Monthly Archives: October 2010
Ghosts of Halloween Past: My Childhood Halloweens
I’m writing this post because I really, really want this camera!
Halloween has never really been “celebrated” at our house. We were allowed to dress up as long as we weren’t anything scary/evil. Sometimes we went Trick or Treating but most years we didn’t. Sometimes we carved pumpkins, sometimes we didn’t. My favorite part of Halloween is the costumes. I loved dressing up. Still do (although I haven’t in years). When Halloween would come around mom would take my sister and me to JoAnn Fabrics to look inside the big costume books. We would get an idea of what we wanted to be and then mom would put it together with what we had at home. Unfortunately I don’t have many photos of my costumes. We used a lot of items from home, so whenever possible I tried to use a photo of some of the items even if I’m not in full costume.
Here are the few memories that I have of my Halloween’s past.
1981: Scarecrow
I was too little to remember anything about this. I think this was my first time ever going Trick or Treating. I was just over two and my sister was just shy of one. I was a scarecrow, my sister was a clown, and my cousin was a cheerleader.
1982-1983: ?
Because I couldn’t find any pictures from these years and I was still so young, I have no idea what my costume was. One of these years (I think that it was 1983) we had moved to FL. I seem to remember my sister and I Trick or Treating with our dad who somehow lost his keys in the grass. It was dark outside and he had a hard time finding them. I found the keys. My dad started calling me “Hawkeye”. Little did he know that only 3 years later I would need glasses and now I can only see an inch in front of my face!
1984: Bunny
I actually have no memory of this Halloween at all. From the picture I can tell you that I was a bunny and my sister was a lion. I can also see that this was a church Halloween party.
For being a children’s party at church, there are some pretty creepy looking costumes in the background. (Top photo from left to right) I can’t tell if that’s a giant hat or if the person has a sack over their head. Is that a green-faced bearded lady wearing rubber kitchen gloves and holding a broom? That is actually a Care Bear, but it’s still scary. This clown is way more creepy than fun (ditto for the mini clown in front).
1985: Gypsy
I was in first grade this year. We had a Halloween parade at school. As best I can remember it, each classroom was designated a time when they would walk through the whole school in each classroom (I could be remembering incorrectly…it might’ve just been the other classrooms in your grade). I was a gypsy. I loved my costume. My grandmother had this full, puffy, white slip with red stars all over it (pictured below while playing dress up, not in costume). My mom tied it around me (because it was too big) and I wore some sort of top over it with a brightly colored shawl. Then she tied a scarf onto my head. It was the 80s and my mom had all kinds of big, tacky jewelry. I put on beads and necklaces, some jewelry on my head, lots and lots of bracelets, rings, some ankle bracelets, and I think we even put some big jangley necklaces around my waist. My mom put a lot of heavy make up on me. For shoes I went barefoot because aren’t gypsies always barefoot? (I really don’t know) Since I would be in my classroom being barefoot wasn’t a big deal…but then there was the parade. I walked all over the school in my bare feet. Yuck! I didn’t step on anything or hurt myself, but just the idea of it grossed me out. My sister and I went Trick or Treating that year with a friend of mine and our moms (Don’t worry, I wore shoes!). While we were out we had a spooky encounter, you can read all about it in “A Ghostly Tale”.
1986: Aerobics Instructor
I don’t remember anything specific about this year other than the costume. I wore my bathing suit with tights underneath it, leg warmers, and tennis shoes. I had my hair in a pony tail and wore a head band and wrist band. I wore a sweatshirt over the bathing suit, which I believe had the neck cut out so that it would hang off the shoulder. I seem to remember the bathing suit having white and purple vertical stripes and having a white fabric belt with plastic buckle attached to it. Maybe a little too cold for Trick or Treating, but definitely a cheap and easy costume.
