Random Memories

[Nat]

I remember in kindergarden, Mr. Maverick cut an earth worm in half in front of us in order to show us that both halves would live and they would be two separate worms. He did it with scissors while he had us gathered around to watch. I didn't look. I closed my eyes.

A week later, one half of the worm was still alive. The other had shriveled up and died.

[Blade]

I remember sand spur and red ant hills and the smell of my grandmothers cat head biscuits. I remember all us kids racing home on our bikes, when we'd hear the "skeeter" truck coming, and we'd ride our bikes toward the sound of the ice cream mans truck coming. I remember those southern thunderstorms rolling across the sky, and sitting on the porch thinking how pretty the sky was all lit up. I remember catching bream, not big as a piece of fatback off of Pa's pier, eventually using a whole basket of crickets in a day and I remember standing on the banks of the river and catching a many crappie with my grandma. I remember laying in bed at night with the windows open and listening to the hounds baying off in the distance.

[Julien]

I remember standing by the screen door looking out at the rain soaked yard and the dark clouds rolling overhead. It was a weird quiet as if something else was going to happen. My parents were there looking out the door at the damage of downed trees, limbs and powerlines. Years later I knew I lived through a hurricane. It might have been Camile. It was the first hurricane that I can remember.

[Gemme]

I remember the smell of wood burning in the fireplace and the pop and crackle as things settled. On occasion, blue flames would leap up as the critters who were unfortunate to be inside, ignited. One time, the lizard that was inside a log lept out of the fireplace, onto the floor and out the door. I felt proud of the little guy. I hope he made it.

[cara]

In fourth grade, my parents signed me and my brother up for ski lessons. Each Saturday morning for two months, we loaded into the mini-van with our gear and two closest neighborhood friends to meet at the local junior high. From there, we'd take school buses up to Snoqualmie Pass for the day. I wasn't a very good skier and my friend quickly decided she wanted to hang out with the older, public school girls. After our morning lessons, she'd go ski with them and I'd go off on my own exploring the lodge, walking around the ski area, and heading back to the bus early to eat my lunch and bide my time. One afternoon on the way home, we were invited to sit in the back of the bus with the older girls. My friend was so excited. I remember them asking me questions about things I had no idea about. They would laugh at me and ask more questions. I remember being confused and feeling as if they were speaking to me in another language. At one point, they asked if I knew what a virgin was. When I said I didn't, they mischievously told me to ask my mom when I got home. "You're embarrassing me," my friend said in the van when we got off the bus. I was hurt and angry she didn't stick up for me and retorted, "YOU'RE embarrassing ME!" Later, I did ask my mom what a virgin was. Together, we looked it up in the dictionary. I still didn't understand and shrugged it off. I didn't really care and I'm sure she was relieved I wasn't asking any further questions.

[Turtle]

I remember sitting down by the harbor at night with my best friend - just sitting there and talking, watching the heat lightning over the water.

[always2late]

I remember going to the drive-in to see "The Poseiden Adventure"

[Princess]

I remember that big mud puddle and how much fun we had tossing eachother around in it...til those creepy guys with the red solo cups started to cheer us on!

[Nat]

I remember a party at my dad's and step-mom's. I was the only kid at the party, and although I haven't been able to smell irises as an adult, as a kid I was able to. That night, the air was full of the smell of irises in the night. I was the only kid, and the adults were beautiful and wild and cavalier. Colored lights were strung across the yard, and a hippie guy with a guitar sang music while we sat and lay in the grass. There was a drunk man trying to hoola-hoop, and a huge bag of chips with salsa. The smells of pot and cigarettes and incense mingled with that iris-smell. It was magical and it went late into the night. I was probably 6 or 7. It was low-key and warm, and I was free. The air was just warm enough and moist. A pretty woman was sitting next to me in the grass with long dark hair and big brown eyes. I remember asking her, as the night wore on and the laughter and singing got louder: "what if we are bothering the neighbors?" And she laughed and said, "They are free to come and enjoy the party instead of being bothered."

At home at my mom's, our neighbors had parties. Loud parties. I remember yelling from my window into their crowded driveway, "I NEED TO GO TO SLEEP! I HAVE TO WAKE UP IN THE MORNING!" To which they laughed.

I grew up in two worlds.

[skeeter_01]

i remember the day my dad left....

i remember how mean my mom got after that...

i remember the last time she hit me...i told her if she ever did that again...i'd kill her...i meant it and she knew it...i was 18yo...it scared the shit outta the both of us.....

i remember realizing that i'm gay and the fear and disgust i felt...

i remember my first love... <3

i remember when my life started getting better....

and now....i remember to be thankful and to pray....everyday... :)

[chefhmboyrd]

breakfast in bed....
when i was little, sitting next to my dad, mom bringing us eggs, bacon, and toast......
he would squish up the eggs (over easy) and scoop up the yolks with the toast and feed me little bites with bacon on top.....

i still eat my eggs like that

[Bard]

Fishing with my grandpa up on the NID ditch in Nevada City CA the smell of his pipe tobacco how his strong hands were so comforting on mine teaching me how to cast

[Miss Scarlett]

i remember our first kiss...:love1:

[cara]

I just helped a young woman load my dining room table into her car. this piece of furniture was a hand me down from my parents and the table I grew up with in their home. out of everything I have sold/given away for this move, the table was the hardest to let go of. I will always remember 18+ years of family meals, and a solid, sturdy surface for homework and crafts. birthdays and holidays. game nights, learning how to put on makeup, weekend card making parties with my mom, discussing family matters and concerns. most recently it was a great place to pile clean and folded clothes. I don't get attached to many material items, but I am going to miss that table.

[Blade]

I remember my first bike
my first bike wreck
my first dog
my first day at school
my first day I drove to school
my first real crush
my first girlfriend
my first hunting trip that I got to take a real gun
my first camping trip, a bear visited us OMG!
my first stitches
my first car wreck
my first job
LBH's first steps
AJB's first attempt at making a cake
JBB's first arrest
No everything can't be a joyous memory, but it is a memory just the same

[Deborah]

I remember being sent to Charm School at The Cinderella Shop when I was 11....my moms idea :| I'm still kinda charming when I wanna be :)

[Blade]

I remember getting a green 3 speed bike for Christmas one year and my Daddy telling me over and over..."Don't leave your bike beside the road. Someone might steal it" Naturally, whenever they'd call me in for something, I'd leave the bike right where I was, cuz in my mind I was going right back out there to it. Well you guessed it, I woke up one morning and my bike was gone...stolen....or not....My Daddy raised hell for days about me leaving it beside the street, inviting someone to steel it.

Thing is to this day I still don't know if someone stole my bike or if Daddy had someone come get it. I was taught a lot of lessons this way so ya never know. Just wonder why anyone would want my green 3 speed bike when there must have been 20....5 speed and 10 speed bikes in the neighborhood. Not to mention go carts, dirt bikes and so on. Anyway you can trust and believe I never left another bike beside the street. Actually I don't remember when I got my next bike or even what it was.

