Random memories: This morning, for some reason, I was thinking of the year we lived in Montgomery, Alabama, when I was 12, right before we moved overseas for 6 years. I was in 6th grade. My sister and I were alternately best friends with Jackie, the girl next door, as each of us fell in and out of favor. We lived in community housing, and had a POOL in the back, but it was the same year that Jaws came out, so none of us would swim in the deep end when everyone was playing in the pool in the evenings. I remember:
- being obsessed with making jewelry from colored, coated wire
- a big German Shepherd dog tied up outside a store scaring me to death by suddenly lunging and barking when I went to pet it, causing me to have great respect for all strange animals forever after
- exploring the “creek” for miles and playing in a sort of subterranean fort with friends
- “make out” sessions with an older boy named Roman that consisted solely of lying on top of each other in total stillness
- my sister getting a full page spread in the local paper with 3 photos of her walking her rabbit on a leash
- reading The Witches of Worm which scared the hell out of me, and House of Stairs which filled my head with images I’ve never been able to shake.
- jumping off a high wall onto a huge trampoline and then into a swimming pool
- playing catch ’em kiss ’em with the neighborhood kids
- reading Jaws and The Exorcist because I wasn’t allowed to go see the movies and discovering that the books were much more graphic than a movie could probably ever be
- raising a flashlight “rope” in front of an oncoming car with a friend and then scrambling like hell when the driver stopped, jumped out and starting chasing us
- seeing giant black cockroach palmetto bugs for the first time in my life *shudder*
- my brother and sister and I forming the “Red Bird Club” because of some book I’d read, and transforming our closet into our clubhouse with drawings and paintings of cardinals covering the walls
- a stray Siamese cat who joined our family and was baptized Woodstock
- being completely grossed out when Jackie ate dog food on a dare
There are more memories from that year, but that’s all for now.
Happy dance: My colleague Niklas brought me back a big bag of 3 Musketeer bite-sized candy bars and a bag of 3 Musketeers Popables from the States. Woo hoo!