1987: Princess
I wore my beautiful flower girl dress from my aunt’s wedding. A picture of me in the dress at the wedding can be seen below. We bought a scepter at the store. It was almost as tall as me. It was plastic with a red handle and a white star at the top. You could put batteries in it and the star would light up. I hated the red handle so my mom wrapped ribbon all around it and put glitter on the star so that it would shine when it was turned on. I don’t remember anything else about the costume, like what I did with my hair or wore on my head. I think I might’ve been a fairy princess…which means I would’ve had wings. For whatever reason, the scepter is what I remember the most.
1988: Little Bo Peep
I wore my Easter dress from the year before (Easter photo shown below). It always reminded me of Little Bo Peep. We added a poufy crinoline underneath it and I think I might’ve had some pantaloons peeking out down by my ankles. I think we may have tied a bigger, more exaggerated sash/bow around my waist. We put my hair in big baloney curls with a big huge bow. We took the princess wand from the year before and wrapped pink satin ribbon around it. For the crook we removed the star and put a wire coat hanger in there which we bent into a crook and taped to the handle. We then put an empty paper towel roll over the wire crook and wrapped it in ribbon. We tied a big pink satin bow underneath the crook. I carried a stuffed lamb with me which was actually a gift from the Easter Bunny in 1982.
1989: Southern Belle
This year there was a party at the church in the parsonage basement. I remember getting a Polaroid picture taken that night, which I had for years…but can’t seem to find it now 😦 This year I was in Middle School, so no Halloween Parade. Instead there was a costume judging contest. I believe the judging went by grade. You would go to the auditorium and were put in like groups. They kept narrowing down each group until they had the top 3 (5?) costumes in that grade. I believe I was always in one of the top-ish groups. I seem to remember this kid Kevin winning every year. He had some pretty good costumes. For the Southern Belle costume I used a dress that had belonged to my mom as a child. I think that one of her grandmothers had made it for some sort of patriotic holiday. It was blue with little (red?) flowers on it and had a matching bonnet. To make the skirt full my mom took a hula hoop and sewed it to the bottom of the skirt using small pieces of elastic. I had big baloney curls in my hair once again. Since I was a “winter” southern belle I also had a white faux fur muff that I wore.
1990: Cleopatra
I once again was close to being a finalist in the costume contest, but didn’t win. This year we bought my Cleopatra costume from the store. I don’t remember wearing a wig, but at the time my hair had a similar cut (although it was blonde, so…). In addition to what the costume came with we added more heavy gold jewelry around my neck. Slap bracelets were popular then and I had to shiny gold ones that I wore on each wrist like cuffs. The costume had a stretchy gold headband with a cobra attached to it, and I did wear it, but we fashioned one of my mom’s gold necklaces around it to make it look more authentic (and not so cheap). We had a gold snake to wrap around my upper arm. I wore sandals and heavy eye makeup. One thing that I remember most about this costume was that it had a big leg slit. Every time I sat down my skirt flew open and my one entire leg (clear up to my upper thigh) would be showing. I had to keep closing my skirt all day.
1991: Kleenex Box
For some reason I decided that I want to be a Kleenex box. I didn’t win a prize again, but I came close. Everyone loved my costume. I’m not going to give anymore details right now, because I’ll be writing more about this tomorrow!
1992: Kleenex Box
I was so certain that this Kleenex box was a winner that I decided to try it again this year! I was actually a finalist! I think I got 3rd place. Because of the design of the costume, I couldn’t sit in my desk at school. So I “sat” at the front of the class during homeroom. I was holding a real box of Kleenex and the other kids had fun coming up during class and getting Kleenex’s from me. This was a really difficult costume to Trick or Treat in because it was so hard to walk up and down the stairs.
1993: 50s Chick with Poodle Skirt
I was a freshman in high school in 1993. Although I believe that you were allowed to come to school in costume, no one really did. There weren’t any Halloween parties or parades or costume contests, so there was no need to have a costume specifically for school. This year my sister and her friend Julie decided that they would go Trick or Treating. This was the first year that we would ever be going alone. I borrowed Julie’s sock hop outfit. We went Trick or Treating but I didn’t walk up to any doors or take any candy. I felt really stupid and too old. I was 14. That was my last time Trick or Treating.
