Walk Down Memory Lane

Yesterday, I got an email from my very best childhood friend. I've written about some of our escapades and adventures before, but not as much as I could. She wrote to me from out west to ask for more memories. Not to make more, but to remind her of more, as her daughter who is 6 wants to know. She sent me a few to spur me on, and as I sat down to write her a very long list, I was seriously laughing out loud. Let me show you my list, and I promise to someday expand on a few:

- that snow fort your brothers built where they were building that really ugly house
- rolling big balls of snow down the church hill, then trying to push them up for a snowman - they always ended up sitting somewhere in the middle of that hill!
- Mischief Night - that's a LONG list
- Prank calling your dad from my house and him (pretending??) not to know it was us
- Batman and Robin and the occasional Catwoman in your block trunk (*her mother still has this trunk with the batmobile controls we wrote on them!)
- Me getting locked in your bathroom... very embarrassing!
- that dumbwaiter in your closet - I just remember it, but I can't seem to remember why!
- me sticking that screwdriver in your lamp without a lightbulb and nearly burning your whole house down (it was still plugged in AND on)
- the summer you had killer bees in your front porch (we both agreed they were like 3 inches long!)
- singing "supercalifragilisticexpialadocious" over and over and being able to say that backwards (I can't do that anymore - how sad!)

- your Wonder Woman outfit that your brothers made out of a coffee can - I'm still a little bitter they didn't make me a set (LOL)
- Baby Bear visiting every night I slept over (I think your mom or you should write the Adventures of Baby Bear!)
- that Friday the 13th Tim stepped on my suitcase with a mirror in it and his big, bulky cast broke it, then how when you moved he had all that bad luck - spider bite, eye infection.. can't remember them all, but we traced it all back to that mirror!!
- doing forward rolls down the church hill - nuts!
- eating cherry tomatoes for a snack outside your house
- your father's prized garden, with those eggplants, which I still do not like!
- me sliding from the third floor down to the kitchen on my butt without being able to stop myself!
- dancing to a little am/fm radio in the third floor - the song, I believe, was "Freak Out!" or maybe it was "The Hustle"?
- driving up to UCONN to visit Paul and your brothers having the flip sign with all those funny messages that you would show people
- that one rooster on your wallpaper - was it that he had no eye??
- pepperidge farm bread, ketchup and baloney
- me pouting on your picnic table because I wanted to go home but I couldn't!
- when you were a Cheerio box for halloween and fell down the little hill by church and couldn't get up
- being afraid of Mark's parakeet
- all that honeysuckle in your backyard - yum!
- walking down to the "drug store" (is that not the funniest name??) and being scared of that german shepard that could jump over that really high fence (that was really about 2.5 feet tall!)
- your brothers playing frisbee football all over the neighborhood

I am still laughing. There are so many more than this. You see, I was the first child in my family, with an annoying little sister and brother. My friend, J, was the youngest of 5 children. All her siblings were brothers. We have so many wonderful memories. It's funny that mine are all of being at her house, hers were from my house! How goofy!

One thing I don't think I've ever mentioned on here is that her mother is an author. I don't believe she published anything before they moved to Virginia (very traumatic event in our lives!), but she writes books that my daughter absolutely loves. Last night, I was mentioning to Kt that my best friend's mom is Patricia Hermes. With the most disgusted look she could muster up, she exclaimed to me, "You mean, YOU HAVE PLAYED AT AN AUTHOR'S HOUSE?" I couldn't resist writing this to J, who replied, "Tell her that for many years you were an author's sixth child!" Boy was she right. I practically lived at their house! Kt holds her mom, and all authors for that matter, in such high esteem. To me, she was just a second mom.

My memory from childhood is so, so vivid. It is a child's perception of what happened, so I'm quite certain it's somewhat flawed, but it's wonderful. Many times I've wished that my own children could experience what I did as a child, but what I really hope for them is that they can create memories that flashback in color, clear sound and bring a huge smile to their faces. I guess looking back over my list, there are a few things I might leave out!

So, if you read this, thanks, J, for that trip down memory lane. I hope to do that again sometime - soon!