[LeftWriteFemme]

I remember thinking that I had the most beautiful mother in the world, I just got back from visiting her and I have to say, she is still the most beautiful mother in the world!

[Blade]

I remember thinking that I had the most beautiful mother in the world, I just got back from visiting her and I have to say, she is still the most beautiful mother in the world!

I remember thinking this too...and now I look back at those old pictures with those old glasses and those old hair styles and I go ewww what was she thinking LOL.....I saw one the other day where Mama's hair was "frosted" now it is naturally frosted LOL but she is still a beautiful woman.

[Guy]

I remember going out fishing with my father when the fish were literally trying to jump IN the boat.

We caught 112 flounder that day

Cijs fish are not very bright

[Lazy Daze]

I remember the way my Dad always smelled of cigarettes and cologne. His smile and the way this gorgeous blue eyes danced when he did. The way his arms felt when he used to hug me tight. His deep raspy quiet voice. How we always had Sunday night game night, because my mom worked third shift, so she would be napping, and him and I could have wrestling matches, wiffle ball games, bike races, etc. I remember the way he laughed, I remember dancing with my feet on top of his, I remember him teaching me how to play softball and that he was at Every game I ever played....I remember the day I came out to him (I was 16, and he was the only one I told until I was almost 30). And lastly, I remember and I can still hear him say "I love you Judge" (my nickname he gave me as a kid)....I miss him so much :rrose:

[Beloved]

I was reminded of this memory because the person I shared it with posted on Facebook that she was going to a lake...

It was a beautiful summer day. I was about 22/23 and I was with my first girlfriend who was femme (didn't know anything about butches yet), and we were in Nova Scotia. We hiked through the woods to a pretty lake. We got in a paddle boat and paddled out to the middle of the lake and got super high. And laughed and talked and then paddled back...which was hard because of our state and there was some wind and a bit of a current going in the wrong direction. It's a happy memory.

**I don't partake in that mind altering activity anymore.

[Blade]

I remember arguing with my Mom and my Nannie on Sunday mornings....yup you guessed it....about having to wear a dress to church....yes I won out eventually but not for MANY years. At first I could wear pants at night but they had to be dress pants of course. Then finally when I was about 17 or 18 I could wear dress pants Sunday morning.

[Blade]

I also remember on Sunday's we always went to my Gigi's for Sunday dinner after church. Of course we took "play clothes" to change into. As we would leave the church parking lot I'd already have slipped into my jeans or shorts and taken off that dress and those God forsaken patent leather shoes, and into my PF Fliers or my boots, and be looking for my hat. All the while Mom saying, can you not wait til we get to Gigi's?

[nycfem]

I remember when I was little, before I could spell, being in the backseat of the car with other little children, my mom driving, and her friend getting in the passenger seat. My mom asked her why she was covered in bruises and she spelled out, "D-O-U-G" (her husband). My mom nodded. I was so curious what word that spelled but knew that I'd get in trouble if I asked so I just kept spelling it in my mind over and over for hours in order to remember so I could ask someone later what this secret and powerful word was. Later at home, when my mom wasn't around, I asked my dad casually, "What word does D-O-U-G spell?" He seemed to think for a moment, caught off guard, and then said, "It isn't a word." He was probably being genuine in his answer (or not). I remember feeling so disappointed. Had I not remembered the letters in the right order? How could that be? The letters by that point were stuck on repeat in my brain. It wasn't until I could spell that I finally put it together. Doug was the reason why my mom's friend always had bruises. By then it wasn't satisfying to know, just sad.

[Kenna]

The annual Love Feast at my Gramma's Dunkard Brethren church... the smell of homemade food and the Love Feast bread (a very special recipe handed down generations), the quiet ceremony and traditions, the respect of all the elders, family and fellowship, watching each member kneel down to wash the feet of the brother or sister church member, how that act was done so gently and tenderly, how they drank grape juice (no alcohol permitted) and broke the special bread after blessings, and how the air and comfort of the space seemed to fill with unspoken powerful feeling of belonging and calmness. ... how I miss those times with my Gramma.

[Okiebug61]

Riding my bike all over Norman without a worry. Hanging out and the park with my friends, jumping from the swings as far as we could. Racing to the Taste Freeze for a fresh squeezed cherry limeade with extra cherry. Trading marbles we bought from TG&Y and wishing I could go back and do this all over again.

[girl_dee]

Syr and i chuckled while fishing today remembering the time we were all out fishing on the jetty only i was sent to get more Powerbait and two rainbow trout were put in my tackle box when i wasn't looking.

i returned, unsuspecting.

Then was told to get something out of my tackle box.

i opened it and two trout came flying out at me.

i believe i wet myself. The butches thought that was hysterical.

Oh hell it was funny!

[Katniss]

I remember when I was real little visiting my grandmother's farm in rural Alabama. She was making a cake and had run out of sugar so she sent me down to the barn, up the ladder and into the loft to get more sugar. You would not believe me if I told you how many bags of sugar were hidden under that hay. It wasn't until years later I figured out the old woman was running shine. (and I thought she told me to keep it a secret because she had a sweet tooth).
:drunk:

[Mar]

Snowmobiling across 100 acres of my great uncles land in Canandaigua and stopping atop the mountain that over looked Canandaigua Lake. It was dark out, and the lights reflecting over the water, rippling with it's subtle movements. It felt so high up above looking down, and though I was surrounded by snow I didn't feel cold at all. The night was quiet, there was nobody for miles all around me. A peace came over me and my mind drifted. All I could think about is how breathtaking a sight it was, and how amazing it would be to some day bring that special someone up there to share it with, at least one time. My uncle still owns that land, but I haven't been up there in a couple years. I never did get to bring that special girl of my dreams up there, maybe there's still time.

[girl_dee]

i remember once while in my boat, back in the swamp of Louisiana (before Katrina, a defining moment) and i was so still that a momma otter came out and her babies were playing on the thick layer water hyacinths .... it was a moment that has stuck with me always.i miss those times sometimes.

[Soft*Silver]

I remember chasing the sun across pastures, on horseback, as it rolled over the great land of home...

I remember our shetland Sheepdog, Tiny Tim, playing for hours with me as a young girl...he was so happy and frisky.

I remember burying my baby dolls. In my mother's garden bed.

I remember hating school. I loved the studies. I hated the cruelty of the other children.

I remember having my first drink. I drank it because I was so unhappy. It became a theme for my drinking.

I remember the day my brother committed suicide. In fact, everything after that became defined by it.

I remember falling in love for the first time. And I remember falling in love each and every time. I wonder if love really does feel like the soft velvet of a rose petal...thats how it feels to me inside...

I remember when my horse snapped her femur in half and had to be put down. I still get nauseous thinking of it..

I remember looking in doorways and smiling

I remember being told the facts of life and thinking sperm jumped over the bellybuttons to get into the woman. My sister didnt tell the facts very well..,

I remember holding my baby for the first time, after giving birth to her...I never saw anything so close to god before..