1994: Hippie
This year I joined the school’s Dance Line which performed with the marching band in the neighboring city’s Halloween Parade. Baby doll dresses were back in style at this time, so I started with that and some leggings for my costume. I added a tie-dye “shawl” that I found in our attic (I think it was a table runner). I put my hair in braids and added a floppy hat and peace sign necklace. I finished off the outfit with some flower power on my face and a pair of “John Lennon” sunglasses (also popular in the 90s).
1995: Flapper
This year I wore a flapper costume to the Halloween Parade. The below photo is actually from a talent show about 5 months before Halloween, but it’s the same thing that I wore except for the shoes. I wore black jazz shoes instead. The costume began as a long black dress with spaghetti straps that I had been given as a hand-me-down. The material was that stretchy, wrinkled kind and the dress was way too long for me (I tripped in it). We cut the bottom of the dress off and then my mom took rows of black fringe and sewed them around the dress and added some to the shoulders. She took some of the cut off material from the skirt and tied it into a headband/bow and then attached more fringe. The gold sequin cap, choker, and garter were all part of an old ballet costume from years before. We attached fringe to the garter and removed the giant blue feathers from the cap. My mom already had the pearls. I added a boa and black hosiery (which had seams up the back, but you can’t tell in the photos). Finish off the look with dramatic make up and spit curls (not visible in the photo).
1996: Genie
In 1996 I was a senior in high school and this would be my last Halloween parade. We bought the genie costume at the store, but embellished it with my mom’s jewelry. Everything hanging off of the hat, the top, and the waist are my mom’s jewelry with added bracelets and arm cuff. You can’t really tell in the picture but I also have a tiny genie lamp hanging from my waist. We took plain white shoes and added gold glitter and sequin. You can’t see it in the photo, but we also painted a genie onto my calf. During the parade some kid came running up to me and handed me an envelope (which I thought was weird). Later on when I got to open it I found out I had one a $5 prize for a good costume. I never bothered to redeem it.
So there you have it, all of my memories of Halloweens past.
I want to thank the SITS Girls for hosting this giveaway. You can go to their website to find the best blogging tips. It’s also great if you’re looking for a way how to find blogs (Hmm, that wasn’t proper English). Also unicorns are real and Tiffany is pretty! (Hey, whatever I can do to get that camera, right?!)
If you would like to read more stories about my childhood you can find links to my “Piggy Tales” below where I recorded my youth and young adult years in 20 posts.
My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story – I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Naked in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension
My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
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Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
This is the 4th post in a 12 week series joining Mommy’s Piggy Tales to record my youth!
1986-1987
2nd Grade
Mrs. Murray was my 2nd grade teacher. She was tall, thin, and blonde. She was a really nice teacher. When I got to the high school she was our Bible Club sponsor. I think she retired a few years after I graduated.
An Apple for Teacher
2nd Grade was a year of many new things for me. Our classroom was the first to get a computer. I remember it being a big deal and I think we took a whole day off just to use the computer. We each had to pick a few graphics and write a sentence about them. Here is my work…aren’t those graphics just awesome 😉
Holes in my head
It was during 2nd grade when I was 8 years old that I got my ears pierced. I was so excited about getting my ears pierced and becoming more grown up. I don’t think we did anything special that day, but I do remember that I had my ears pierced at the pediatrician’s office. It didn’t hurt but the gun made a really loud popping sound. I took really good care of my ears and never had trouble with them. Around the time I graduated my piercings began to bother me. When I would put earrings in my ears would turn red, the holes would swell and eventually puss (yummy!). I tried every different kind of post imaginable but nothing helped. In fact, they just kept getting worse as I got older. Eventually I quit wearing earrings all together and now the holes have almost entirely shut.
