I'm sure you all saw this on the Facebook, but I'm not going to ask if you remember how awesome I was growing up with my art, basketball skills and good looks. We definitely all remember that the same way.
The main point is--does anyone else remember this soap growing up? I had forgotten about this stuff until I pulled out this painting. I am 73% sure this is what gave me eczema. Ha! Just kidding, Mom. I'm not kidding, guys. I put this in a smaller font assuming Mom and Dad's poor eyesight couldn't read it.This stuff was the worst, right? I think maybe the only thing worse was showering at Grandma Alley's and not even being able to get the soap off because of the low water pressure.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Josh says we ate rice and milk once a week for 20 years. I don't believe this. In Idaho--yes. I have very few memories of IN. In KY it was fried rice once a week--not rice and milk.
Once upon a time, Mom decided she was going to educate us on our ancestry after finding a documentary at the library about Wales. I remember being at the library or perhaps at home when she told me that she had gotten this movie about Wales. I don't know why, but I got pretty excited about it. So, she turned it on and we sat through the whole darn thing, and not once did they make any mention of any majestic mammoth sea mammals. This is why I don't know why I got excited to watch it because I have never in my life been interested in the ocean or fish or dolphins or sea animals. Well, except manatees--my 3rd grade (?) class adopted one. So, I thought Mom had gotten this documentary on whales and it sounded so great to me for some reason. By the end of the documentary on Wales, I was completely confused by the whole thing. We came from whales?
I was not a small child when this happened. Sometimes it is hard being so smart.
I'm not sure why I was thinking of this, but I needed help remembering what happened.
So it was during the time that Ice Cream Cookie Pizzas were becoming pretty popular. I know at one time Erin, maybe Josh and myself decided we wanted to make our own. So we walked to the Food Lion to buy the ingredients.
Questions
1) Why did we walk?
2) Did we walk back?
3) How did the ice cream not melt if we walked back?
4) Food Lion is a bit of a walk, what were we thinking???
5) Did this actually happen or was it just a dream?
One time we went camping as a family in Chimney Rock, NC. Miriam (and her family) and Kellie actually weren't able to make it. It was on my birthday and Kellie's too. But then as we were camping, no one thought about Kellie the entire time. The ENTIRE time. It was such a fun trip.
Eli met me at the door as I was bringing in the day's harvest from the garden. He exclaimed, "Jalapenos!," grabbed one from me, and chomped off the end. Then I watched as he began fanning his face and shouting while tears streamed down his cheeks. I admit that I laughed a bit before getting him a glass of milk.
This happened 25 years ago:
One day while we were making lunch, Dad started teasing Miriam with a jalapeno. "Try it," he taunted, chasing her out of the kitchen with it.
As soon as they were gone, I went over to inspect the jalapenos. What was the big deal? I picked up one of the jalapeno seeds and popped it in my mouth.
When Miriam and Dad came back into the kitchen, my mouth was on fire and I may have been crying a little bit, but of course when Dad asked what was wrong, I said, "Nothing!"
Down the street from our house in Idaho was a field with some horses that Miriam and I liked to visit. There was also a tree house of some sort near the horses? One day, Miriam was down there climbing up to the tree house, and she stepped on a nail. I think she was wearing flipflops, and the nail went through her flipflops into her heel. She limped home, trailing blood the whole way. I think I was with her, but judging by how badly I'm remembering this story, maybe I wasn't. Miriam will have to retell it since her memory is perfect.
The point of this story is this: we moved away from Idaho when I was seven, which means that this story happened when I was younger than seven and Miriam was younger than nine. I remember playing unsupervised in the field across from our house in Idaho all the time. I also remember walking to friends' houses in the neighborhood by myself. We would also walk down the street to a convenience store and buy lollipops - our babysitter was with us, but she was like twelve. That is so crazy to me!
It's 2 in the AM, and I just finished a long day of grading. So, I should be going to bed, but I wanted to get this blog a rollin! I've got all sorts of horrible things to say about you people and it cannot wait! You'll want to listen to this as you read the story:
It's only fair I start with Kellie. That's the point of this blog, right? To tell stories about how our siblings have wronged us? Well, when I was a wee child growing up in Goshen, I used to love singing in the shower. I don't know if anything brought me as much joy. As we all know, the acoustics in any shower are uh-mazing.
So, one day, I was really belting out some classic. I wish I could remember what I even would sing in the shower. I don't remember having any sort of musical taste in Indiana. It was probably MC Hammer or New Kids on the Block because I remember Miriam having that awesome music.
So, let's pretend that I'm busting out some classic from New Kids because that will make the story worse. I'm just minding my own business singing like crazy when suddenly the door to the bathroom flies open and ALL of my friends and their friends and their friends are outside of the bathroom. Miriam had invited them all over to come upstairs and listen in on my impromptu concert. I do have a beautiful singing voice, so I can understand it more as I think about it today.
Here's the kicker to this story. I spent probably 20 years blaming Miriam for this and in all honesty holding a grudge against her for it because that is how I am. A couple of years ago, I finally confronted Miriam about it. And it turns out, she wasn't the one that invited ALL of my friends and their friends and their friends up to my beautiful rendition of NKOTB's The Right Stuff. It was that dirty, rotten Kellie!!! My twin. My partner-in-crime. My Brutus!
To this day, I don't sing in the shower. And if I do, I do it quietly because there is no telling who is standing outside of the bathroom door. And while I'm at it, I'm just going to go ahead and blame Kellie and this incident on my never singing in Choirs too.
I don't know if I have any other stories actually. I spent 20 years just ruminating on that one so none of the others stuck.
My kids tell great stories about their "growing up" years. Some I know well. Some I've never heard. And some I swear are just plain not true. I've created this blog to get these stories on record. There may be different perspectives on the same story, but hopefully we'll come to a consensus and get these family stories written in stone!!
Here's how it's going to work: think of one of those family tales that we love to tell. Post it here and let others corroborate your story.
