: An Acute Attack of Nostalgia
I'm not sure whether it was playing card games with my mother, reformatting old floppy disks for my father or watching Aladdin over dinner, but I'm back to thinking about the good old days of childhood - when things seemed a lot simpler.
- The Childhood Memory Meme -
Name five of your favorite childhood memories about these five categories:
School:
1. Mom teaching me how to write
I'll never forget sitting at my little desk at home. I couldn't have been more than 3. My mom was teaching me how to write the alphabet. She put a pencil in my hand, formed my fingers in the proper position, and then I moved them. She moved my fingers on the pencil again, and I moved them again. She moved them. I moved them. This went on for a while, and eventually she gave up. I still hold my pencil the bizarre way I insisted on gripping it.
2. Placement Tests for Kindergarten
I don't remember all of this, but my mom's told me the story so many times, that I remember it through her. The point of the story is that when the kids were finished with the test, they were free to go out to the playground. When my mom got to the school to help with the test, she saw me playing outside, while all the other kids were having the questions read to them. She was furious, positive that I couldn't have taken the test seriously, and just marked down a bunch of answers so I could go play. When the scores finally came back, they put me in the gifted class.
3. My first day of Kindergarten
I came home crying. No, it had nothing to do with missing my parents, getting picked on or scraping my knees. I had been so excited about going to school, where I would have a desk of my very own to sit at and learn. We didn't get desks, and boy did that upset me.
4. Choosing my position in the childhood social hierarchy.
I remember in first grade that I was friends with some of the popular kids. One day, I brought another of my friends over to play with them, and much to my dismay, the popular kids weren't pleased. In no uncertain terms, they told me I could either play with them or play with my unpopular friend. I picked the unpopular friend and turned my back on the popular group. That choice literally decided my place in the social hierarchy for the next twelve years. Looking back, I'm satisfied with that choice, but really... who knew?!
5. If Creativity had a birthday...
When I was in fifth grade, we went to camp for a week. One day, we were on a nature hike. I looked down at the stream we were crossing, and noticed a peculiar pattern in the rocks. I tugged on my teacher's arm, pointed at the rocks and asked, 'Have you ever seen the water smile?' She told me to write that down. That simple encouragement opened up a world of creative expression that I have never stopped using.
Clothes:
1. A Red Hat.
According to my parents, when I was just a toddler, I picked up a knit hat at a garage sale and just wouldn't be persuaded to leave without it. I then proceeded to wear that red hat everywhere for the next few years.
2. Reebok Sneakers
I loved those sneakers. Every year, when the pair I had wore out, mom would take me to the store to get another pair just like it. In fact, I'm still wearing that brand of sneaker - just in much bigger sizes.
3. Skorts.
I remember having two pairs - one with a pink skirt and one with a purple skirt, both over black shorts. I thought they were the coolest thing ever to wear in gym class. I'm sure I probably wore my crimped hair and big socks with them too, since the 80's were just ending.
4. A fancy yellow dress.
I remember being the flower girl for my aunt's wedding, and getting to wear a fancy yellow dress. It reminded me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, (always one of my favorite of the Disney princesses) and I thought it made me look so pretty.
5. Glasses
I got my first pair when I was in fourth grade. The frames were metal, and were rainbow colored. I remember telling people that way, they'd match everything. My current glasses still match everything. But that's because they're black.
Food:
1. Bananas
From as early as I can remember, I ate a banana for breakfast. In fact, I can't remember a time where I didn't (willingly) go without a banana first thing in the morning.
2. Pasta
I am Italian, and Italians roll their long pasta on a spoon. They don't cut it with a knife or use just a fork. So everyone in the family taught me how to eat my pasta like a real Italian. To this day, it baffles me that in restaurants, I have to ask for a spoon when I order Italian food and then they look at me funny.
3. Liver
I don't remember what liver actually tastes like, but I remember that as a kid, I didn't just like it. I loved it. It was meat loaf and mashed potatoes that I couldn't stand.