Here’s my 2nd grade school picture where you can see my pierced ears.
Warning: This is the worst school picture that I’ve ever taken.
I hope that you can get some enjoyment out of it.
I had a bad cold and my chapped lips pretty much became chapped mouth and chapped chin. On a happy note, that’s one of my all time favorite dresses that I’m wearing. You can’t see it in the picture (:() but at the bottom of the dress was a squirrel raking leaves. I thought it was so cute; I was so disappointed when I grew out of it.
4-Eyes!
Another new thing that happened that year was my sister and I getting eye glasses. I actually kinda wanted glasses and I’m not sure why. Now I really wish I never had to get them! My sister and I are nearsighted so we couldn’t see the blackboard far away. We were supposed to only wear our glasses when we had to look far away and keep them off the rest of the time. This proved to be very inconvenient with the constant on/off…so we usually just wore them all of the time. I’m not sure whether or not that’s what made our eyes worse, but it didn’t take long before my sister and I had to wear our glasses all of the time. They continued to get steadily worse. Forget nearsighted. Now I can only see an inch in front of my face without glasses/contacts. I don’t know if bad eyes are hereditary but our parents didn’t wear glasses and our grandparents only wore reading glasses. The only other relative we had with eyes as bad as ours was our Aunt (you can see a photo of her awesome 80s specs here).
I had a hard time finding a picture of us wearing glasses 1986/87 because we usually took them off for photos. After a year or so, we left them on for pictures. Here’s what I do have from ‘87.
The Bossy Little Traffic Cop
I wasn’t your normal kid. I didn’t play a lot. Sure, I was creative and imaginative and I like to play pretend. Other than that, I didn’t have much interest in toys or games and I didn’t care to play outside. One day all of the neighborhood kids were outside playing. There were at least 3 or 4 of them plus my sister and me. There were kids on bikes and skates. There were kids running back and forth across the street. It was chaos ;)! I went inside and put on my Care Bear roller skates and a whistle. I then proceeded to go outside and direct traffic. I blew my whistle and put out my hand. I told kids when they could stop, when they could go, and how fast they could go. And you know what? Those crazy kids listened to me. I guess I’m just a born leader. It’s a good thing that I learned to use my superpowers for good instead of evil. It took time, though, it took time 😉
*Photo credit link at the bottom of this post*
I’m not sure how old I was when this happened, but I have a guess. For Christmas 1985 my sister and I received Care Bear roller skates from our Aunt Julie. It was obviously summertime if we were playing outside. Considering how quickly children’s feet grow, I assume that the summer of ’86 and maybe ’87 would’ve been the only opportunities we would’ve had to wear and use said skates. Obviously mad deduction skills are another superpower of mine. Don’t be jealous.
It’s not personal, it’s business
One day all of the neighborhood kids were playing outside and saying how hungry and thirsty they were getting, but didn’t want to go outside. Because of children’s habits of constantly running in out of the house for drinks, moms often made a “once you’re in, you’re in” rule. Being the conniving compassionate little girl that I was I came up with a greedy brilliant scheme idea. I went inside the house and came back out with: a shoebox, Dixie cups, a box of graham crackers, and a container of apple juice. I set up a table on the front porch and then charged each child $1 for a Dixie cup of apple juice and a square of graham cracker. Later in the day my mom saw me counting a box of money. She asked me where I got it and I told her. I was so proud of myself. I think I made $10. My mom told me that it wasn’t right to take their money. She walked me around to all of the houses and had me apologize and return the money (which was totally not fair since they didn’t return the crackers or apple juice!). I don’t think I ever tried to start another business after that. Pity. I could’ve been bigger than Trump 😉
*I found the photo of the Vintage 1983 Care Bear Roller Skates here
You can read about my 7th birthday here:
Jenn’s 7th Birthday Party 1986.
My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension
My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!
