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next_to_normal) wrote2008-08-01 10:31 am
next_to_normal) wrote2008-08-01 10:31 am
Entry tags:
Memories....
I'm still working on answering the questions from this post. Clearly, the fic has been the most popular subject, but I've enjoyed exploring lots of different topics. Today's question comes from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kudagirl:
"What was your childhood like? Was it small town American where you knew everyone and they knew all about you as well? Or did you live in the city? Did you move around a lot? Give us the less known bit about you that made you who you are today."
I grew up in suburbia. My parents were city folk, and I was born in the city, but they wanted me to go to a good public school, and you just couldn't find that in Philadelphia in the 1980s. (Not that they're really any better now.) We had a big house (my parents got extra bedrooms, expecting to have more children, but that never happened), and a big backyard. My dad is quite the handyman, and built a deck off the back of the house, which, like, three of our neighbors copied. He's actually put a heck of a lot of work into our house - I think he's repainted and/or wallpapered every wall at least twice, finished the basement, he's put in tile and wood floors, new sinks, toilets, ceiling fixtures, you name it. (My parents have started watching HGTV a lot lately, so every time I come home, something is new.)
I wouldn't say we knew everyone, but it was a pretty small town - only 200 students in my high school graduating class. After moving out of the city at age 3, I lived in the same house my entire life, until I went off to college. I walked to both elementary school and high school, but had to take a bus for middle school.
I was an only child, but I don't ever remember being lonely. I had a very good imagination, and could keep myself occupied for hours playing dress-up or with my dolls. I was friends with some of the neighborhood kids, purely out of convenience, and we'd run back and forth to each other's yards, but once I got older, we didn't hang out much anymore.
My mom was pretty much a stay-at-home mom until I was in middle school. My maternal grandmother lived with us until I was eleven years old, when she broke her hip and went into a nursing home. She died later that year. My mom told me I was very grown up that summer, because instead of going to the pool or hanging out with my friends, I spent a lot of days going with her to the nursing home without complaining that I was bored or didn't want to be there.
Even though we'd moved out of the city, we still went back there pretty often. My paternal grandmother still lives there, and when I was a kid we used to visit her every week. My aunt and uncle and cousins on my dad's side would come, too, and we'd have the big traditional Sunday dinner, until my grandmother got too lazy to cook, and my cousins had busy sports schedules, so for the past few years, we've mostly just gone to Applebee's for early bird specials.
My parents also have a lot of friends who still live in the city (all of my mom's friends from high school, whom she's still friends with 40 years later), so I'm probably the only kid who grew up in the suburbs and went to block parties. (If you don't know what that is, it's where they section off a block of the street so that no traffic can get through, and everyone on the block just comes out and parties in the street. They usually get a DJ and have games for the kids, and everyone chips in for food and stuff.) In a lot of ways, I still feel attached to the city, even though I left when I was three. It was still a big part of my life growing up - it was where a lot of my friends were, and these were the friends we called family. We call each other's parents our aunts and uncles, and we started referring to ourselves as "fake cousins" because it confuses people when we say "oh, she's my cousin... but we're not actually related."
We always had New Year's Eve parties at the same house - adults upstairs, kids in the basement - and my dad and a couple uncles would play "set Mayfair on fire" with the fireworks at midnight. Fortunately, all the uncles were cops, so we never got in trouble (since it's kind of illegal to set off fireworks there). We also had a Super Bowl party every year, and a rotating system of who hosted it. Football pools were my first taste of gambling. :) Summers were for barbecues at our house and the Morts' since we had the biggest backyards. I still remember playing Cops and Robbers, and our makeshift baseball games, hitting the ball into the neighbors' yard and hoping we didn't break a window.
A lot of my best memories as a kid are our family vacations. Often, we'd go with that same group of friends, and so there'd be like 6 or 7 families and lots of kids to hang out with. We went to Disney World a few times, and Myrtle Beach, and Las Vegas. To this day, all we have to do is say one phrase, like "auto train" or "banana boat" or "Do you know where my parents are?" and we all start laughing. We also went down the shore a lot, of course, and I have great memories of staying on the Walls' boat or at somebody's house (gradually, all my parents' friends have been buying houses at the shore, so we pretty much always have a place to stay).
It's crazy to think now, all those kids are getting married, and we're at these weddings like, "Yeah, Tim peed on me at Hershey Park when I was three," or "I remember when Colleen put her little brother on a leash and dragged him through Epcot." "Remember when that kid almost drowned Brian in the pool?" "Remember when we locked Johnny in the closet?"
Let's see, what else is there to know about me? I took ballet and tap lessons starting at age 4, but at 6 I switched over and started taking piano lessons instead. I occasionally played the piano at my parents' dinner parties, and earned tips. I did that for 7 or 8 years, and then switched to the flute, because I wanted to be in marching band in high school, and I needed a portable instrument. I was also into sports - played basketball and softball as a kid, but dropped the basketball for drama club in 6th grade.