I remember the physically abusive relationship I was in for 7 years. I remember it was safer for me to be in it with him than it was for me to come out....

I remember coming out...

I remember seeing my mother dead...

I remember watching my father die...

I remember seeing my front yard alit with thousands of dragonflies....

I remember dating a priest....

I remember being destitute

I remember every insult against me. We all do. I can bet that those who delivered it do not...

I remember christmases at my house when my daughter was young. I filled the house with traditions and family and it was the most joyful time of the year...

I remember being a bulimic...

I remember the taste of a good sweet apple in my mouth...god I love fall!

I remember playing bingo with my parents as a young girl, in a bingo hall that was three stories high...

I remember disco dancing...

I remember sanitary napkins and tampons. Thank GOD for menopause!

I remember learning about a new disease called ARC, later AIDS

I remember paying $3000 for my first computer.

I remember my first kiss...

and my last...

[Mrs Arcstriker]

I remember growing up in Poughkeepsie, NY...I was younger than the 5th grade but older than the 3rd grade spent in a horrible place called Austinburgh, Ohio...We had just gotten back from 9 months of exile in Ohio with my father moving us to OH when the Fargo Corporation in NY laid him off...

Our first summer back at our childhood home that we seized from the squatters that lived there...

My mom had planted a garden including the usual vegetables along with some not so usual veggies...

In her eggplant patch she got up early one morning and tucked some white chicken eggs under the fruits of her labor...and told me that was where eggs came from. (I believed this until we moved back to Connecticut where I was born!)

In the backyard under the apple trees (Mac's) there was a ring of mushrooms that formed a circle the size of half a kick-ball field...and she said that was a Fairy Ring...She went on to tell me that the fairies would come out to meet at night and sit atop the mushroom caps as they called their meeting to order.

To this day I thank my mother for her ripe imagination, and I laugh with her as she laughs at my gullible soul. I don't even want to begin to tell you about the day we moved back to rural CT when I was only 12, or as I call that moment, "The day I learned where milk came from..."

[Miss Scarlett]

i remember...

my first bicycle

my first pair of pantyhose

my Little Hostess Buffet

Jingle jumps

when the Duncan yo-yo people came to our school every spring

stealing Dad's handkerchiefs to make "parachutes" for Barbie

Dad getting out the ladder to get Barbie off the roof

Weekly Readers

Scholastic Book Club orders

Watching color tv for the first time...

[cinnamongrrl]

I'm loving this thread and would love for it to wake back up.... I'm too tired to think coherently and contribute properly lol

[little_ms_sunshyne]

I remember being 5 and only wanting to wear things with ruffles. Ruffled skirt, underwear, and socks. When we would go out to dinner, I would stand up in the middle of the restaurant and start singing whatever song my dad had just taught me. It would vary from the Beatles "Hey Jude", a Simon and Garfunkel song, Juan Luis Guerra, 50's doo wop..the list was endless. Imagine everyone's surprise when I belted out "Welcome to the Jungle" lol Yep, my mom did not know I was listening the one day she played it.

I still have such a love and appreciation for all music :)

[Duchess]

I remember looking forward to the tent revivals that our church would host. They always felt so good.:)

Duchess

[femmeInterrupted]

The rolling hills of the Qu'Appelle Valley. The drive down, to Buffalo Pound Lake and the cabin--
I remember summers spent with my grandparents, my cousins, my aunts and uncles!
I remember summers spent running free, floating and cloud watching, following deer tracks up to the prairie floor.
I remember feeling love, and laughter.
I remember saying goodbye with my first cousins when our Grandma died, and we all flew back to Moose Jaw for the funeral.
I, the eldest, bought everyone rubber rain boots, and we drove back to the lake from town, and trekked the hills of our childhood for the last time, to say goodbye the way we needed too.


What a great thread! :)

[willow]

I remember climbing to the top of an eight foot wire mesh fence to rescue my cat. The cat was not stuck of course, but I soon was. 2½yrs old.

I remember falling off the arm of the sofa and breaking a guitar by landing on it. I've no idea who owned the guitar. No one in my family can play a musical instrument.

I remember my first day of school. The teacher taught us how to raise our hands to answer questions by asking which breakfast cereal we liked.

I remember being a fairy in the gala day parade. A float full of flower fairies. We all wore white sticky out dresses, frill edged net wings, white gloves and flowers in our hair. My mother made my dress and I loved it! It poured with rain all day and my dress was stained all the colours of the rainbow by the dye dripping from the thousands of soaked paper flowers.

I remember falling off my bicycle and grazing my arm. I had to walk home because the front wheel was twisted. It was the height of summer and flies kept landing on the graze. I was convinced I'd be eaten alive from the inside by maggots.

I remember picking wild flowers on the way to the cemetery to place on the graves of various family members.

I remember trying to light the coal fire one freezing winters morning. We were out of kindling so I set fire to an old shoe.

I remember my first day as a student nurse working on an actual hospital ward. My uniform only just fitted (pin stripped dress, starched apron and hat) and the ward sister mentioned something about hoping I wasn't a big eater since the canteen food was so good (big fat lie) I was so embarrassed that my uniform was soon hanging off me and I had to be fitted for a smaller size. I have been dieting pretty much continuously ever since.

[Ginger]

I remember looking forward to the tent revivals that our church would host. They always felt so good.:)

Duchess

What do you remember about them? I have never been to one, have no idea what it's like.

[Ginger]

I remember the summer my aunt died. I was eight. The day of her funeral, we went back to my grandparents' farm, and I wandered around by myself outside all afternoon, looking in the windows now and then at all the strangers. In the back bedroom, the one that looked out over the pasture, I saw my uncle. He was in his thirties, a very tall man, maybe 6'3", and he was sitting in my great-grandmother's lap, sobbing. She was a tiny old woman, patting his back, and his long legs were dragging on the floor. I didn't look at grownups the same way, after that.

[Electrocell]

I remember riding horses bareback and feeling free.

[Little Fish]

I've been planning a trip home to California. I grew up in the SF Bay area and haven't been back in almost three years. I can't wait to walk my favorite beach at San Gregorio--so many important things happened to me there...

I first learned how to free myself from a rip current there--and almost drowned too.

I realized I was gay on this beach (one beautiful, classic California sunny summer day) with my two best (str8) friends....who are still close to me 31 years later.

I also got my first Butch Cock Blow Job on this beach, one warm summer night...laying against the bank of the small creek which cuts thru the beach and empties into the ocean.

I asked a girl to wait for me while walking this beach...as my Army unit was being mobilized for war in the Middle East. (She did.) I made an important decision while sitting on this beach by myself, after I returned.

I'm going back to make another important decision too.

Tonight, I'm remembering San Gregorio State Beach...and missing my other home.

[Gemme]

I remember my mom, after the breakdown and before the primary abuser. She was happy and healthy and looked and felt good and we had a really good time together. That's probably the best we ever got along.