My First Job
This is the 3rd post in a 6 week series joining Ginny who is guest posting at Mommy’s Piggy Tales hosting the Young Adult Years version to record your youth.
1997-1998
My first job
1997 Jenn
It was 1997, the October after graduating high school, when my mom said that it was time for me to get a job. She took a week off of work and drove me around to put in applications. I memorized my Social Security number that week.
I don’t remember all of the places that I applied to, but I remember 3 of them. I applied to The Deb and I think I may have even had an interview with them but never heard back from them after that. I was bummed about that one because I liked their clothes and thought it would be fun to work there. They had this really weird, tricky survey that you had to take that didn’t make any sense. It would have a statement like “I steal most of the time” and your options would be (1) I totally agree (2) I mostly agree (3) I don’t disagree…wait, what? No matter what I answer I look like a thief! Where is the option “I don’t steal anything at all ever…” It was very confusing and I think I answered all of the questions backwards and probably looked like the most honest thief that’s always late that they’ve ever interviewed.
I applied to Shop N’ Save and was called back for an interview. The interview went like this: The manager brought me over to a closed register and he bent over the conveyor belt looking at my application. He basically said, “We have an opening in the deli, when can you start?” Um, no thanks. I was very turned off by how unprofessional the “interview” was. I didn’t like the idea of having to work around deli meat all day and I was pretty much terrified of the giant slicing machine. I turned the job down. My mom understood.
The third place I applied to was Giant Eagle. I had an interview and got hired. This was my first job. I worked as a Front End cashier part time about 17 hours a week. I had them work my schedule around church so that I could still attend 3 times a week (Wednesdays, and twice on Sundays). We had to wear white tennis shoes and khaki pants with a navy blue smock. My smock was the smallest size they had but it was still huge on me since I was so tiny at the time.
My first paycheck
Popsicle Jenn: The Buggy Master
(This title is way more interesting than the story. I’m trying to keep you from falling asleep due to boredom.)
I became really good at bagging. Most of the time I preferred to bag my own stuff rather than having a bagger because I was so good at it. The bags always looked so nice, neat, and organized when I was done! One day when they had me bagging instead of cashiering they decided to enforce a new rule that each bagger had to take turns going outside to bring the buggies back in (usually the boys that were hired only as baggers did this). It was snowing outside and aside from a coat (with no hood) I didn’t bring anything to wear in the cold with me because I was a cashier and didn’t think I would be going outside until my shift ended. This was before the days of those fancy buggy collecting machines that they have at the supermarkets now. Being only 5’1 and 98 lbs I could only push 3 buggies at a time. As quickly as I could I cleared the whole parking lot of buggies. I’m not sure how long it took me (although I remember it being a pretty impressive time considering I was bringing them in only 3 at a time), but by the time I was done I was wet from snow and completely frozen. My hands were red and stiff and I could barely bag anything for a little while. I’m pretty sure that once the managers saw me they disbanded the new rule and went back to the way things were. At least I know that I never had to collect buggies again. And the peasants rejoiced.
