Random Memories

Since I don't have a fancy iphone nor can I remember to charge my ipod nor do I have a cd player anymore, while I do mundane chores outside instead of listening to music to make the day go faster I end up thinking about things. Sometimes, I think about dreams I have had and remembering one dream will lead to another and another and so on. I can spend all day revisiting old dreams in my head.

The other day though, while raking leaves to prevent last year's rotting leaf disaster, I was remembering things of my childhood.

• One day during recess, while still young enough to be in the little kid playground, I was by the tires that are buried upright in the sand and found a praying mantis. I spent my whole recess period watching the praying mantis laying it's eggs on the inside of that tire.
• I used to spend all day walking up and down rows of trees, on my dad's fruit farm where I grew up, looking up in the branches looking for nests. My favorite thing was to climb the trees and watch the contents of the nests turn from eggs to hatchlings to birds ready to leave the nest.
• I also used to take the BB gun and ride around on the 3 wheeler or walk and try to shoot these birds that had now gone from being cute little baby birds to evil, fruit eating birds.
• My youngest sister was born while I was in the 1st grade. I took the pamphlets the doctor gave my mom about babies, how they are made, how they grow, and how they are born and tried to teach my 1st grade class the mechanics of baby making and birthing. Needless to say, it didn't go over well and my mom was called.
• I got my first bloody nose from my Uncle Geoff. He and the two older boy cousins were playing in my Grandparent's loft, I wanted to join in and play, they didn't, so Geoff threw a keychain and it hit the bridge of my nose. I had never seen a bloody nose before, so the scream was literally "bloody murder". Oh, the lungs I have on me!
• My first use of the "f" word was in the lunch line in elementary school. We were singing the "banana fana" song and the name Chuck was given to me and I had NO IDEA that would be the result. Not to mention my immense humiliation when I belted out song and word in front of the secretary of the school and then had to sit on the stage till the end of lunch so I didn't get recess.
  
• My sister and I were walking home from school one day. I found one half of a ripped dollar bill. My sister found the other half and we spent the next week arguing over who got the dollar whole.
  
• My favorite program of all time was the Book-It program at school. My best friend, Kristen, and I would go to the Pizza Hut by her house and get our personal pan pizzas.
  
• I remember the day we got our trampoline. We were the first kids I knew to have one and I couldn't stand having to wait for my mom and uncle to put it together and then my mom let my uncle jump on it first. The nerve!! There are kids waiting here! =)
• Later, beating up the neighbor boy on the trampoline. We played kung fu and I kicked his little boy butt.
  
• We used to flood our front yard when we had irrigation. I think it was more fun than sprinklers any day. I also remember getting bitten by the ants the water drove out of their homes.
• My dad used to have these rods that stuck in the ground and they looked like long ice picks that were connected to electrical wires. We would stick them in the ground, plug them in, and then grab the night crawlers that would come up when the electricity would drive them to the surface of the lawn. We always did that right before we went fishing. Tyne and I would compete to see who could touch the ground the closest to the rods.
• Tyne and I would get water balloons and fill them up and then borrow my mom's bras and dresses and put the water balloons in the bras so we could "fit" into mom's dresses. What a mess when they'd pop. Which they did. A lot.
  
• We used to put flour in our mouths and then blow it out like it was smoke and pretend to be dragons. How the heck did my mom survive us?
• My mom roasted pumpkin seeds once. Tyne and I sneaked downstairs all night long taking a small handful here and there. We ended up eating the whole thing and I'm pretty sure that was enough fiber to keep us regular for 3 years. Ya, we were in trouble.
• My mom used to make nachos in the oven. A baking sheet with tortilla chips covered in cheddar cheese and one half had jalapenos on them for my dad.
• Watching sports every weekend during the winter with my dad and the fireplace going. It was so warm and cozy.
• Playing Uno on my parents bed when we were really little.
• Popping popcorn and melting the butter and then shaking it all up in a paper bag and going out the the drive in movies.
• My Granny had a really tall, prickly cactus at her house. I was mad at Tyne one day when we were about 6 and 4, I pushed her into it, and she got stickers in her bum. I had to sit on the bed with my mom and her while the stickers were picked out. I had to sit there, even if I had to pee or get a drink.
• We used to have a player piano and Tyne and I would sit and play them and belt out the tunes. Most of the old songs I know, I know because of the player piano.
• Tyne and I used to run around our farm neckid. Back before there were houses built down by our house. While running around the fields, we'd practice peeing like a boy cause we hated having to go all the way up to the house to pee and we figured dad could pee standing up, we should be able to also.
  
• We used to put pennies on the railroad tracks and walk up and down the tracks looking for asparagus.