1) I still remember the layout of the house I lived in when I was 3.
2) In that same house, I remember tasting spinach for the first time. I hated it but pretended it was making me strong like Popeye to avoid eating any more. My parents were not impressed.
3) When I was 3 or 4, we attended a real country church. I got a fan to fan myself while sitting during the sermon. I pretended to read the words in the hymn books and would sing along with everyone else. Except that I sang the story of Little Red Riding Hood....loudly!
4) We moved to NJ when I was 4. The first winter we were there, it was really hard financially. A neighbor gave us countless eggplants. I have never eaten eggplant since that time.
5) I was a sneaky kid but not adept at covering my steps yet. When I found some scissors and cut the letter "R"in the cat's fur, I was surprised my parents figured out it was me!
6) I adored my grandmother but only got to see her once a year. When I was in 5th grade, she lived with us for a year. After she left, I kept a pillow of hers because it smelled like her. I took that pillow to camp in high school and the girls there filled it with rocks as a joke. They never understood why I cried so hard.
7) I always thought I must've been mixed up at the hospital with some other kid. I used to dream what my 'real' family was like.
8) I have loved the ocean from the first time I saw it. Playing in the sand was like icing on the cake.
9) I hated being the youngest in my class. I lied about my birthday so I could be 'older'.
10) Behind our church was a concord grape orchard (more like a single fence). When the grapes were ripe, we'd sneak out of church and eat grapes until we couldn't eat any more.
11) When I was 12, I read 2 books by Beverly Cleary, "Jean and Johnny" and "Fifteen" over and over and over.
12) I also loved "Harriet the Spy".
13) I liked a boy named David in 4th grade. My mother told me I couldn't marry him because he was Jewish. I told my mother I'd marry anyone I wanted!
14) In 6th grade, the principal stopped our class in the hall and announced that I'd scored highest on the school's aptitude tests. Instead of feeling proud, I was mortified and embarrassed.
14) I had a crush on my 3rd grade teacher. He was a brand new teacher and I was sure he'd wait for me until I grew up.
15) When I was 12, I thought Native Americans were the most beautiful people I'd ever seen. I told my mother I wanted to marry an Indian one day.
16) My mother told me I couldn't marry an Indian because we'd have mixed race children.
17) I told my mother that we'd just adopt a white baby and an Indian baby and that would solve the problem!
18) My mother told me she could never love an adopted grandchild. I decided right then it was HER problem, not mine!
19) Most of my life I have felt like I didn't fit in. It took me to my 40's to feel comfortable with myself.
20) I've never expected to succeed. Making the field hockey varsity team in high school was a shock.
21) In high school, I ate lunch with a guy who carried his Bible and called himself a Jesus Freak. I was always in awe of him.
22) The first pop song I learned all the words to was Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown".
23) The first album I ever owned was Carole King's "Tapestry".
24) At the end of my first year of college, Kevin drove from NJ to Iowa to pick me up. (we were both 18) I sneaked him into my dorm room so he could sleep before we loaded up to drive back.
25) In high school, I loved Advanced Biology. I secretly wanted to be a Genetic Counselor but never knew how to pursue it.
26) Kevin and I got our first waterbed in 1977 and still sleep on a waterbed!
27) When I turned 40, I got my eyeliner tattooed on and have never regretted it!
So, did you learn anything new?
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