A big man yells at me
During my time at the grocery store corporate put a new policy in place that ALL people buying cigarettes must be carded. We had to physically look at the id of each person buying cigarettes and then enter their birth date into the computer before the register would allow us to sell them. We were told to do this no matter what. Most people that were older than 18 thought it was funny and I heard, “Wow, I haven’t been carded in years!” a lot. I always explained to everyone first, “Corporate put a new policy in place where we need to check the id of every person buying cigarettes regardless of age. Could I please see your id?” Most everyone complied with no trouble. A few people grumbled, but still did it. But one man was furious with me. I told him about the policy. He laughed. I said, “Could I please see your id?” He said something like, “Now you can tell that I’m old enough to buy these and I’m not going to show you any id.” I explained the policy again, politely. He got louder. Eventually he was yelling something like, “You just sell me these cigarettes! This is ridiculous!” He was big. I was scared outta my mind. Eventually a manager finally came over. She explained the policy. She also explained that I didn’t have the authority to override the policy, but she did. She entered a fake birth date with out ever checking his id. I was glad that the whole experience was over, but I was honestly a little miffed that she didn’t insist on getting the id from him. Oh well. He was probably the oldest looking 15 year old I’ve ever seen and he got away with it 😉
I got an owie 😦
I injured my wrist somehow while I was working. I think it had something to do with the repetitive motion I made while scanning items (and I was pretty fast), but I would often have to wear a wrist brace. This wrist pain would end up bothering me for years. Our Giant Eagle had the kind of registers where the cashiers unloaded the buggies. The registers were set up differently than your typical one. You would push the cart right up to the cashier and then the front of the cart folded down. The cashier would take the item straight from the cart across the scanner and then on to the conveyor belt that was immediately to the left. I really liked this. The whole “checking out” process seemed to go so much faster because you were eliminating the whole step of waiting for the customer to put their items on the belt. This was particularly helpful when you had elderly customers. Eventually (some time after I left) the Giant Eagle was remodeled and they went back to the traditional register style and added a lot of self-check-out registers.
There’s a girl under those coats…
and she has no friends
While I got along well with a few of the male baggers, I never made any friends when I worked there. During my 15 minute break I would sit in the coat room and write letters to my boyfriend. Sometimes I would bring a sandwich or snack cake in there with me, but usually I just sat in there and wrote. The ladies coat room was right by the door to the ladies bathroom. I was always startling people that were going into the bathroom. Still it’s surprising how many people didn’t even see me sitting there underneath the coats.
Moving on…
I worked at Giant Eagle just shy of a year before I left to start a part time job at a new department store at the mall. This new job would be the one I would have for the next 5 years before becoming a homemaker. This new job would be a move that would lead me to eventually meet the man I was going to marry.
This certainly wasn’t the most interesting or exciting year of my life. It was almost difficult finding something to write about. I hope it wasn’t too boring! Now wake up…your snoring is scaring people away and you’re drooling on my blog.
(Oh wait…this boring post is scaring people away and that’s not drool, those are my tears. My bad.)
My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension
My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox
This is the 3rd post in a 12 week series joining
Mommy’s Piggy Tales to record my youth!
First Grade
Here’s a school project that I found. I must’ve written it in 2nd grade, but it happened when I was in first grade. Please enjoy, “A Ghostly Tale”.
For whatever reason in 1985 I became quite obsessed with wanting a bra. I was begging my mom for one. She told me “no” several times. Finally, she decided that she would get me a bra. When I opened it I was so excited and I decided that I’d wear it to school the next day. That thing was awful! It was so uncomfortable I could barely stand it. I was pulling at it and scratching at myself all day long. Finally during lunch I just couldn’t take it anymore. Like so many women before me (and after me), I put my arms inside my sweater and I removed my bra without taking my shirt off…right in the middle of the cafegymatorium. One of the lunch ladies saw and came up to yell at me. “What are you doing with that?! You can’t have that in here…put that away!” So I balled it up and stuffed it in the pocket of my jean skirt. It bulged out like a huge lump in my pocket and was very obvious. I didn’t care. I was so glad to have that contraption off of my body! Once I was done eating I put the bra inside my awesome metal Popples lunch box.
Jenn’s 6th Birthday Party 1985
My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension
My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!
Friends and Fellowship: Friends don’t get friends grounded
This is the 2nd post in a 6 week series joining Ginny who is guest posting at Mommy’s Piggy Tales hosting the Young Adult Years version to record your youth.
This week’s Young Adult Years subject is “Friends and Fellowship”.
I’m also linking this up to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop
4.) We’re too old to be getting in trouble…aren’t we?
Write about a time you were scolded…as an adult.
Summer 1997
Throughout high school I had a handful of really good friends. I never saw much of my friends during the summertime unless they were in band like I was. I spent most of my summers with whatever boyfriend I had at the time. After graduation this didn’t change. My summer continued just like any other summer, except this year when it was over my friends would mostly be leaving for college and I would be getting my first job.