[little_ms_sunshyne]

I remember sitting with my dad while he played Beatles songs on his acoustic guitar and sang all the wrong words in his thick accent but sang them with so much heart and soul. I also remember thinking that these were the only moments he was not angry and we got along over the mutual love of music. As time passed, I stopped listening and he would play and I would sing. All was well with the world...even if it was for a short while. I really do love music. I am grateful it gave us those moments...

[jac]

Pretty certain I will be sharing lots of memories in here over time.

I remember....
Going to the bathroom at my sitter's house and falling in the toilet. I sang Yummy Yummy I Got Love in My Tummy till I was rescued. I was 4.

At another sitter's I remember always eating spagettios and peanut butter sandwhiches for lunch. I'm sure there was other food but I distictly remember this being all I ever ate there. I was 4.

I remember walking home from the public pool in Tempe AZ when I was 5 and losing my shoes somehow. My older siblings took turns throwing down their towels so I could keep from walking on the pavement till I would make it to patches of grass.

[Nat]

I spent 7 weeks of the summer of 2004 in England. Most of that time was in Oxford, but we visited many places. The graves of dead writers. Shakespeare plays. Museums. Stonehenge. Famous and infamous gardens. Tasting the mineral water in Bath. Lots of pubs. My first Lesbian bar! A gorgeous and delightfully lonely trip by bus and train to Port Isaac on the coast of cornwall, where I stayed in a surf shack and read by candlelight and swam in the cold ocean between cliffs. I never got to Tintagel, but I saw it from a distance which might have been better.

Although I enjoyed it very much, nothing really touched me. Nothing really hit me until we visited the Haworth parsonage. At first being there was like every other place I'd been to - something worth appreciating, something to try to hold onto for later savoring. But then I walked into Charlotte's room. The moment I walked into her room, tears just jumped into my eyes. I didn't cry like a baby or anything, but it was a surprise. Of all the many places I'd been to and through, walking into Charlotte Bronte's little bedroom is the thing that moved me most of all.

[jac]

I remember...

Being in the Brownies and bridging over to Girl Scouts. I still have my sash and pins.
I remember our girl scout sleepover in the backyard of one of the girls. It was the best sleepover/camp-out I had ever experienced as a kid. Notice I said, as a kid... lol.
I remember playing four-square and kickball at school. They were the only schoolyard games I enjoyed with the whole class.
I remember being a hall monitor in the fourth grade. It looked like this except it was purple and white and didn't have a helicopter spinny thing on it... Nor the mouse lol. I still have it...
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9636/imagescau153c6.jpg

[maryam]

I remember laying in bed at night and hearing the trains singing down the tracks a mile or so from my home. When I was little, they meant home to me, and when I slept away from home where I couldn't hear them, I'd wake up in the night from not hearing them.

Then when I was getting older and knew I was "odd" the train whistle meant freedom. Odd was our particular small townism for gay. I couldn't just be "One of them" which meant "not Methodist or Episcopalian. I had to be "One of them" and "odd". Later I realized I was queer, which was different from "odd". I wasn't even good at not being right! Even my "wrong" was wrong! So I read a lot, losing myself in books because I so didn't fit as an odd, biracial, religious minority. Books about trains meant a lot to me, especially people who went on one-way trips. Some day I would get on a train and go somewhere else. Somewhere safer than home, which is crazy because your home is supposed to be safe. In the Last Battle, the reason the remaining Friends of Narnia get sent over is because they were on a train and it wrecked and they died, which is why they got to stay. When we realized they were dead, my sister cried sadly because they were all dead and I cried happily because they never had to go back and they got there on a train.

I didn't leave on a train, I left in a car and when I got to my new town, I looked for an apartment. I ended up in a dodgy trailer park even though I could have afforded a better spot because it was close to the train. It was literally on "the other side of the tracks". It was crazy for a single, 18 year old, small town girl to live alone in a place like that. I made one or two close friends during that time, including an older Butch with issues who was my first lover. I still love her. But she wasn't my GF, she was a friends with benefits kind of woman, because she couldn't trust enough to have a girlfriend at that time. But she was a friend, of sorts, and she rocked my world. I look back now and realize that in a more open world, an easier world, she would have been Leather to the core, doing the D/s thing. We had an unhealthy friendship, but it was good, for what it was. We managed not to hurt each other. Her loneliness overcame her and she drank too much in the end. She died in an old churchyard, a stone's throw from the tracks. Every time I hear Arlo Guthrie's Last Train to Glory I think of her and smile. And sometimes I cry.

Now we live in yet another city, smaller than the last one, but close enough to the big city to run in for the day when we need to. We take the commuter train. I love it. We can drive in, and sometimes we do, but usually, I take the train. I live about a quarter mile from the station so it's an easy walk. The last train runs by at 930, and then I can go to bed. Even if I'm super tired and go to bed early, I can't sleep 'til I hear that last train... As soon as it's gone, so am I.

Comfort and freedom, and death and safety.

That's what I remember about trains.

[nycfem]

This made me think of my own magical Brownie / Girl Scouts memory. I wanted to join a Brownie troop (if that's the right word) with girls from my school in my Ohio suburb, and it was run by one of the girl's fathers, which I guess is perhaps a little odd in itself (dunno). Anyway my parents were told that there really were enough Brownies and that if I wanted to be admitted I would have to be voted in. My parents both thought, "The nerve!" I was really bummed about it and explained to them that because there were quite a number of popular kids in that troop, and I was not popular, my chances were very low of being voted in. However, my dad was furious about the whole idea that I had to be voted in and began scheming right away. He asked me who the most popular girls in the troop were, and when I told him, he asked me to invite them to go to [insert a variety of pricey local places in Ohio that children love] which he would be picking up the tab for and chauffeuring us around to, while remaining in the background so that I could campaign like a cool kid. We lived in a lower middle class suburb, and I didn't get taken to special places like this (nor did the other girls), so it was doubly exciting to be spending time with girls who usually ignored me and also be doing activities my parents never agreed to pay for for me. Flash to: I was voted into the Brownie troop to the distaste of the elitist dad that had been so unwelcoming to me. Ha!

I remember...

Being in the Brownies and bridging over to Girl Scouts. I still have my sash and pins.
I remember our girl scout sleepover in the backyard of one of the girls. It was the best sleepover/camp-out I had ever experienced as a kid. Notice I said, as a kid... lol.

[JAGG]

I remember the smell of noxema on hot summer nights. My grandmother used it on us when we got sunburned. Do they even make that stuff anymore.

[Gemme]

I remember the smell of noxema on hot summer nights. My grandmother used it on us when we got sunburned. Do they even make that stuff anymore.

Yes!

And it's still good on sunburns. One of the worst I ever had kept me covered in the stuff for days.

I have a jar in my bathroom. But I don't get sunburned very often anymore, so I just use it to wash my face when the urge strikes me.

I :stillheart: the scent.

[Ginger]

I remember the intoxicating smell of plastic on Christmas morning, from all those toys, and the year I got my first guitar. I was 12. I stayed in my room playing and singing for hours at a time. Before that, I had ukuleles. I had one shaped like an electric guitar! I loved all of them.