4. Chocolate
Oddly enough, as much as I despise the disgusting taste of it now, when I was a kid, I did actually eat chocolate. I remember eating E.L.F. cookies (back when they made single elves and not just sandwich elves) and ice cream sandwiches with chocolate cookies on the outside. In fact, every day after swim class, mom gave me an ice cream sandwich. It wasn't until almost high school that I stopped eating chocolate altogether. I just grew to hate the flavor of it.
5. French bread
When I was a kid, I used to love to eat the middle out of the bread slices and leave the hard crust on the plate. Oddly enough, most of the cousins on my dad's side of the family did the same thing when they were kids. And that was before I was even born.
TV Shows/Movies:
1.Rankin-Bass Christmas specials
Whenever holiday time was around the corner, I would sit and watch all of the stop-motion animation specials, from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to The Year without a Santa Claus. And my very favorite was Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I still have a big place in my heart for those, that entire style of animation, even.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
By the time I was seven, Ninja Turtles was all the rage. I idolized Splinter. I wanted to be like Donatello. I loved imitating the show, and I must have begged my parents a hundred times to let me take karate. It didn't rub off on them until I was 12 and I got hooked on...
3. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Yes, I was a little on the old side when this show came out, but that didn't stop me from watching every single episode. And this time, when I begged my parents for martial arts lessons, they listened. If it wasn't for my little tween crush on Tommy, the Green Ranger, I probably wouldn't be the master I am today.
4. Problem Child
This was a short-lived cartoon based on the hit movies. It was this show that inspired me to write out my first fanscript/fanfiction. I don't remember the entire plot, or even how it ended, but it involved the main character getting hurt in some way. I titled it Junior in a Crutch of Trouble. And I remember acting it out, to test my plot, with the kids next door using a pair of big sticks.
5. Mighty Mouse
I think my parents would probably call this my first 'obsession.' The first in a very long line of obsessions. They said I used to run around the house for days and days and days pretending I was Mighty Mouse, singing 'Here I come to save the day!!' over and over again. Eventually I remember them forcing me to play something else just so I'd do something different. Funny, the topic changes, but my level of obsession doesn't change all that much...
Toys/Games:
1. Snoopy
When I was really little, just learning how to write, I found a Christmas book where a child wrote a letter to Santa, wanting his lost puppy brought back. I copied that letter (and it took enough paper to reach from the mantle above the fireplace to the floor) and sure enough, on Christmas morning, there was a stuffed Snoopy toy in my bed. And there was one the next year too. And the next year. And the next. It was a Christmas tradition!!
2. Blankity and Blank
When I was just a baby, my parents thought they were so smart. I had a white security blanket that I carried around with me everywhere, and they had bought a second one, to use as a backup in case I lost it. Well, one day I found it, and discovered that I had two. I slept with those blankets until they were literally torn to shreds. I think I still have a tiny piece of it left, in a tiny box in my dresser.
3. Nintendo
What kid didn't love Nintendo. And I didn't just play the games, I'd act them out once the TV was turned off. The boy next door would be Ganon, and I'd be Link, and we'd play just like I did on the screen. (Granted, I wasn't very good at video games... so usually Link lost. And that's how it happened in the back yard too.)
4. Green Ranger Action Figure
When I was in sixth grade, that was what I most wanted for Christmas, and I got it. It was an action figure of Tommy, where if you pushed down on his belt buckle, his head would flip around and he'd 'morph.' I loved that action figure, and I used to keep it next to my pillow at night. Unfortunately, at the time, I slept in a back brace, and sometimes it would get crunched under the plastic. I still have it by my bed. But it's missing both its legs now.
5. The Children's Writing and Publishing Center
This was my first computer game, if you can call it a game. I spent endless hours making up stories and typing them up, then saving them to floppy disks. The biggest downside, though, was that a document could only be four pages long.
