So, because I am a good girl and does what my father tells me to (i know their will be backlash on that last sentence, but lets keep it to a minimum), here is my paper. I hope I get an "A."
I Remember...
- I remember which bedroom was mine in my grandparents' house when we would sleep there occasionally.
- I remember when the wasp landed on me in our tree-house - the worst thing that could ever happen to a nine year old - and Amy and Andee ran to get my dad who flew to the tree house, flicked it off my chest and swooped me out of the tree.
- I remember spinning in circles in the living room of our old house, spinning around and around as I sang along to the Annie record we played before preschool. I can still see that carpet and those circles.
- I remember each window I was scared of as a child, in every room I ever slept in.
- I remember arguing with Paul Kuhlman in the music room at school that yes, indeed, Santa Claus did exist because, like my dad would climb up on our roof and leave orange peels up there, pretending the reindeer had eaten the oranges we left for Santa.
- I remember peeing my pants playing outfield near third base because I couldn't hold it any longer. I think I remember that...
- I remember talking about how Paul Kuhlman kissed Sugar Ocker in the first grade at the reading table for years and years to come.
- I remember making a village in my favorite teacher, Mrs. McFall's third grade class, and my house was clear plastic. A glass house if you will. I remember volunteering at church as a youth and always hearing the joke, "glass house, Ann, glass house." Who would have known...
- I remember being sent to the principal's office when Paul Kuhlman slapped me in the face with a dirty rag off the playground. (Paul Kuhlman caused me a lot of problems as a child).
- I remember my first kiss was actually a stage kiss. And we bumped noses.
- I remember dance classes with Cliff and Paul. I remember that I refused to take it the first year it was offered because Amy was in it and I was sick of being around my little sister. But I wanted in that second year, and even now, even this week, I thought about Paul and how much I miss his dance class.
- I remember what I wore on my first date with the first person I really loved: short khaki skirt, white button down shirt, pastel green and pink and purple handkerchief around the neck (yes, that was cool then).
- I remember the first time I got a dozen roses from a boy.
- I remember how Jake Camp stunk up the room so much in Chemistry our Sophomore year (first hour), the teacher would make him sit in the hall most days.
- I remember avoiding the smoker's bathroom my freshman year in high school.
- I remember avoiding Jock Hall too.
- I remember when the boys came back to school the fall of our 8th grade year and wondering where all that hair came from and what in the world happened to their voices?
- I remember telling Nancy Nelson I wouldn't be able to call her Mrs. Nelson just because she was now my school guidance counselor. Nancy would just have to do.
- I remember declining the invitation to change someone's Latin grade on my mother's home computer. And I remember knowing who cheated in French class, but not telling my mother.
- I remember the first boy I thought was a "creeper." Of course, we didn't have that jargon then.
- I remember the trip my dad took our family on to Excelsior Springs and how Amy, the swimmer, did laps in the saltwater pool and ran into the side of the wall.
- I remember my mother reading to me from giant art and mythology books as a child.
- I remember the layer of smoke that hung across the lobby of the Missouri Theater (back when you could smoke anywhere) as I watched my father give notes to the cast of one of his many productions.
- I remember the first time I was offered alcohol (and not by my parent).
Oh my gosh, this is so fun, I can't stop. I'm sure y'all are bored stiff, but this is awesome. Great assignment dad.
- I remember eating pizza on the beach in Oahu with my family in the seventh grade and watching the sunset. I remember always wanting to recreate that moment every time I visited Hawaii after that.
- I remember practicing kissing on our balled-up fists with Kara Elder in her bedroom.
- I remember when my father told me he was sorry he hadn't prepared me for real life.
- I remember how proud I was of my mother at my sister's wedding - that she wasn't stressed at all, but just had fun.
- I remember eating hamburger party pizza and playing Life with Amy on the den floor over and over again until I was so sick of both that we never did that again.
- I remember how pretty I thought my mother was when she was pregnant with Emily.
- I remember my mother's fortieth birthday party at Diane and Terry's house.
- I remember the present Nancy Nelson gave me when I was sick in the hospital as a young child with a stomach virus. It was a book about a bird who was a mailman.
Okay, I could seriously go on forever, this is a great writing activity. And I didn't even get to college or seminary or real world or whatever. Thanks, dad.