[Kenna]

a sudden randomly sparked memory... two actually.
My favorite beach trips...
December 5th, 1998 beautiful spring-like weather as I walked on the beach for my very first time; in total, delightful solitude while everyone else was at the company Christmas party...a nice long walk just me, the birds, the slight wind, peaceful beauty and the sound of surf crashing...

many years later, on a sunny Valentine's weekend trip to Myrtle beach for my first time...the whole trip filled with wonderful, fun, delightful memories and laughter, contentment. My morning spent sitting on the dunes waiting on the sunrise, the cold sand, the crisp air, breathtaking colors of the sun, delighting in the textures around me like the dune grass and shells... being in total peacefulness, how calming the crashing surf, the slight wind feeling like it was cleansing my soul. The comforting sense of knowing a friend was watching me from the balcony, allowing me to have my moment but looking out for me. How cool the February weather was (and how the sand froze my butt cheeks), but how warm I felt inside. My inner 'little kid' joy and delight while visiting the Aquarium. God, I want to go back!!! Especially to those peaceful, inner-warmth times.

[Ginger]

I remember riding my bike to the beach, the summer before sixth grade, and parking it by a tree. Then I would climb the tree, sit up there and eat an apple I had brought with me. I loved apples, and looking out over the beach.

I remember getting a stomach ache before dinner, all the time. Oddly, this isn't a bad memory. I would curl up on the upstairs couch, while my mom made dinner. I could hear her in there, and smell the food. By the time she called us to the table, my stomach ache was usually gone. She was a great cook, especially before she lost her Texan ways and stopped frying so much.

I have a stomach ache right now, I think my stomach is feeling nostalgic.

[Bèsame*]

random thoughts....

When I was 15, I was in drivers Ed. This certain afternoon, was the day I was suppose to start driving...in the neighbor hood around the high school. Well, I was behind the wheel and made a right turn, didn't release the turn and went up the curb, barely missing the fire hydrant. And um, yeah,it happened kitty corner from my house, while my two little brothers and their friends watched. Of course the car says drivers Ed on it. Later that afternoon, when my dad came to pick me up, the dorky little brothers came too. " where you driving a blue car ?"

" oh no, it was black" I lied. Why? "Cause that girl who went up the curb was sure red and she looked like you." My dad knew it was me..lol

Why why why are there little bothers?

[Tommi]

All this talk and activity around guns reminded me of my cap pistols, spinning my six shooters into my holsters. I must have been about 7.

I recall my favorite "cowboy" jeans with R. R. on the front pockets in red rhinestones and that brown and white furry calico vest, and a checkered shirt with a string tie. I loved my little blonde neighbor that wore those pretty skirts and twirled all the time.

My Mom kept those clothes for me when I outgrew them, knowing how much I loved being that little dude. She knew I loved that little blonde, and many others when I got all growed up , and put away my six shooters.

[Ginger]

Uniquestwfemme's post triggered a memory for me: Driver's Ed.

Some guy, the driver's ed teacher, would load four of us in a little beater car and his first stop was always 7-11, where he'd get a large coffee—which he would invariably spill all over himself.

I contributed to this phenomenon with my bad habit of braking, the instant I panicked behind the wheel. I did this the first time he had me go onto the freeway. I remember him screaming, "Go! Go! Go!" because I had braked, having gotten spooked the moment I was going from the on ramp to the first lane. Coffee was steaming off his shirt, and the girls in the backseat were cracking up.

[Amber2010]

I remember waking to the sound of the waves.. They were so loud I just couldn't believe it. I remember opening the curtians and looking outside at the sunrise and the ocean. No one was walking on the beach and it was so peaceful and beautiful. I remember grabbing some shorts and a top and running down the four flights of stairs and running to the water. I remember how cold it was on my feet but it also made me feel alive again. Ready to take on whatever was to come my way. Although I had to leave this place and would not return for at least a year I remember feeling renewed. My strength had returned and the feeling that I can handle any situation that came my way.

[VintageFemme]

A friend and I were just chatting about how we can talk and talk and talk forever and I was reminded how once I talked my sister right to sleep and then I remembered this that I hadn't thought about in years...

I was staying at a friends house one night w/ two other friends, kind of like, oh we're too drunk to drive home can we sleep here thing, and the two other girls were 'lovahs' lolol so they went off to one bedroom to sleep. I stayed on the sofa because K, the home owner had a thing for me, or so I thought and I so didn't have a thing for her back. I decided to leap over the sofa to land on it to sleep and well, that didn't work out lol I ended up tipping the sofa over and on top of me! I laid there laughing my drunk ass off as the three came to my un-needed rescue. K made me get in bed with her and to keep her from 'hitting on me' or so I thought that would happen in my drunken stupid mind lol I started talking. And talking and talking about god only knows what but I didn't shut up forever until finally K says to me, "Nita! Sssshhhh do you hear that?!?" knowing full well if I stopped talking for one moment, I would pass out. I did.

[Boots13]

I remember being 10-ish, my little sister was 6...we were inseperable. I was always leading her around by the hand. When I wasnt tugging her ponytail or shutting her in the closet for not doing my chores (I'm still so sorry for that one...), I was taking care of her...latch key kids.

I remember we were in the backseat of the Dodge Polaris, the same car the California Highway Patrol drove at the time. My sister and I were propped on the bench seat, no seat belts. Mom was driving down a rollercoaster country road when she yelled enthusiastically over her shoulder

"HOLD ON GIRLS .. WE'RE CLEARING OUT THE CARBORATOR !!!"

No sooner had she said that, the deafening sound of that HUGE engine kicked into overdrive, the G-forces pushed our little beanheads back into the seat, our pie-plate eyes watering from the open windows and the whirrrr of fields, cows and phone poles , fields ,cows and phone poles, phonepoles, phonepoles, phonepoles blurrrrr...

I remember I could barely reach out against the strain of the acceleration...and then only to get tossed by that floaty suspension...to finally find my little sisters hand. We bounced around the back seat like two little BB's in a metal box flying down those rollercoaster roads...

[nycfem]

I remember shooting guns at camp as a kid and how exciting it was. The guns were so heavy and so loud and intense when they went off. We'd lay on our stomachs on a dirty platform and aim our rifles at paper targets. And there was a man named Oz who ran the whole gun activity area and he limped because he'd been shot by a kid accidentally at some point in time, or maybe more than once.

All this talk and activity around guns reminded me of my cap pistols, spinning my six shooters into my holsters. I must have been about 7.

I recall my favorite "cowboy" jeans with R. R. on the front pockets in red rhinestones and that brown and white furry calico vest, and a checkered shirt with a string tie. I loved my little blonde neighbor that wore those pretty skirts and twirled all the time.

My Mom kept those clothes for me when I outgrew them, knowing how much I loved being that little dude. She knew I loved that little blonde, and many others when I got all growed up , and put away my six shooters.

