Saturday, October 02, 2010

Things I Hope I Never Forget

  • Sub&Stuff cheese fries
  • the kids door at Applegates Landing pizza
  • Gringo Charlie's
  • running through the sprinklers in the back yard
  • playing with bugs
  • beating my older cousins at Life and Monopoly
  • visiting my aunt in California, waking up from a nap with "How Deep is Your Love" playing and feeling so lucky to be in the most glamorous city I knew
  • kissing potion lip gloss (bubblegum)
  • wearing shoelaces in my hair and a bandanna as a belt.
  • my grandpa's hands
  • my grandma's hands
  • Malt-O-Meal made by Grandma with butter, sugar, and half and half on the side
  • riding in Grandpa's truck
  • listening to mom's stomach gurgle on Saturday morning
  • buying new furniture for the first time
  • loving the tiny apartment on Bluff because my room had a window seat
  • grandpa's radio that picked up AM, FM, and local television audio
  • KFDI storm watch
  • KFC and Crystal Lake and regretting that I never had the guts to jump off the top of the diving platform
  • grandma taking me out of school early to go see the St. Patrick's Day parade
  • delivering Meals On Wheels with Grandma
  • writing dirty song lyrics on the program during church
  • every crush, both big and small
  • the best dates, no matter how it all turned out
  • Christmas on Carlos street when I got Onkey the Monkey
  • Christmas on Bluff when I got my first boom box and cassette tapes ("Mickey," Toni Basil; Officer and a Gentleman, ONJ's greatest hits vol 2; John Cougar, American Fool)
  • Two days of Grease II and leftover anniversary cake (same as white wedding cake) just before my best friend left for Venezuela for "3 months" which turned into 3 terrible years.
  • the last day of school at Isley elementary when everyone went out to the hallways at the end of the day to cry and hug
  • Isley elementary and its singular perfection: The song-and-dance troupe, my acting gig as Maid Marion (and first job re-writing a script from the 70s to have a more 80s, "Valley Girl" flavor), the lofts, the contracts, track and field day, the vending machines, the commissary, the TRUST -- the teachers (Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Terrill), the students, the FUN -- camp away weekend when I held hands with my "boyfriend" Jeff Ruby and played capture the flag...
  • Brownies. Selling Girl Scout cookies. That time we were supposed to draw and "image of ourselves" on a paper sack that we would then wear and Stephanie (?) drew a naked woman's body.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Those were the days. How little we knew then and how poignant the memories. I love you Ernie. Burt

9:46 AM  

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