This is how I spent the summer after graduation:
I got my really long hair cut short.
I helped out with VBS at our church.
I went to Florida to visit my grandparents.
I worked as the assistant choreographer for the marching band dance line at my former school.
My best good friend, Meghan, worked as the assistant for the flag line.
After the first day of summer dance camp Meghan and I were talking. A lot. We’ve always done a lot of talking…for hours. We had a whole lot to say to one another that day, so we stopped at McDonald’s which is right across the street from the school. We sat there and talked for hours and hours. I couldn’t tell you one thing we talked about that day. When we finished talking, I walked home. It was nearly 5:00pm. When my mom came home from work she was furious at me. She had been calling the house since 2pm (when I should’ve been home from band camp) and naturally I didn’t answer because I wasn’t there. I was supposed to come right home. She didn’t know where I was or if something had happened to me. I told her where I was and what I was doing. She believed me, but that didn’t stop her from being upset. So upset that she grounded me. For a month. When I was 18 years old. I was particularly upset about it because I was supposed to go away with my boyfriend’s family on the fourth of July. The grounding held firm and I was not permitted to go. And I didn’t go. I accepted my groundation. You better believe that I was always home on time after that. And you better be home on time as well or my mom will ground you too! (And I’m only 50% joking. She seriously will ground you if you don’t behave.)
Meghan and I would continue to keep in touch over the next several years. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding. A few years after getting married we would drift apart. Aside from my sister and cousin I haven’t seen or spoken to any of my bridesmaids in years.
I saw very little of my high school friends once they left for college. We didn’t write, we didn’t call, and we didn’t keep in touch. Things probably would’ve been a little different if the internet and social media had been then the same way that it is now, but they weren’t. Those were the days of dial up…if you were even lucky enough to have that (“not I” says Jenn who didn’t receive a dial up connection until The Year 2000). Those were the days before everyone and their Grandma had a cell phone (P.S. Both of my Grandmas have a cell phone and one of them is on Facebook. Rock on, Grandmas, rock on.). In the 12 13 years* since graduation I think I’ve seen my good friend, Kelly, a total of 4 times (One of those times was at her wedding, and another was just this past March when we ran into each other at Wal-Mart when she was home visiting her dad in the hospital.).
I haven’t made any new friends since.
*Edited to add: I have been out of school for 13 years now, not 12. Perhaps they shouldn’t have let me graduate at all considering that I lack the ability to do basic math. Me smart.*
(Since this seems like it ended on a depressing note, I have edited this to add: I am now Facebook friends with all of my old high school friends. Almost all of them live away and some of us don’t have much in common anymore, but I love to see the pictures of their cute kids and the funny things they say and do.)
My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension
My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
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Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
This is the 2nd post in a 12 week series joining
Mommy’s Piggy Tales to record my youth!
Dancing in a box
My paternal grandma was downstairs doing something when she heard my grandpa call from upstairs, “Doris, you better get up here! These kids are stark n*ked up here!” When my grandma got upstairs she found my sister and I dancing n*ked inside of a wet cardboard box. Here’s what happened from my perspective. Our grandparents had just gotten us some bathtub crayons. We didn’t have any bathtub toys at our house because bath time was bath time, not play time, so other than the occasional Barbie…there were no toys in the bathtub. Bathtub crayons wouldn’t work at our house anyway since we had an old cast iron tub (no tile walls) with nothing to draw on, so we were really excited about playing with the bathtub crayons. I had asked my grandma if we could take a bath so that we could play with the crayons. She told us that it wasn’t bath time yet and we weren’t allowed to go inside the tub alone, so we’d have to wait. I was a very obedient child, so I didn’t go into the bath tub. Instead I got a big cardboard box and dumped our toys out of it. I then took it to the bathroom and then somehow (I assume with a cup) began to fill it with water. Then my sister and I got undressed, got our crayons, and climbed inside the box to play. We weren’t in the tub unsupervised and we still got to play with our crayons! I know, that’s brilliant, right? I didn’t know that the cardboard wouldn’t hold the water and it would leak all over the floor. I didn’t know that trying to draw with crayons on a wet cardboard box wasn’t as easy as drawing in a bathtub. I also didn’t know we would nearly give our grandpa a heart attack when he found us dancing in a cardboard box wet and n*ked.