[Ginger]

I remember shooting guns at camp as a kid and how exciting it was. The guns were so heavy and so loud and intense when they went off. We'd lay on our stomachs on a dirty platform and aim our rifles at paper targets. And there was a man named Oz who ran the whole gun activity area and he limped because he'd been shot by a kid accidentally at some point in time, or maybe more than once.


Oh god that last part made me laugh!

[Ginger]

I remember getting to Lake Texarkana after all the other families had arrived, and my sister and I had to change into our swimsuits in a tent with two boys sleeping on cots. I remember feeling grownup in my irritation. Kind of a proud moment.

I remember the rope slowly looping around my legs while I was waiting for the boat to take off. It went taut, but my skis didn't come out of the water. I remember my dad's and my uncle's faces looking puzzled, as they watched from the back of the boat, and my uncle diving into the water just as the rope tightened around my legs and I was dragged under the water. I remember seeing the surface of the water above me, but not being afraid. I thought it was beautiful. I was seven.

I remember the night my parents woke me up by turning on the overhead light in my bedroom, and my mom's twisted face, as she cradled one arm with the other. My dad said they were going to the hospital, and we never talked about it again.

I remember cranking up the stereo really, really loud as soon as my parents' blue Buick station wagon pulled out of the driveway, and my sister and I dancing to Aretha's Gold. One time in our dancing, we turned to see them standing in the doorway, having just driven around the block and returned, to trick us. I remember my elation that we didn't get in big trouble. I think they were completely disarmed by the licentious way their little girls danced with each other. I remember panting and looking at them triumphantly.

[Blade]

It's funny how, a simple phone call can bring random old memories back to life. I called my Pastor this afternoon to see if she was at the church. She said no we are at Mike's Dad's killing a hog. Chuckles you have to know my Pastor to get a laugh out of this but she is a Dallas Tx city girl. I'm sure there has never been any "hog killings" in her past.

So the random memory, it brought to mind was the cold winter days of long long ago when my family would kill a few hogs to put in the freezer. Big family day, everyone had a job to do and the day began at the crack of dawn which was also the crack of the sound of the rifle going off with the first kill of the day. My grandparents died in '82 and '84....but what I wouldn't give to spend one last day on the hill butchering hogs for the winter, with them.

IT's very hard to believe, that it has been 30 yrs since I heard their voices.

[jac]

Living less than 100ft away from a set of train tracks and learning there were realy live hobos on board at night.

It was in AZ and we lived at the riverbottom in Tempe. There was a small house between our tralier and the tracks but behind the house was a row of old shacks that were about 20ft from the tracks. Hobos would hop off the trains at night and crash in these shacks. When my three older siblings and I learned of this magical adventure (I was 5yo) we began cleaning out the shacks and making beds up for them on the little cots that were in there. We would leave food on the crates that were their makeshift end tables and every now and then we would leave clothing.

In the mornings we would return to find everything used, eaten and taken that was left for them. It was so fun!! We never saw the hobos but every time we heard the train blow it's whistle in the darkness of the night we knew our guests were getting off the ride soon and would be sleeping in their little shacks shortly there after.

Wow!! Fun times... :)

[Venus007]

I remember being little, maybe 5, and standing on my Pop's feet and dancing to the Andrew's Sisters singing "Begin the Beguine" and other big band songs and artists. My Pop always smelled like wool, dogs and old spice, wonderful smell. When I got older we went to the K of C Hall (Knights of Columbus) and danced to big band there.

[Bèsame*]

I can remember I was about 10 , and having the roller skates that strapped onto your shoes. I was just a skating away out on the sidewalk in front of my house. Well,if you ran over anything, you came to a screeching halt. Well, down I went after skating over a broken piece of glass. Landed on my hands. Came crying home, with one skate on and another off. Told my mom, that my arm hurt. She took one look and got me an ice pack. Not the fancy ones today, but one that had a screw on top, filled with ice and water. Told me I was going to be fine, and that my ride to charm school would soon be there. So off I went with this ice pack, to learn to walk tall!
Came home a few hours later And my wrist had blown up so big and was discolored. My mom had to convince my dad to drive to the hospital. Mom didn't drive, and I'm sure dad had a few drinks down already. Well, he took us and dropped us off. Ended up having a soft cast put on due to the swelling, and we had to call a taxi to come get us.

That cast was fun to wear! Just plain old white,but lots of colors from friends drawing on it :)

[stepfordfemme]

I was at work on Friday and something smelled like damp wood mixed with resin or plastic. Strangest smell but it instantly brought me back to a memory of my childhood.

At my Great Aunts cabin at the lake there was a change house,essentially a shed closer to the lake then the cabin. We kids had to change out of bathing suits into summer clothes in the shed so we wouldn't track sand and salt water all inside the cabin. There was an old refrigerator from the 50s, random tools and a work bench, life jackets and oars on the walls. The floor was a cracked piece of Lino and the door didn't lock so I was always in a hurry to change.

They had a paddle boat at the cabin that I used to long to take out. It was the kind you see on small ponds in parks. My dad would occasionally take me out with it, I remember the exact sound the paddles used to make and how the plastic felt. I remember the dock and how the weathered wood would feel under my feet when I looked down off the edge into the green water. I remember the big collie dog, gypsy, she was so beautiful just like lassie from tv. I remember the drive seeming so long when I was a kid, in reality it was about 40 minutes.

What I wouldn't give to have a few days by myself back on that beach. Laying on the rocks and smelling the lake. To have back the people I used to laugh with. To be barefoot and carefree again, avoiding the sand ant hills on the grass while I ran towards the water.

[Boots13]

Pappa Andy was cool, he was a war vet, his hands were burned. He was the pilot and the last guy out of his shot down B52 or something like that. It crashed, he got captured. Those were some tough days kiddo. He had ribbons and medals and stuff that were hanging on the wall.
He was grampa by marriage. He didnt like kids. He drank coffee and smelled like smoke and cologne. He laughed his raspy smokers laugh. And he'd roll his eyes, shake his head and say to me, "kid, you are something else..." lets watch some Lawrence Welk.

So one day I thought I'd be cool and take a pack of his camel unfiltered cigarettes. They were just sitting there, calling my name. Rolled em up in my t-shirt sleeve. NO, not cool, skinny arms. In my jeans back pocket? No, not cool, I'll bend em. Ah, inside my t-shirt pocket...very cool.
I rummaged around for matches, and found two books ! Two whole books !!! I practiced lighting matches behind the shed. It took me a book but finally...finally, I could light a match with my thumb without pulling it out of the book..cool...ouch, I burned my thumb...but really pushing the cool envelope now.

I celebrated my newfound talent by climbing the oak tree. A majestic oak tree. With my Camel cigarettes and my book of matches and my burnt thumb. I climbed high, to the big V notch and planted my butt. I sat there, swaying and slamming the pack against my palm ...I dont know why, but that must have been like a cigarette right of passage. If you
didnt slam the whole pack into your palm then maybe you didnt deserve them? I tore open the cellophane and foil and I tried to flip one out, knocking the pack against my finger...bombs awayyyy...gravity took it and I watched it twirl all the way to the ground , straight down. And another, and another...there was a little pile of cigarettes at the base of the tree. And I was determined to get it. I tried again...skootch, skootch, tap, There it was, hanging precariously halfway out of the pack! Haha. I just blew cool right off the charts.