Current Lips: black with white circles
I'm not sure whether it was playing card games with my mother, reformatting old floppy disks for my father or watching Aladdin over dinner, but I'm back to thinking about the good old days of childhood - when things seemed a lot simpler.
- The Childhood Memory Meme -
Name five of your favorite childhood memories about these five categories:
School:
1. Mom teaching me how to write
I'll never forget sitting at my little desk at home. I couldn't have been more than 3. My mom was teaching me how to write the alphabet. She put a pencil in my hand, formed my fingers in the proper position, and then I moved them. She moved my fingers on the pencil again, and I moved them again. She moved them. I moved them. This went on for a while, and eventually she gave up. I still hold my pencil the bizarre way I insisted on gripping it.
2. Placement Tests for Kindergarten
I don't remember all of this, but my mom's told me the story so many times, that I remember it through her. The point of the story is that when the kids were finished with the test, they were free to go out to the playground. When my mom got to the school to help with the test, she saw me playing outside, while all the other kids were having the questions read to them. She was furious, positive that I couldn't have taken the test seriously, and just marked down a bunch of answers so I could go play. When the scores finally came back, they put me in the gifted class.
3. My first day of Kindergarten
I came home crying. No, it had nothing to do with missing my parents, getting picked on or scraping my knees. I had been so excited about going to school, where I would have a desk of my very own to sit at and learn. We didn't get desks, and boy did that upset me.
4. Choosing my position in the childhood social hierarchy.
I remember in first grade that I was friends with some of the popular kids. One day, I brought another of my friends over to play with them, and much to my dismay, the popular kids weren't pleased. In no uncertain terms, they told me I could either play with them or play with my unpopular friend. I picked the unpopular friend and turned my back on the popular group. That choice literally decided my place in the social hierarchy for the next twelve years. Looking back, I'm satisfied with that choice, but really... who knew?!
5. If Creativity had a birthday...
When I was in fifth grade, we went to camp for a week. One day, we were on a nature hike. I looked down at the stream we were crossing, and noticed a peculiar pattern in the rocks. I tugged on my teacher's arm, pointed at the rocks and asked, 'Have you ever seen the water smile?' She told me to write that down. That simple encouragement opened up a world of creative expression that I have never stopped using.
Clothes:
1. A Red Hat.
According to my parents, when I was just a toddler, I picked up a knit hat at a garage sale and just wouldn't be persuaded to leave without it. I then proceeded to wear that red hat everywhere for the next few years.
2. Reebok Sneakers
I loved those sneakers. Every year, when the pair I had wore out, mom would take me to the store to get another pair just like it. In fact, I'm still wearing that brand of sneaker - just in much bigger sizes.
3. Skorts.
I remember having two pairs - one with a pink skirt and one with a purple skirt, both over black shorts. I thought they were the coolest thing ever to wear in gym class. I'm sure I probably wore my crimped hair and big socks with them too, since the 80's were just ending.
4. A fancy yellow dress.
I remember being the flower girl for my aunt's wedding, and getting to wear a fancy yellow dress. It reminded me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, (always one of my favorite of the Disney princesses) and I thought it made me look so pretty.
5. Glasses
I got my first pair when I was in fourth grade. The frames were metal, and were rainbow colored. I remember telling people that way, they'd match everything. My current glasses still match everything. But that's because they're black.
Food:
1. Bananas
From as early as I can remember, I ate a banana for breakfast. In fact, I can't remember a time where I didn't (willingly) go without a banana first thing in the morning.
2. Pasta
I am Italian, and Italians roll their long pasta on a spoon. They don't cut it with a knife or use just a fork. So everyone in the family taught me how to eat my pasta like a real Italian. To this day, it baffles me that in restaurants, I have to ask for a spoon when I order Italian food and then they look at me funny.
3. Liver
I don't remember what liver actually tastes like, but I remember that as a kid, I didn't just like it. I loved it. It was meat loaf and mashed potatoes that I couldn't stand.
