List of favorite things from childhood:
- Go Dog Go! - my favorite book ever.
- The big red kite that our gay neighbors used to fly in the church parking lot - it was as big as a van.
- Eating Space Food Sticks with my brother.
- My stuffed animal, Wesley the Weasel. He was pink. And ugly. And I loved him. A lot.
- My brother's favorite stuffed animal, Tony the Tiger.
- My brother's cute friend, Mark.
- My best friend, Little Tom. I once swear I saw a giant snake in his parents laundry basket - an old wicker round thing. I think I had seen Mutual of Omaha recently and was fixated on snakes.
- Baby squirrels that we found in our driveway, abondoned. We tried to save them, but they all eventually died. They looked like little rats.
- My butterfly shirt. This was a shirt that had a sequence butterfly on it. I wore it all the time. I was actually grounded from it once... my mom wouldn't let me wear it because I was in trouble.
- The birthday parties we would have for my brother in our back yard.
- My garden - I grew lima beans and sunflowers. I tried to grow carrots, but they didn't do much. I tried pumpkins and watermelon with no luck also.
- Our swing set. My brother and I would sit on top and singing The Carpenter's On Top of the World as loud as we could.
- When I rode a bike without training wheels for the first time. This happened right before I was forced to put the training wheels on for a long bike ride so that I wouldn't fall and get hurt. I was not happy.
- Catching lightening bugs and putting them in a jar - and then letting them go because I felt sorry for them.
- Bringing home EVERY stray animal I found.
- Crawling into my mom's bed in the mornings after she got up to get ready for work and listening to Kenny Roger's The Gambler on the radio.
- Finding a ouija board and playing with it with my mom. She later burned it when she found God.
- My mom leading our girl scout troup in second grade.
- Making houses in the park out of leaves - using them to outline where the rooms would be - and playing house for hours with my friend Stephanie Singleton.
- Making a hunted house in Stephanie's garage.
- Playing Peter in the 4th grade school play, Peter Pan. I was a girl, playing Peter... yeah. Michael was also played by a girl... odd to think of now.
- Pajamas with feet in them.
- Sunday school.
- The Bell Choir. We played bells on Sunday mornings.
- YMCA Classes. Gymnastics and swimming were two of my favorties. One class I didn't really get into was one on being a lady - lasted about 6 weeks and taught poise and proper manners... so silly. I remember a ballet class where they played "Feelin' Groovy" for warmups.
- Art classes at Century Center in South Bend. I won first prize for a still life painting that I did there.
- Playing in the giant water pipes that ran into the St. Joseph river (after being told not to by our mom)
- Playing D&D with my brother until really late at night.
- Playing Atari for hours at our friend's house in Culver all weekend.
- Cartoons on Saturday morning. H.R. Puff N Stuff.