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This is my birthday week. Every time my birthday rolls around and I add another digit to my age, I spend more time reminiscing. So this will be the first of several posts recalling favorite memories throughout my almost nineteen years.
In most of the pictures that I have posted in my slide show us playing dress up. Some good friends of ours once gave us several huge bags of old clothing, costumes, hats, and shoes. A little girl's dreamland!!! Especially when she has a sister to play with. My grandma also gave each of us wedding dresses that we wore until they only reached our knees and the zipper wouldn't shut anymore. One of my absolute favorite costumes was my Cinderella dress that grandma made. I even had little plastic high heels to wear with it, a tiara, and jewelry! Whitney had a fairy godmother dress with wings and a wand. If we didn't feel like playing with our real dress-up clothes, we would go raid the upstairs hall closet. With a few knots and several safety pins, we would turn my mom's collection of scarves into magnificent gypsy dresses. After Nanny and Papa gave us stick horses, jeans, cowgirl boots, a white t-shirt, a red bandanna, and a cowboy hat became the rage. We held rodeos in our backyard, and if that got boring, we'd proceeded to follow the Oregon trail around our house. Rodeo clothes would be cast along the wayside in exchange for prairie girl dresses (and a dog costume for Boo!), bonnets, boots, and shawls. Our horses would be hitched to the wagon, and off we'd go into the wonderful world of imagination. My favorite toys in my younger years were never Barbies, Polly Pockets, or Cabbage Patch Dolls. I had more fun rigging a tent with all our garden tools (shovels, hoes, rakes), twine, and an old quilt. We loved to take an old box and turn it into a club house. Oh, and the water parks that we would set up in our backyard during the summer! Old shower curtains morphed into Slip-N-Slides, and a sprinkler on top of the playhouse cooled us off while we were swinging. Those summer memories will stay with me forever. My mom gave me the best childhood she possibly could. Instead of letting me watch a movie or cartoons, she'd kick me outside, or to our playroom in the basement, or to my room with a book. She nurtured within me that special gift of imagination.
During the school year, my grandma (teacher) had us put on special holiday programs for my parents and other set of grandparents. We'd learn applicable poems and songs and then perform them. Sometimes we dressed up especially for our part. Other times we'd turn the lights off and only let the nativity glow while we quoted Luke 2. During the lunch period during school, Nanny always read to us. Some of my favorites were "The Trumpet of the Swan," "Charlotte's Web," "Little House on the Prairie," and "Hinds Feet in High Places." I remember never wanting lunch break to end so that Nanny could just go on reading to us forever!
Starting in third grade I played softball. My team was horrible every year, and I know that I did absolutely nothing to help them. My only claims to fame were the two grand slams that I hit one year. One was the result of errors on the part of the opposing team. I love playing third base, short stop, or left field. One year, and only one, my town had a good team. We placed third in our county and third in the tournament. The other years, well, we weren't good, but we did have an awful lot of fun.
Violin has been a part of me for as long as I remember. I do not really remember learning how to play it. I have just always been able to. My first recital was when I was four, and I have no clue what I played! :-) Starting later that year, I began studying with a different teacher and continued working with him until I was in eighth grade. He was a technique dictator, but that hard work and the push to hold/move/play my instrument correctly has become invaluable. In eighth grade, I switched teachers for a new approach to my lessons in hope that it would inspire me on. She did. And today, I'm working towards an undergraduate degree in music all thanks to my wonderful teacher and my parents.
Stay posted. More to come!
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