4. Chocolate
Oddly enough, as much as I despise the disgusting taste of it now, when I was a kid, I did actually eat chocolate. I remember eating E.L.F. cookies (back when they made single elves and not just sandwich elves) and ice cream sandwiches with chocolate cookies on the outside. In fact, every day after swim class, mom gave me an ice cream sandwich. It wasn't until almost high school that I stopped eating chocolate altogether. I just grew to hate the flavor of it.
5. French bread
When I was a kid, I used to love to eat the middle out of the bread slices and leave the hard crust on the plate. Oddly enough, most of the cousins on my dad's side of the family did the same thing when they were kids. And that was before I was even born.
TV Shows/Movies:
1.Rankin-Bass Christmas specials
Whenever holiday time was around the corner, I would sit and watch all of the stop-motion animation specials, from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to The Year without a Santa Claus. And my very favorite was Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I still have a big place in my heart for those, that entire style of animation, even.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
By the time I was seven, Ninja Turtles was all the rage. I idolized Splinter. I wanted to be like Donatello. I loved imitating the show, and I must have begged my parents a hundred times to let me take karate. It didn't rub off on them until I was 12 and I got hooked on...
3. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Yes, I was a little on the old side when this show came out, but that didn't stop me from watching every single episode. And this time, when I begged my parents for martial arts lessons, they listened. If it wasn't for my little tween crush on Tommy, the Green Ranger, I probably wouldn't be the master I am today.
4. Problem Child
This was a short-lived cartoon based on the hit movies. It was this show that inspired me to write out my first fanscript/fanfiction. I don't remember the entire plot, or even how it ended, but it involved the main character getting hurt in some way. I titled it Junior in a Crutch of Trouble. And I remember acting it out, to test my plot, with the kids next door using a pair of big sticks.
5. Mighty Mouse
I think my parents would probably call this my first 'obsession.' The first in a very long line of obsessions. They said I used to run around the house for days and days and days pretending I was Mighty Mouse, singing 'Here I come to save the day!!' over and over again. Eventually I remember them forcing me to play something else just so I'd do something different. Funny, the topic changes, but my level of obsession doesn't change all that much...
Toys/Games:
1. Snoopy
When I was really little, just learning how to write, I found a Christmas book where a child wrote a letter to Santa, wanting his lost puppy brought back. I copied that letter (and it took enough paper to reach from the mantle above the fireplace to the floor) and sure enough, on Christmas morning, there was a stuffed Snoopy toy in my bed. And there was one the next year too. And the next year. And the next. It was a Christmas tradition!!
2. Blankity and Blank
When I was just a baby, my parents thought they were so smart. I had a white security blanket that I carried around with me everywhere, and they had bought a second one, to use as a backup in case I lost it. Well, one day I found it, and discovered that I had two. I slept with those blankets until they were literally torn to shreds. I think I still have a tiny piece of it left, in a tiny box in my dresser.
3. Nintendo
What kid didn't love Nintendo. And I didn't just play the games, I'd act them out once the TV was turned off. The boy next door would be Ganon, and I'd be Link, and we'd play just like I did on the screen. (Granted, I wasn't very good at video games... so usually Link lost. And that's how it happened in the back yard too.)
4. Green Ranger Action Figure
When I was in sixth grade, that was what I most wanted for Christmas, and I got it. It was an action figure of Tommy, where if you pushed down on his belt buckle, his head would flip around and he'd 'morph.' I loved that action figure, and I used to keep it next to my pillow at night. Unfortunately, at the time, I slept in a back brace, and sometimes it would get crunched under the plastic. I still have it by my bed. But it's missing both its legs now.
5. The Children's Writing and Publishing Center
This was my first computer game, if you can call it a game. I spent endless hours making up stories and typing them up, then saving them to floppy disks. The biggest downside, though, was that a document could only be four pages long.
Current Lips: black with white circles
Current Mood: 
nostalgic
nostalgic