Wednesday, March 30, 2011

memories, light the corners of my eyes!!

K, so it's my turn for some recall.

Shepherd: I don’t have many memories from Shepherd, as I was only a tike, so my fondest memories are those which I actually remember…
sleeping lengthwise on the steps (because my body was small enough to fit lengthwise). 
Having nightmares while sleeping on my waterbed alone, then running to mom and dad’s room for comfort. NOT getting dressed up as a daisy and having my face painted with green paint. I remember that as humiliating, possibly my first feeling of humiliation.


Cavanaugh rental: Not many memories from this either. Building my first snowman, by myself, modeling it after what I had seen and heard about on TV; I think this is also the house where I fell in love with TV.  I distinctly remember watching and loving PBS shows like Reading Rainbow
Shining Time Station. Fighting with mom about wearing jeans. I insisted that jeans were for boys; stretch pants were the verdict. 

Blue house: this is where my memories start to pick up. This was my favorite house. 
Remember when our neighbor’s house burned to the ground? That’s not necessarily a fond memory, but it certainly stuck. Visiting dad at Meridian Oil. Getting jacked up on their sugar cubes, posting sticky notes all over Bill Brown. 

Learning to ride my bike by myself out of stubbornness, no training wheels—holla. Hanging out with the Pierce’s. Kali and I going on adventures on our bike, collecting rocks from behind the Pedersons’ house.  "Running away" to the van in the backyard, only to soon realize we were getting hungry, and it was kinda dinner time anyways. The house on the hill that awesomely gave out kingsize candy bars (this was remarkable to me at the time). Mom braiding or putting curlers in my hair at night. Swimming in our little baby pool and running around in the spinklers. Playing with the gack we got in the mail through Nickelodeon. Riding our bike down to the quick-e mart on holly st, and across the jankyass bridge across from the baseball field. I remember tinkering around on dad’s computer, ms-dos…blue screen. Wow. Discovering Sadie underneath mom and dad's bed, bloody and giving birth to her first litter of puppies. 


1201 house: the plays kal and I would put on. Hearing and seeing mom clomp up the steps one Christmas eve night, then hear her grumble and curse SHIT as she dropped all the presents. Watching the Real World and Party of Five with mara (Scott Wolff—my first love). Hanging out with Kal in the basement, rollerblading to Ace of Base, having Barbie pageants, learning to play the piano (going to the Redman’s house with their crazy kids and messy station wagon), and having a man come to tune the piano, only to have him throw up his arms in defeat…that ivoried beast predates the Civil War.

Rogers’ condo: The model shoots Kal and I did with the disposable cameras. Frequenting the fitness center and practicing basketball but never improving. NOT the orange farts kali unleashed while we were three abreast. My god.

 Yup. I just posted that, one of the infamous tubb-o pictures. From one of our modelling seshes. Though this was taken in the blue (grey...?) house.

Sunflower Lane: This is pretty much the house where I matured and reached adulthood…everything from playing with barbies to puberty to discovering the Internet to the first time I got drunk…it all happened here. It’s hard to even choose fondest memories. I had a great time with my friends the summer after my senior year. We would drive around back behind the house, out by the old cemetery, and listen to music, go UFO hunting. I became interested in constellations and stargazing. There was the surprise 16th birthday party that Lindy, Casey, and Jessie co-conspirated; it made me feel so loved! And the time Kali invented her own jingle, “I hate piano!” in an effort to get out of piano lessons (it definitely worked). The first time I used Google; the times when Kali and I would go into yahoo chat rooms and mess with people. The first time I put on my (borrowed) hockey gear, when I was 11, in the kitchen; mom and dad took photos. Sleeping in during the summer, getting 10+ hours of sleep every day—unfortunately I have a feeling that lifestyle will never recur. Oddly enough, waking up to the sound of the dogs' toenails clicking on the pergo, and mom clinking pots and pans as she was unloading the dishwasher; it was like waking up to the sound of someone taking care of you.

-J

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Roots Recall

Oldest sister here reporting my most fond memories from over the years...

Shepherd: Hutchie sleeping at the foot of my bed, pretending mom's flowerbeds were "Wonderland" & singing "Golden Afternoon" to them, dad taking me for snowmobile rides, feeding the ducks & getting the easel dad made for my birthday.




Rental in Sidney: sharing a room with K & listening to her chow down on the bunk bed rail...pretty sure there was nothing left after the little beaver got done with it. And Why did J get her own freaking bedroom when she was only 3 years old?! I also have vague memories of Kali acting like a dog & I was seriously beginning to wonder if the middle child was going to end up in the loony bin.

Little Blue House: playing with Sadie's puppies in the Barbie Dream House, sneaking down to the gas station on our bikes to buy candy, secretly discovering how to shave my legs with a bowl of water in my room (I have scars to prove it) & "ice skating" w/ our shoes on the "pond" that developed in mom's garden.


Grey 1201 House: rollerblading routines in the unfinished basement, Barbie pageants with the nerds, & listening to my Bed of Roses soundtrack endlessly when I had a thing for Christian Slater (I still love his voice;)

Condo: the three of us sleeping in the same room (the portion that K&J weren't sent off to g&g's) & K blowin' it up after eating too many oranges night after night... I'm still not sure how we all survived that. Those dry lightening storms were pretty wicked too; thanks for reminding me about those, Kal.

Sunflower Lane: The first week after moving in I remember having a slumber party with April B. & we had such a good time. Since I was a teenager & too "cool" to hang out with the fam this house holds my fondest friend memories: Jace coming over to watch X Files since he didn't have cable, Utter's 18th bday while the parents were away & the aftermath (there were a lot of strawberry daiquiris), co-ed slumber parties, & my last 4th of July in Sidney where the boys were blowing up ant hills with M-80's. Also, visiting the neighboring Cardigan Corgi, Flash, & of course getting my first real kiss on the porch.


K is right, recalling moments like this is very nostalgic. I say the Lechner Ladies do San Fran this fall after K&K is relocated to the NW or sooner if possible!