Childhood Memories

I've been cleaning/ organizing my mom's house and found a couple of items showing my childhood lameness.

Case #1: Hobbies of an 80-year-old granny

This is my first crochet project. A little purse. I can't remember how old I was.




Case #2 Type A 1st grader.

I guess I am a control freak. I would force myself to color each page in order, even if it was a picture of a lame cage. I always colored inside the lines and with appropriate realistic colors--no green skin or purple hair. The Rescuers Down Under was about 1/2 way colored and I rebelled coloring the last page out of order. As I was flipping through I found a page scribbled all over in black. Completely out of place. On the binding I'd explained by writing "Herschel :(". Apparently he'd violated my coloring book without my permission. No wonder I'm the way I am...this red flag was apparently ignored.

Case #3: Ballet Obsessed

Disney's Little Mermaid Soundtrack cassette tape. Oh the memories that came flooding back when this little baby popped up. November 1989. I had just turned 5. I remember watching The Little Mermaid in the theatre, my mom's best friend took her kids and all my siblings. It was amazing. Especially "Part of this World" where she finishes by lunging up on the rock, with the waves behind her. (I later found that kind of drama is hard to recreate on a trampoline that has a sprinkler under it) I was in little girl heaven. After the movie, we were standing in the cold of our neighbors driveway waiting for an older kid to go break in the garage to let us in. My best friend at the time, Danny Webster, who was also 5 started making fun of Ariel. The older kids joined in, saying it was so funny when everyone shriveled into little weeds and they wished they'd stayed little weeds--that would have made the movie a lot better. Oh man. Trashing Ariel was a personal attack on me. Danny and I got in a fight, but I think he won because my older brother would have sided with Danny. I mainly remember the feeling of total betrayal at my best friend knocking my new hero.

But back to the tape. This thing is 20 years old and well worn. We had a huge "ghetto blaster" I'd drag outside on our cement basketball court. I'd move all the toys and junk off to clear my stage. I'd put on my pink or lavender dance dress--they were hand-me-downs from our cousins (Caroleena & Tara) so all their clothes were two of the same, but different colors. I'd put in Little Mermaid and dance barefoot on the cement all day. You think I'm exaggerating? No. All. Day. Until it was dark and I'd turn on the back porch light, which by the way, made an awesome spotlight like a real stage.

My mom would let me bring my meals out on the steps so I could take a bite, gallop a giant circle around the court, take another bite, so as to not waste precious dance time to eat. My feet must have been one nasty callous because I ran around barefoot all day, twirling, hopping, jumping, oh and of course, singing my guts out. All summer long. Dancing up the steps to turn the tape to Side B which wasn't as great as Side A with all the songs. I remember waking up and it was still gray and cold outside, blasting "under the sea". We lived in in the suburbs of SLC, so small lots. I can only imagine all our neighbors annoyed to hear Little Mermaid all. summer. long. With a little girl singing as loud as she could too, until she got out of breath from running in circles.

**You can see combing my hair also was a waste of precious dance time apparently, and uh, I guess slips weren't a big deal either.

Last Little Mermaid tape memory. I'm not proud of it, but any time the tape comes up in family conversation this story surfaces to my shame. Sometimes my solo would welcome guest performers, mainly my little sister Lynette and our friends the Brooks sisters. We were trying to choreograph dances on the trampoline and I was obviously the boss. "Poor Unfortunate Souls" came on and I said: "Lynette this is your song. You have to be Ursula because you're fat." She laughs now but there's a reason she's never forgot. I was a total prima-donna, and still trying to recover. What a jerk! She was cute, unlike me--Skeletor.

<-- Ariel & Ursula