalls for Smokey because she feels sorry for me.

We’re playing in the woods when I feel something warm on my leg. I look down and there’s a long jagged cut on it. I run screaming to Mom. She wipes up my leg and it’s only a pin prick.

Mom makes matching house coats for sister and herself. She makes them out of blue and purple paisley bath towels. I’m too young to find the humor in it.

1968
Mom has a new husband. It’s D & D’s father. D & D are now my step-sisters. My real Dad has married their mother.

Step dad takes us in his car. He lets me sit in his lap and hold the wheel. I’m driving.

Now we drive to Grandma’s. The one with the chicken farm. Grandma asks us lots of questions about Mom. Other Grandma comes and gets us and takes us back to the farm. She doesn't ask any questions.

Step Dad goes and gets D & D every other weekend. We go with him to see if we can see Dad. He’s never at home.

“Uncle Gary” is killed and we go and stay with Dad and step mom. Dad doesn't talk much. Step mom is surprised I don’t know how to tie my shoes. She shows me how. We watch “The Birds” on TV. I hide behind a pillow when the birds attack.

We move to the ‘new’ house. No one has ever lived there before. There are only two other houses near us. The Mullin’s move in next door but their kids are babies and there’s no one to play with. The other house is the ‘show house’ it has sliding glass doors where the garage doors should be. The rest of the street is bare lots with little poles sticking out of them. Behind our house are woods. Mom cries when they push down the woods and says she’s going to ‘croak’ I have no idea what croaking means.

We drive Step dad to his job at Boeing in the morning. When we’re coming back home Mom hears something on the radio that makes her start crying. She takes a corner too fast and the hubcap comes off the car and rolls into a lawn. She gets the hubcap and comes back in the car and tells us Bobby Kennedy is dead. I don’t know why she’s crying.

1969
The new house has no yard and the dirt is full of rocks. Step dad pulls a large square covered with chicken wire and we throw shovels of dirt on it to sort out the rocks. This process seems to take forever

I’m riding my bike in front of the house. The cement is cool and smooth in the garage and rough and hot on the driveway. We’re called into the house to watch something on TV. It’s still the old TV we had when Mom was married to Dad. We watch the man climb out of the a capsule and down the ladder. He says: “One small step for man….” We go back outside to ride bikes.

The new houses are put up on our street and now a black family has bought one. My mother takes me with her on Halloween to collect money for the March of Dimes. The other moms want to talk about this a lot.

My mother sells Avon and carries a big blue suitcase with a lot of smelly stuff in it. I have to go with her. The ladies are very nice to me and give me cookies. I’d rather go to school with my sister.

My mom takes art classes from my ‘Auntie’ Cherie, who’s not my real aunt but is very nice to me. She wears pants and a scarf on her head and teaches Mom how to make scrawny Japanese flower arrangements and how to paint pictures. She also has a cupboard next to her fireplace where the wood is kept and it’s open to the outside. Sometimes when I open it there’s a chicken inside it.