16 September 2007

My 80's Childhood

Plastic charm bracelets, Free to Be You and Me on the record player, sliced turnips with sea salt for snack, taking turns reading pages of The Berenstein Bears with Dad, pink jellies worn with everything. The Lorax, Monkey, the leopard cub, Penguin and Theodore Bear guarding my bed: the furry brotherhood. Doing laps around the basement in my roller skates, Whitney Houston on the boombox.

Stealthily bumping down the stairs on my blanket sleeper-clad rear end, hoping to catch an extra Saturday-morning cartoon before Dad was on to me. Feeding the dog scraps of whatever we didn't want from our dinner plates, homemade muffins on Sunday mornings, pirouettes in the outfield at softball games. Opening Christmas presents in the living room, my favorite wooden doll ornaments, making sour cream Christmas cookies and singing along to John Denver and Alabama. "Dancing" with the turkey before we cooked it on Thanksgiving. My Christmas stocking hanging down to the floor because of the orange in the toe. Our matching Easter baskets, Trick-or-treating with Mom and Dad on Halloween, root beer floats in tall glasses with the long spoon.

Being herded down the back stairs into the kitchen so we wouldn't see our Christmas presents before breakfast, the bike with the blue S on the banana seat, spinning on the tire swing in the front yard on warm summer nights, catching fireflies in our hands before letting them go, being carried up to bed with blankie, head resting on Mommy's shoulder, reading Trixie Belden by pink flashlight (under the covers, in the bathroom or in the closet). Watching "Murder, She Wrote" Sunday nights as long as I got ready for bed on commercial breaks.

Side ponytails, bright orange Converse high-tops, running through the sprinkler out front, the sound of Duke's clicking toenails on the floor as he wagged his way across the kitchen floor. Apple crisp fresh out of the oven, pink icing on my birthday cake with ballet dancers on top. Stopping at Daisy Queen after dance recitals for butterscotch (or bubblegum)dipped ice cream cone. Learning to dive while GG held a broomstick over the diving board.

Putt-putt birthdays, sitting on the floor in front of the kitchen radiator on cold mornings and nights, dressing the cat (a boy) in doll clothes and attempting to put him in the doll cradle, Dad teaching my 5th grade class about weather, my first Cabbage Patch Doll with red yarn hair, Barbie and the Rockers, using my mother's garlic press to make Play-Doh "hair." Eating my bubblegum chapstick because it smelled good, my pink satin "princess" outfit I wore to second grade, my pewter teddy-bear necklace with the crystal in its tummy that I lost under the porch of a restaurant, PTA pizza parties at Skate-A-Round USA.

Horseback-riding lessons at The Berry Patch, milkshakes made with Strawberry Quick, Tang in my Tony the Tiger mug before bed, using my Winnie-the-Pooh plate until the picture warped off, milk out of my favorite Chipettes Burger King glass. One Morning in Maine read before 8pm bedtime. Jelly bracelets in twos and threes, my brother's metal Gremlin lunchbox, Valentine's treats at the breakfast table before school, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood after school, pink rubberbands on my braces, the navy-blue sundress with white sunflowers, purple corduroy Osh Kosh b'Gosh overalls, pink-and-silver Zips with pom-pom socks.

Ponytail holders that looked like gumballs, peel-off nailpolish in Tinkerbell Pink, The Smurfs, The Gummi Bears, The Snorks, microwaveable s'mores, my favorite t-shirt with satin pastel butterflies, terry cloth jogging shorts with a white ruffled blouse for my second grade picture, playing catch with Dad and Uncle Dave's old baseball glove, watching "Goonies" on the big screen, Barbie Magazine, Rainbow Brite comic books, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Mousercise the album, my "Annie" album that opened like a book, Oscar Meyer cheese hotdogs eaten cold for a snack.

Reading Rainbow, 3-2-1 Contact, The Bloodhound Gang, Neverending Story, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Daffodils blooming in the backyard, Tubs and Crocket (our chickens, not Miami Vice heroes), Flintstones and Barbie coloring books, "Morning Has Broken," as played by GG (our grandmother) on our piano, food in "the sidepocket," Double-dutch and Miss Mary Mack on the playground. Hopscotch at recess, swinging from the monkey bars by my knees, Fry Guys and The Burgler, my pop bead necklace, Storybook dolls.

Smokey, Scooter, Fuzzy, Ferdinand, Duke (the best cats, and dog, ever). Watching "60 Minutes," the whole family sitting together on the red couch with flowers, a fire in the fireplace.

Mother Doing Good

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