I put that baby in my mouth...Ewww. I had to spit grains of tobacco out. Little bits of sharp, stringy, lumpy tobacco...my tongue was numb. And it tasted GROSS ! I lit my match..burned my thumb...held it to the cigarette, and while the tree waved and shook and swayed got it lit. Draw, cough, hack, wheeze, draw. Hack, cough. Glowing red hot cherry, hot smoke and watery eyes, hack, cough..how come I didnt feel so cool? I was living the high life, literally. I was high. I was very high... I was dizzy. I felt sick. I was nauseas, my blistered thumb hurt. I started sweating. Swaying. Sweating. Swaying....and like the cigarettes before me, gravity snatched my butt right outta that tree. I crashed through leaves and limbs and finally landed with a breath stealing THUD !!! ... barf...wheeze, dizzy...barf...woozy...wheeze...barf ...
ugh, not so cool....

[luv2luvgirls]

remembering when I was like 4 yrs old we had a babysitter and she had the longest dark brown hair,when she would take us to the park I remember her swinging and her hair sweeping the ground back and forth.. I stared at her a lot, my first crush :tease:

[jac]

Phoenix AZ - I was about 10yo or so...

It was summertime and I would sit on my front porch in the evenings practicing to whistle. Not just the typical whistle but the loud whistle you hear at sporting events and such. One of my brothers could whistle like this without using his fingers... I was unable to do it. Anyway, I practiced all the time. Finally one night I was out there and... I whistled!! I mean it came out so freakin' loud and clear it was amazing!! I just thought my shit didn't stink lol. The next night I started working on pitches and lengths of time I was holding each blow. All of a sudden I heard a whistle from the distance. Innocent as I was, I thought it might be another kid so I whistled again. Back and forth we went for a few minutes and then.... in the opposite distance... more whistling was sounding. Okay, I thought, this is so fun... woohoo!!

My sister came running out when she finally put two and two together. She was 8 years older than I and a member of a street gang. Well, I didn't know it was a gang till many years later... I thought they were just neighborhood friends. *shrugs* She smacked my hands away from my mouth and commenced to scold me. I apparently was jumping into some gang whistling conversation and was oblivious to the whole thing.

Yeh, I never whistled outside like that again... I save my ear-piercing whistles for sporting events now... :D

[Ginger]

I remember when John Lennon was shot. I was living in a studio apartment in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and because I was so young, and there were so many tropical plants growing wildly in my neighborhood—Birds of Paradise and hibiscus, elephant ear and banana trees—I didn't understand what a dangerous slum I lived in. My bed, a double box springs and mattress, fit nicely into the alcove in the kitchen, and everything was white; the area rugs, curtains, sheets. It was like being inside an egg.

One morning, the radio alarm went off, playing one Lennon song after another, and I knew what that meant. I called my girlfriend, who was just starting her career as a journalist, and was already writing for Rolling Stone. Music meant a lot to each of us. We cried together over Lennon's death.

[Ginger]

I remember when Obama was elected the first time. I lived in a predominantly white building in an African American neighborhood, and the street filled with people dancing and playing music from their boom boxes. My neighbor and I took our beers down to the street, and people started chanting, "Jobs now! Jobs now!"

[Ginger]

I remember watching Coal Miner's Daughter on TV with my grandmother, who had come to spend at overnight with me, one weekend during those two years I lived in Dallas. She loved the movie, and I made popcorn for us, and a fire in the fireplace. She was the only guest I had in that apartment, and she marveled at how nice it was.

I remember when my grandmother flew out to visit me in Los Angeles, many years before that. I had a cheap little car, a Pinto, and there was some kind of crappy blue tint painted onto the windows. She was afraid of L.A., and kept her window up. All the pictures have a blue line, from that tint.

I remember when my grandmother first got to my apartment in L.A. I had filled the refrigerator with what I thought was good food—fruit, vegetables, juice, trail mix. She took one look at it and said, "Let's go to the grocery store," and we came home with biscuits, coca cola, peanuts, neopolitan ice cream.

[VintageFemme]

I remember when I was about five years old, we lived in a brownstone in Philadelphia with a bakery on one side of us and a fish store on the other. I don't remember the smells of either place though. I do remember walking our dog, Judy [a big german shepherd mix] with my two older sisters who were nine and ten years old, behind our house, across an alley and in a cemetery. I would sit on headstones of graves and daydream while my sisters walked Judy in the trees nearby.

I remember one day in that same house in Philadelphia... It had a long dark stairway that led upstairs to the bathroom & bedrooms, very dark for some reason, and my oldest sister and I were in the bathroom. I was sitting on the toilet and she was sitting on the edge of the bathtub and we were just talking and giggling like little girls do when we saw a white mist-like 'whatever thing' swoosh by the bathroom door in the hallway, and Barb fell in to the bathtub, I screamed and we both ran as fast as we possibly could down that dark stairway. We were so freaking scared.

I remember walking home from kindergarten when we lived in that same house, by myself for some reason that I can't remember now, and I got stung by a bee on my pinky finger. It was just after Easter and I had a classmade construction paper Easter basket with candies in it. I was crying so hard from the bee sting that I got completely disoriented and lost my way home. Fortunately a neighbor saw me and picked me up and gave me a ride home but when I got home my Mother made me share my candies with my sisters, nevermind the traumatic event I just went through.

[Semantics]

“And it’s awfully hard to know what one remembers oneself and what one’s been told to remember. I’m told that at the age of four I was taken to Hampstead Heath Fair by my father,
and greatly indulged in all the coconut shies and things, and when told I must get back for luncheon I rolled on the ground and shouted “You brute, you beast, you hideous ass”;
I was never allowed to forget that as a child but I’ve got no personal memory of it.”

-Evelyn Waugh

My family likes to tell a story about how, at the age of five, I ran away at a funeral. I remember being at the funeral. It was winter and I remember my mother holding me
inside her ghastly ankle length fur coat, which smelled like moth balls and Chanel No. 5. I don't remember running away, but according to my family it happened.

A decade later a girlfriend and I were driving past that same cemetery when she pulled in and ripped up a bunch of daffodils that someone had planted on a grave,
presenting them to me as a romantic gesture. I know I was tipsy at the time, but that memory, I'm certain, is real.

[TheMerryFairy]

I remember my 20's, that has to count for something *wink*

[MarquisdeShey]

When I was 8 I went on a trip to the zoo. During lunch we took a break under a nice shady tree. If you knew me, you'd know that even then I was not "a good girl' I liked trouble and I had a way of finding it.

After lunch I was exploring and found a bee's next right above where we were sitting, so being the good 8 yr old I was with the awesome aim I had, I started throwing rocks at the nest. I found a good sized one and I pelted that rock at the nest and it ruptured.

