One more:
- Explaining to my Dad how the woman at the corner store had short-changed me, and going down there for a confrontation. I must have been 6 or so, he was a hero, and she was a grasping evil bitch.
Like Grasshopper, I would imagine how I would look as an adult. I was blonde with long hair and bangs, and I pictured myself looking exactly the same but with grown-out bangs. Funny thing is, that’s exactly how I look today 
Long blonde hair, all one length, and many people I haven’t seen in years have commented how I still have the same look from when I was a kid. Hmmm… compliment or not?
I remember being at a custom car show with my parents when I was very small and wanting a shiny balloon and one of those giant plate-sized lollipops. My mom said I could have one or the other and I chose the balloon. I cried the whole way home because I decided later I wanted the lollipop instead.
I used to be obsessed with a sitcom in the early 80’s called Best of the West. I’m not even a fan of westerns and I thought this was the funniest show ever made. I can’t believe TV Land or some other fringe cable network hasn’t picked up some of these old reruns.
Another fan of the candy cigarettes here. My friends and I would play dress-up with our mother’s old high heels and walk around ‘smoking’ candy cigarettes. We reeeeaally thought we looked cool.
We played “house”, “office”, “school”, etc. a lot, and I always wanted to be the pet in the game… a dog, a bird, a cat, whatever.
I got a Spider Man Big Wheel instead of the Powder Puff Big Wheel because I didn’t like that ALL the girls had the Powder Puff one. The red Spider Man one was much nicer.
My crib was on wheels and I wanted to see my mommy. So with great determination, my little hands reached out to pull on my dresser and anything else solid and heavy. After a mighty effort, using dresser, doorknob and doorjamb, I was able to get the corner of my crib wedged in the doorway – enough for me to lean my head over and watch my mom washing dishes in the kitchen all the way down the hall.
I grew up in a Catholic household, went to Catholic school, the whole nine. So, in addition to playing house and school, we also played church. My mom would get old prayer books from the church for us and I think she also gave us some old sheet or pillowcase to use as priest vestments, and we used cherry Koolaid and potato chips as the wine and communion hosts. I’m surprised she never took any pictures of us playing church, it must have been just hilarious…we took it so seriously! We each took turns playing “priest”, we sung church songs and said all the prayers, etc.
I remember being 1½ years old, wearing a diaper and nothing else, when my mom found out that I, thinking they were mint candy, had eaten a roll of Rolaids. She sat me down on her bed with her and explained to me that Rolaids aren’t candy, and that I wasn’t to eat them again. I remember her kind and gentle tone, and the feeling of reassurance that although I had done something I wasn’t to have done, I wasn’t in trouble. All in all a good memory.
I also remember the time just before I turned two that my family went to the coast to dig clams. The tide was out about two hours before dawn, and my parents woke me up to get me dressed in the middle of the night. We were in a hotel that had a kitchen and a fold out couch. Since I was so young, they had a crib brought in for me. At the time, my father was a smoker. He is also blind in his left eye. He walked past my crib, cigarette in hand, at the same moment that I reached out for him to pick me up. He didn’t see me, cigarette met cheek, screaming followed. Not such a good memory.
I remember I had a teddy bear named Teddums and we went to the Smoky Mountains, and while driving over the road that goes between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, I was holding Teddums out the window so he could see all the other bears, and I dropped him. That road is so winding and steep in places that there was no place for my dad to pull off. He had to drive what seemed like HOURS to the next pull-off, with me screaming my head off “I dropped my teddy bear!!! I dropped my TEDDY BEAR!!!” and as we pulled over and he was trying to turn around, a car came driving up honking its horn and the people were waving the bear out the window. My dad told me that Teddums had just wanted to visit the other bears for a minute.
I still have Teddums but he doesn’t go anywhere in cars anymore.
Thanks Jeff, but I’ll pass on the candy - I’m trying to cut back. I wonder if candy cigarettes played any part in the court cases against the tobacco companies. I mean, what an ingenious way to get kids to think smoking is cool! We thought we were sooo cool. And did you know that you could actually light one? They stank really bad but it was neat. I never did end up smoking but I did eat a few cigarettes as a kid.
CinnamonGrrrl, you reminded me of my teddy bear, Smoky. My mom and I was flying somewhere when I was 4 and when we boarded the plane I realized that I left Smoky in the terminal. Well I screamed and screamed so she had a stewardess wait with me while she went back and got him. I had nightmares for a long time that the plane took off and I watched out the window as my mom waved bye to me holding Smoky. (shudder) It still irks me today.
But it all turned out okay and I have my bear here now. Of course he looks like someone fed him through a shredder. My husband jokes that he won’t let my kids touch the bear because they might get mange.
My phone number was 932-6081 and my best friend’s was 933-4184. The combination of the lock that I used at the Y was 12-24-36.