Juicy Stuff

Yesterday afternoon I got the sudden urge to reorganize. My main goal was to bring in my multiple boxes of books and rummage sale remnants from the garage and stash them in closets so we'd have enough room to pull in all three of our vehicles this winter. The go-karts, lawn mowers, motorcycle, washer, dryer, and spare refrigerator will have to stay out there, but I thought that it would help my husband ("The garage is MY domain," he says) to get my extra items out of the way.

My plans went awry when the shelves on top of the office closet collapsed. Apparently they weren't designed to hold two tons of books, a keyboard, two boxes of baseball cards, AND a wardrobe. My bad.

So I started fishing through the mess and came across two journals I was required to keep in elementary school. For the most part, I did not recognize the child that had written about issues ranging from cliques to divorce. I learned that fifteen years ago I was a fascinating kid with a relatively large vocabulary. Some of the memories came flooding back, but some things were so vague that I thought maybe the neighbor kid had snuck in and added some thoughts. It's also evident that I've enjoyed writing all my life--some of the entries were up to 15 pages. And my spelling was impeccable, for the most part.

I've decided to note some of my favorite excerpts from one of the journals:

Weds. Sept. 26, 1990
Once when I was 2 years old, when we lived in Spiceland, I crawled out of my crib and ran down the street. Miss Williams, who is the migrant teacher here at Blue River, was the one who saved me. She used to take me on bike rides while I sat in the baby seat. She also made my first doll for me.

**The "migrant teacher." Haha. How PC is that? She worked with students who were only in the school system during the harvesting season.

Sept. 27, 1990
When the genie appeared out of the bottle, she granted her master 3 wishes. For the first wish, he wished for 15 more wishes. For the 2nd wish he wished for 5 more wishes and for the 3rd Wish, he wished for 10 more wishes. The genie says okay you got your wishes and then she disappeared. Hey wait I didn't get my 30 more wishes. A voice came from the bottle, "You didn't say you wanted to use those wishes!"

Oct. 5th, 1990
Another one of my favorite insects is a lady bug. They don't seem to frown like some other bugs, they don't jump around and scare you like grasshoppers, they don't have 8 legs that crawl up walls creepily like spiders, they don't make screeching noises that make you jump out of bed at night like crickets, they don't buzz in your ears like mosquitoes, they don't land on your arm, take their blood supply and fly off like flies, they don't eat rugs like moths, they don't sting like bees, they don't eat wood like termites do, they don't get inside of your pet's fur and make them itch like fleas or lice, and they don't spit brown juice on your hand like grasshoppers. Lady bugs are just peaceful creatures.

**Did I like to "develop" a full paragraph, or what?

Oct. 11, 1990
Tonight I was getting ready to bend over the gate like always and pick up my pet calf, Buttons', feed box so that I could clean it out. All of a sudden, with me on it, the gate fell and I went face first into manure! A water bucket cracked in half while Buttons almost got out. Later on, dad came home and tied the gate up. Dad came back later on with me and Buttons was chewing the twine again.

**HAHA...Yes, I was a country kid.

Oct. 22, 1990
There isn't much to say today except Washington D.C. Will pick-pockets be after me? Will there be so many poor people begging for money that I feel sorry for them? What all are we going to see? Will the buses be comfortable? Will I like the groups I'm in? Will I get lost? Will we get there safely? Will I get homesick? Why not stop the questions for now?

**Can't tell I was anxious to go to Washington D.C., can you? I was a little emotional, to say the least.

Nov. 1, 1990
My favorite T.V. show is either The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or the Golden Girls, but I also like The Simpson's, America's Funniest Home Videos, and Head of the class. I don't like watching shows at night like Cheers. There seems to be a dark background and it sooms too late to me. I can't understand it always either!

Nov. 5, 1990
I wish that this dumb war with Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia & the U.S. would stop. Why don't they just kill Hussein and forget about it? I've heard that they've tried to kill him but can't. I know I shouldn't wish for such a thing to happen but it makes me so sick I really don't care! In the newspapers all you ever see is "BUSH: NO WAR" or "Hussein With Powerful Weapon." If they just want to get this war over with then the only way it is going to work is to...You know, they say it isn't a "war" yet but as far as I'm concerned it might as well be!

**Yes, I had to censor myself. It wasn't THAT bad, but the feds might think otherwise, and I'd hate to be imprisoned for my thoughts as a 10 year old!

November 29, 1990
If I were a parent, advice I'd give my child is to go to school & get a good education. Also I'd say if someone punches at you or hits you, you knock 'em out so hard they don't know what hit 'em. I don't mean to sound mean but hey, there's no sense in some brat punching around at my child. And they can argue with me about it. If they punch, they'll get a punch!

**You can tell what I was raised to believe. And now I'm a parent...

12-5-90
I don't like wearing these T-shirts. Mine especially is embarrassing. Stephanie wrote "Groovy" across my chest & my lungs are blue. They also go clear down to my knees! This has been one of the most embarrassing days of my life!

**OMG--we had to make puffy-paint t-shirts for Health class. We were supposed to take in white t-shirts and trace lungs on them. I forgot to tell my mother until the last minute, so she sent one of my dad's nylon t-shirts with me. That was the day my parents got called and were told that I needed to start wearing a bra!

4-15-1991
The government could use some of the money in people's taxes to provide education. That way it would be useful and people would know that it would go to something. They also could have a little box outside the City Hall that says, "Money for Education."

**Was I destined to be a politician? I seemed to write about politics a lot. Hmmm...