I swear there were a thrillion bees running after me. I was stung on the face and awful lot. It hurt. A LOT. But - no tears. I teased and I received. Therefore, tears were not an option.

To this day, when I see a bee. I know better. However, I can transport bees, bumblebees, and hornets outside without ever getting stung. I learned something that day - Don't ever, ever, piss hard workers off!

[~ocean]

Yslez7Ds0xM

[Ginger]

I remember getting lost in a hotel in Japan. I was eight, on a vacation with my family. We didn't have bathrooms in our rooms, and someone came in at night and rolled out thick futons for us to sleep on. It was a luxurious hotel, but not in a western way. I had to pee, and insisted on going by myself, but got lost down the long hallways, and was so frightened, I hid behind a large potted plant. Finally, I saw my dad coming down the hall, his raincoat over his pajamas, calling my name, and I ran out to him, and wasn't in trouble.

[Ginger]

I remember riding bikes with another girl in my neighborhood. We were in the third grade, and were going really fast when she crashed her bike somehow along the curb. Something white was coming out of her knee, and she was crying hard. I helped her hobble up to her family's front door, hopping on one leg, her arm slung over my shoulders, and then, instead of just going in, I rang the bell. Her mother came to the door, and looked puzzled, then looked down at her daughter's leg and screamed. She scooped her daughter up, and slammed the door in my face.

[Boots13]

I remember being 8 ,9 or so? I wanted to fly! Not tree squirrel flying but the Superhero kind of flying. Where you’d take a running leap, catch air and with one clenched fist punching through the air to go fight bad guys and save pretty girls.

Practice, I had to practice. At least that much I knew. I took a towel for my cape and tied it around my neck. I got my tennis shoes on for traction and figured I better wear a helmet, just in case my engines sputtered. And a parachute. ..I needed a parachute, but a pillowcase would work.
I put the helmet on and everything went dark. I couldn’t see, my little pea-head was wayyy too small so I stuffed some rags in there and then I couldn’t figure out how to fasten it so I tied a knot. Perfect fit.

I climbed up on the fence and then hoisted myself to the shed roof . The helmet kept falling forward and turning and spinning. I figured it’d be ok… I was on top of the world on the roof. I stared off to the distant horizon, almost to the end of the block. All clear, I was ready!

I took the edge of the pillowcase in both hands. I’d raise it over my head if I needed it… and I practiced with my pillowchute as I backed my paces away from the edge. Everything check…it’s a go… and I RAN !

The helmet turned sideways on my head…I couldn’t see!

And then I tripped …and fell off the roof.


KA-THUD !

Cant breathe, still cant breathe, STILL CANT BREATHE… ok, air…breathing.

The next jump was wayyyy better.
I took the helmet off…

[Kätzchen]

I remember a camping trip that our family went on, one summer years ago: Our family met up with my dad's twin brother (and his wife, Mary) and we camped at a park that seemed very deep in the forest. Upon our arrival and after getting the tents set up and the camp fire going, the sun had already gone down and it was eerily quiet - but I could hear the roar of the surf of the ocean, even though it seemed far away, and I could hear the subtle noise of the forest, which permeated the atmosphere around our camp. Anyway, my dad and his twin brother, chief cooks for both of our families, were busy trying to cook something for all of us to eat. As I remember it, I didn't want to just hang around watching my brothers and my other sister re-enact every sibling dispute possible in their entire lives; so my mother's big idea, for me, was to suggest that I go walking around the path that encircled the park campsites. So I did just that; except I think I must have been walking for what seemed hours and during that walk around the campsite, I became terribly anxious about losing my sense of direction and where my family was because, as I remember it, my mother saw me in tears and according to her, after having walked past my own family for what seemed a thousand times, she came out and grabbed me by the arm as I was passing by my family again and I was so grateful that my mother did that! I thought I was lost forever and I was terribly hungry.

[Tommi]

K.D. Lang singing Crying as she walked onto the darkened stage. No band, no orchestra, two songs with just her pure voice, then the show of a lifetime.

[Greyson]

K.D. Lang singing Crying as she walked onto the darkened stage. No band, no orchestra, two songs with just her pure voice, then the show of a lifetime.

Speaking of K.D. Lang, I remember going to hear her in concert in SF for the first ever. She has already been a successful artist for many years and now I finally get to see her. The concert was great but what I will always remember is the K.D. Lang performed the entire concert in her bare feet.

[PoeticSilence]

I remember when I was four, five, and six, my mother took me to ballet lessons. I have no idea how they afforded it because we were very poor. I remember that she would drop me off early and I'd look at all of the pictures on the walls of ballerinas, maybe some of them were Degas copies, but I just couldn't believe how perfect they all looked. The first year I had used ballet slippers, but the second year I got a brand new pair, pink, with a small gold-coloured ballerina charm on the strap. I also got a little case to keep them in with my leotard and tights. I took my classes very seriously, but would never practice outside of the studio. I wouldn't even talk about it to my friends or family. During my third year I told my mother I didn't want to take ballet anymore, and when she asked why, I said ballet teachers have the worst posture and I don't want to have a bent back. The real issue was that back then I was making sure to pray to God every night that if He would make me a real boy I would never do anything bad again in my life. I believed He was testing me. (Ballet was a "girl thing" and my mom was always trying to push me into "girl things" like ballet, being a stewardess, a nurse, playing with dolls etc)

[Ginger]

I remember reaching up for my dad's hand, how huge it felt to me. I remember him calling out when he came through the door every night, Hello the house!

[Nat]

I remember another Natalie - the roommate and lover of my dad and stepmom for a time. I was maybe 8 years old and she was a musician, tough, with short blond hair. She sang and played the guitar. I remember one night going to see her perform, going into a dark room behind a dark wooden door and seeing her there bathed in a bright light, singing and playing, full of grace.

I remember waking up before the adults, tiptoeing into the living room, carefully putting her guitar in my lap, attempting to sound out something pretty, but mostly just holding the guitar and enjoying the magic feeling of imagining being able to play it and sing under a spotlight in a dark room. I remember liking her guitar picks, remember the feel of them in my hands.

And I remember after she moved out, she arranged once to pick me up and spend the day with me. I didn't know it was goodbye, and maybe she didn't either. She picked me up in an old bug without seatbelts. We went to the toy store and got bags to color and return for a small amount of money. We went out to some commune where bees were kept and children ran barefoot and we visited an old man who lived in a school bus. he gave me a hawk feather wound at its base with leather and beads.

Years later I heard her on the local public radio station. I found her cd at a local record store. I listened to it a lot in my early twenties. She was to me an unanswered question. She was family for a time. She became an absence and then even her absence eventually dissolved to a point where only the slightest residue remains of her in my memory.

[Ginger]

Being so small, reaching up for my dad's hand. Holding his hand in ICU, and its still so much bigger than mine.

[Ginger]

Third grade, left my glasses in the bathroom at school and they were thrown in the trash by mean girls. Telling my dad when I got home, somehow blaming myself, and his automatically being on my side, his loud twangy voice: That wasn't very nice was it? Feeling so much better.