make a list of 43 special memories from my childhood.

I grew up in was built by my parents when I was 6. Dad had taken a job in southern CA and we stayed here to finish the school year and sell the old house we lived in. Dad couldn’t take the heat, and moved back – but by then the house had sold, so we ended up renting for half a year. Our next door neighbors were building a house, and we ended up building across the street from them.

Mom and Dad did some of the finish work themselves – staining trim, painting, etc., while I sat in what would eventually become my bedroom, busy with my coloring books and 64-pack of Crayolas on the floor and soaking in the great smell of freshly-cut wood and the promise of a great new home.

I lived there 12 years, and it was a bit sad when Mom sold the place the year following Dad’s death. But a great young family bought the place, and the place looks better than ever – I’m glad they have it; it’s a nice neighborhood and I’m sure they’re enjoying it.

I grew up in a very friendly cul-de-sac, and every summer one of us would host a block party for the early evening hours. Us kiddoes would attend the first part, then the adults would continue on into the night – many of them enjoying their “adult” beverages. :)

I only remember my family hosting it once; we had a luau theme, and I had a great time helping with the decorations. Some of these ended up as basement decor later, and when the house was sold a few years ago and I handled the closing for Mom, the buyers commented on how they just loved the Gilligan’s Island schtick they had going on downstairs. :D

My cousin Toni was a few years older than me, and she was (and still is) so pretty, both inside and out. When we were kids, her bedroom was a converted attic room. The little house had dormers, so her roof angles were beautiful, and I thought her room was the coolest thing I’d ever seen, though I really wasn’t allowed to be up there often (hence, its allure!). She had posters hanging on the ceiling – one of which was of the Abby Road album cover.

Back in the day, we loved it when the Avon Lady would come to our door with her great samples and little booklets. Though my Mom didn’t buy all that much Avon, I still remember a lot of those old vintage scents, like Hawaiian White Ginger, and I think there must have been an orange blossom one, too – which came to mind on one of our Florida trips when we drove past the blooming orange groves. I also remember those little-bitty lipstick samples. If my Mom had one she wasn’t wild about, she sometimes let me have it for a Barbie lipstick. :)

I totally busted up when I saw Edward Scissorhands for the first time, years later. Dianne Wiest’s character was the ultimate Avon Lady!

When Eldest Daughter was a baby and we lived in Michigan, I spent almost a year as an Avon Lady myself. :) I sold in my apartment complex. I wonder if there are still any door-to-door sales ladies in this day and age?

After soaking in some of the great architecture in Chicago, I thought I’d post something about the Kenner girder and panel set my brother had when we were kids. I just loved that set, and spent hours and hours putting together buildings. This is another toy which was passed on to relatives, never to be seen again.

But I recently did some online research and found there is a company now making something similar, which I’ll just have to buy for little Aidan for his next birthday!

My Dad loved acting in local amateur theater productions. His first 3 were musicals, but he started noticing he never got singing parts, and switched to just plays. :) Comedies were his forte, but he did make one bad-ass redneck in To Kill a Mockingbird once.

As a kid, I always helped him learn his lines – great fun for me, and very helpful for him. It was really cool seeing him become somebody else onstage, and also to see how the audience loved him. I was so proud of him!

Though my Mom has dozens of pictures of Dad in his plays, I only have a couple – and this one is of the cast of my 2nd favorite of his plays – Arsenic and Old Lace (my favorite was The Nerd). Bad pic, but I love the memories it conjures.

When I was a girl, my parents made me this absolutely awesome doll house – it was octagonal, and had an “outdoor” courtyard in the middle, with patio furniture and bushes (from a model railroad store) on it. Not only did they build it from scratch, but lovingly put wallpaper and pictures on the walls, “carpet” and linoleum on the floors, and furnished it. I loved it soooo much!

When I had my own girls, I asked Mom about it and discovered she had passed it down to my cousins. She asked my aunt if it was still around, and did retrieve it – but it was all broken apart. It sat sadly in my basement for years, and I was so busy raising the kids, volunteering, then working and returning to college, that it never did get fixed. I eventually had to get practical and pitch it, though it pained me to no end.

Thanks to a random FB comment, this great memory was triggered. I am so fortunate to have such great parents. :)

That’s what my Mom used to call me when I was little. Because, just like the princess in the children’s book, I would go crazy every time a care tag or something would touch my tender skin – so she spent my entire childhood cutting tags off all my clothes.

I’m still that way; the thing that triggered this memory is that this morning I wore a singlet running bra I got at Christmastime for the first time, and as I stood there cleaning a contact lens, the tag on the back felt like a dagger – and I had to cut it out before I left home!

The “Eve” was the big event at our house when I was a kid – we had the entire extended family over to our house for dinner and gifts. Since we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve dinner was always turkey, and the dessert was always pumpkin pie. :) The adults ate upstairs, and we were all in the basement going berserk and wondering why those grown-ups couldn’t hurry it up so we could get to the gift opening!

Since we didn’t have a fireplace, my Mom bought a life-sized cardboard one to hang our stockings on. :)

Christmas Day was definitely anti-climactic, but I did like having my Dad’s full attention. We always got nuts in the shell in our stockings, and Dad and I would sit around cracking nuts and jokes.

The back yard of the house I grew up in abuts the verrrry long driveway of a church situated on a big, beautiful lot. This church lot has quite a few great trees, but one in particular was special to me. At the time, it was already almost 100 years old, so it was enormous – and it was my own little refuge whenever I was upset. I would run over and climb into its leafy arms to disappear from the world until I’d had time to think things through and collect myself. I guess I was a bit of a tomboy. :)

The side I climbed up showed the trauma that the tree itself had been through – apparently lightning had struck it and left a big hollow space in the main trunk, which someone had taken the time to fill in with bricks and tar to fortify it enough so it could remain standing. In typical childish self-centeredness, I sometime imagined the tree’s life had been spared so it could be there to offer support to me when needed. :) I need to go over sometime and see whether it’s still standing ….