A trip down memory lane.......

I’m feeling very nostalgic today. I think it may have something to do with the fact that Mo has my car and is out visiting friends and I’m sitting here thinking, “ Where has the time gone?” I’ve made myself laugh thinking about some things from the past so I thought I would share them.

The following is a list of the people I love and what comes to mind when I think of them.. Some good things, some bad things, but all a part of my life

My Momma
There are so many things I remember, not all of them lovely, as you know, but some of the best still make me smile. I remember you were the prettiest Mom in Yorktown, we were proud you were our Mom.

My brother John
I remember when we moved to Yorktown, it was raining and Danny had that damn truck that stalled all the time and he would have to get it rolling and pop the clutch to start it. You were in the back of the truck and me and Mom and the girls were in the car behind you. The truck stalled and Danny popped the clutch, you grabbed the side of the truck but it was wet from the rain and your hand slipped. You were hanging off the chain that served as a tailgate, I thought you were going to fall and die. That was the most scared I had been in my life, up to that point. I remember jumping out of Mom’s car while it was still moving and running behind the truck screaming, finally getting to you and lifting you off that chain. So thankful you were ok.
I remember when you dressed as a woman for Halloween and I was jealous because you looked better in that dress than I did!

My sister Terrie
I remember standing in Nan’s living room, singing into hairbrushes and pretending we were Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette.
I remember your Rick Springfield cardboard cut out scaring me to death when I was trying to sneak in!

My sister Angie
I remember being afraid flys would fly up your nose when you were an infant and suffocate you. What? I was seven, it could happen!
I remember your little yellow coat.


My brother Tony
I remember sitting in the back of Mom’s car, holding you all the way home from the hospital, back in the days your baby didn’t have to be in a car seat. You keep looking at me with just one eye, like Popeye
I remember when you hated mashed potatoes and Angie convinced you not to eat peas by telling you there were mashed potatoes inside.

My Daddy
I remember telling you that Mommy was mad because you were drinking and you just smiled and said “Hot damn” You were the best Daddy!

My cousin Tink
I remember when you lived with us and you were making those flowers, I can’t remember how did it but it was some kind of wire and you dipped them in something, I don’t know, but I thought you were amazing and wanted to be just like you.

My cousin Janet
I remember staying with you in the summer when we were teenagers and sneaking out when Aunt Joann thought we were asleep and then having to hide so we didn’t get caught by the cops breaking curfew. Small town life.
I remember painting our nails at Grandma’s in New York, listening to Cher. Gypsy’s Tramps and Thieves.

My Dudley family
I remember trips to Indian Acres and Rosie and Kenny singing around the campfire. “Where have all the flowers gone” still makes me cry. I used to sing that to Mo when she was a baby.
I remember Grandma always working, even when I visited her in the summer, she worked at the Instant Beer Machine. I remember the tshirt she got me in Hong Kong.
I remember Uncle Sam making me mad because he refused to stop calling me Missi the summer I decided I was too old for it.

There are so many things I remember. I remember that Nanny had the softest skin ever and that she loved me, even when I was unlovable. Pop Pop knew everything, what I would give to talk to him again. Grandma Dudley, telling me she wasn’t sure if she didn’t work anymore because she was retired or because she was retarded. I remember Grandma crying because I slept with my head covered up and my feet sticking out, just like my Dad.

This could get very long. There are so many people I love and so many things that I remember about them. I’m so very blessed to have them all in my life.

Childhood............

Yesterday I was talking with a friend at work and somehow the conversation wound it's way to kids today and the differences between us and them. Jill and I both have teenage daughters who cannot imagine sharing a room with a sibling, let alone two or three. We found ourselves reminiscing about the rooms we shared over the course of our childhoods.


I shared a bedroom, more often than not, sometimes with one sibling, sometimes with three. My brother, who is eighteen months younger than me, and I shared a room until I was ten and my parents decided that as the only boy he deserved his own space. There were times I hated sharing a room, no privacy, I could never be alone, but the flip side of that is the wonderful moments I shared with my siblings that I would never have had otherwise.

When I learned to read I remember turning the lamp on the bedside table on and putting a blanket over it to hide the light from my parents, and reading to my brother from the books I brought home from school. My brother thought I could do anything, that I was the most amazing, smartest sister in the world.


I also remember my brother taking a spanking for something I had convinced him to do and then pretended I knew nothing about. We used to sneak out the bedroom window when we were supposed to be napping, I always made him go first and peek around the side of the house to see if Mom was outside, if she wasn't then we could make our way through the neighbors yard and an hour of sweet freedom. If she was out there, chatting with the neighbors, then we had to take a nap. John always got caught if Mom was in the front yard, he was little and chubby and not fast at all, so he would poke his head around and someone would see him.

I can still see Mom leading him by the arm, back into the bedroom, Johnny walking on his toes while Mom swats his bottom. And where was his sister, his hero? Curled up on my side, pretending with all my might that I was asleep. Amazingly, he still trusted me, every time.

My sisters, that was a circus. I'm the oldest so they had to do what I said, like it or not. Worked out for me most of the time, except that Terrie was a tattletale so anytime she didn't like what I did, she told on me. John was much easier to manipulate than the girls.

The noise, the mess, staying up all night talking and giggling, or shutting each other out and refusing to speak. I remember one house we lived in where all four of us shared a room and a bed. I loved having them all there with me. At times our lives were so unpredictable and we didn't always know where we were going to live or what we were going to eat, but we always had each other. Even though I bossed them around and was meaner than necessary, I worried about them so much, so when we shared a room, I always waited until they fell asleep, then I would allow myself to go to sleep, it was my job to take care of them, and sharing a room made that so much easier.

I remember being jealous of my friends with their own rooms, decorated the way they liked, with all their pretty girly things that no one else touched or snooped through. I was so jealous. Today, I wouldn 't trade it for anything and I feel bad that my daughter will never know what it's like to share a room with someone who annoys you more than anyone else on the planet, but who also shares your history and your heart.

I love my siblings, thanks Mom and Dad for giving them to me!