Overall, I had a pretty good childhood... lots of fuzzy watercolor memories. Compared to other people who went through all kinds of hardships growing up, it seems a little boring, but I rather liked it that way. :)
kudagirl:"What was your childhood like? Was it small town American where you knew everyone and they knew all about you as well? Or did you live in the city? Did you move around a lot? Give us the less known bit about you that made you who you are today."
I grew up in suburbia. My parents were city folk, and I was born in the city, but they wanted me to go to a good public school, and you just couldn't find that in Philadelphia in the 1980s. (Not that they're really any better now.) We had a big house (my parents got extra bedrooms, expecting to have more children, but that never happened), and a big backyard. My dad is quite the handyman, and built a deck off the back of the house, which, like, three of our neighbors copied. He's actually put a heck of a lot of work into our house - I think he's repainted and/or wallpapered every wall at least twice, finished the basement, he's put in tile and wood floors, new sinks, toilets, ceiling fixtures, you name it. (My parents have started watching HGTV a lot lately, so every time I come home, something is new.)
I wouldn't say we knew everyone, but it was a pretty small town - only 200 students in my high school graduating class. After moving out of the city at age 3, I lived in the same house my entire life, until I went off to college. I walked to both elementary school and high school, but had to take a bus for middle school.
I was an only child, but I don't ever remember being lonely. I had a very good imagination, and could keep myself occupied for hours playing dress-up or with my dolls. I was friends with some of the neighborhood kids, purely out of convenience, and we'd run back and forth to each other's yards, but once I got older, we didn't hang out much anymore.
My mom was pretty much a stay-at-home mom until I was in middle school. My maternal grandmother lived with us until I was eleven years old, when she broke her hip and went into a nursing home. She died later that year. My mom told me I was very grown up that summer, because instead of going to the pool or hanging out with my friends, I spent a lot of days going with her to the nursing home without complaining that I was bored or didn't want to be there.
Even though we'd moved out of the city, we still went back there pretty often. My paternal grandmother still lives there, and when I was a kid we used to visit her every week. My aunt and uncle and cousins on my dad's side would come, too, and we'd have the big traditional Sunday dinner, until my grandmother got too lazy to cook, and my cousins had busy sports schedules, so for the past few years, we've mostly just gone to Applebee's for early bird specials.
My parents also have a lot of friends who still live in the city (all of my mom's friends from high school, whom she's still friends with 40 years later), so I'm probably the only kid who grew up in the suburbs and went to block parties. (If you don't know what that is, it's where they section off a block of the street so that no traffic can get through, and everyone on the block just comes out and parties in the street. They usually get a DJ and have games for the kids, and everyone chips in for food and stuff.) In a lot of ways, I still feel attached to the city, even though I left when I was three. It was still a big part of my life growing up - it was where a lot of my friends were, and these were the friends we called family. We call each other's parents our aunts and uncles, and we started referring to ourselves as "fake cousins" because it confuses people when we say "oh, she's my cousin... but we're not actually related."
We always had New Year's Eve parties at the same house - adults upstairs, kids in the basement - and my dad and a couple uncles would play "set Mayfair on fire" with the fireworks at midnight. Fortunately, all the uncles were cops, so we never got in trouble (since it's kind of illegal to set off fireworks there). We also had a Super Bowl party every year, and a rotating system of who hosted it. Football pools were my first taste of gambling. :) Summers were for barbecues at our house and the Morts' since we had the biggest backyards. I still remember playing Cops and Robbers, and our makeshift baseball games, hitting the ball into the neighbors' yard and hoping we didn't break a window.
A lot of my best memories as a kid are our family vacations. Often, we'd go with that same group of friends, and so there'd be like 6 or 7 families and lots of kids to hang out with. We went to Disney World a few times, and Myrtle Beach, and Las Vegas. To this day, all we have to do is say one phrase, like "auto train" or "banana boat" or "Do you know where my parents are?" and we all start laughing. We also went down the shore a lot, of course, and I have great memories of staying on the Walls' boat or at somebody's house (gradually, all my parents' friends have been buying houses at the shore, so we pretty much always have a place to stay).
It's crazy to think now, all those kids are getting married, and we're at these weddings like, "Yeah, Tim peed on me at Hershey Park when I was three," or "I remember when Colleen put her little brother on a leash and dragged him through Epcot." "Remember when that kid almost drowned Brian in the pool?" "Remember when we locked Johnny in the closet?"
Let's see, what else is there to know about me? I took ballet and tap lessons starting at age 4, but at 6 I switched over and started taking piano lessons instead. I occasionally played the piano at my parents' dinner parties, and earned tips. I did that for 7 or 8 years, and then switched to the flute, because I wanted to be in marching band in high school, and I needed a portable instrument. I was also into sports - played basketball and softball as a kid, but dropped the basketball for drama club in 6th grade.
Overall, I had a pretty good childhood... lots of fuzzy watercolor memories. Compared to other people who went through all kinds of hardships growing up, it seems a little boring, but I rather liked it that way. :)