(I know that I was younger than 5 years old when this happened because grandparents moved to Florida in 1984.)
*Unfortunately due to way too many creepy searches leading to this post than what I’m comfortable with I had to edit the title, url, and text within this post in hopes that this will stop it.
1984-1985
Kindergarten
I attended Central Elementary School for morning Kindergarten with my teacher, Mrs. Dakis. My mom tells me that I didn’t want to go to school because I hate change. I actually do hate change, or at least I did, but I don’t remember not wanting to go to school. I’m sure that I was scared, but I also remember being excited.
I remember when I first found out that I was going to start Kindergarten. Something came in the mail for me that said I was going to start Kindergarten on such and such a day with this teacher. I remember that my name was written on a cardstock cut out of a Care Bear and there was a string attached for me to wear it around my neck. I seem to remember the bear being Cheer Bear (the pink one with the rainbow on the tummy), but that might only be because Cheer Bear was the Care Bear that I had at home and had received as a gift for my 4th birthday. I remember being at my paternal Grandma’s house when I received the Care Bear name tag and I remember being excited that I was going to go to school. But I only remember that particular moment so it’s quite possible that between then and the first day I began to get frightened. To comfort me my mom told me how great Kindergarten would be, how we would have story time, and then drink milk, and then take a nap on a mat.
When the first day of school came my mom told me that she would be waiting right outside the door when I got out. I thought that she meant she would stand out there all day and I felt better “knowing” that if I needed her I could just open the door. When school was over the first thing that I said to my mom was, “Mommy, you don’t know anything about Kindergarten. We don’t have story time and we don’t take naps. Naps are for babies!” Well, alrighty then. I’m pretty sure that I was fine going to school after that.
Liar, Liar! Pants on Fire!
I made a friend at school. I think her name was Amber, but I’m not sure. One day I told Amber that I was going to be having a birthday party at Brady’s Run Park. I was not. What was actually going on was that our church was having the Sunday School Picnic at the park fairly close to my birthday. I knew that it wasn’t my birthday party…but I told her that anyway. I had forgotten all about it until we were at the Sunday School Picnic. Our family was at the shelter when a car pulled up. A little girl with a wrapped present got out of the car. Oops…busted! I had to tell my mom, and Amber, and her mom that I had lied about my birthday. I really don’t recall getting into a lot of trouble. In fact I remember our moms telling us that we could have a play date and maybe I could even ride the bus home with Amber one day (which was exciting for me because I was a walker). Then Amber and her mom got back into the car with the present and drove away. I don’t have any memories of Amber after that. I know that we never had our play date and sometime before the end of the year she moved away (probably to a place where people tell the truth). Amber did not come to my real birthday party that year. I’m not sure if it’s because we didn’t invite her, or if she just didn’t believe me, or if she had already moved away by then. I have absolutely no idea why I lied. It was very out of character for me. In fact while preparing for this post I asked mom if she had any cute stories of me at this age. She told me that I was such a good girl all the time, I never did anything wrong, and there just isn’t anything funny about a little girl who’s always behaving herself.
You can find links to posts about my 1st-5th birthdays here: Celebrating 30 Years in 30 Days
My Piggy Tales:
*My Birth Story: I’m always late!
*Ages 3-5: Dancing in a box
*Age 6 First Grade: There’s a bra in my lunchbox!
*Age 7 Second Grade: Bossy Wheels and Shady Deals
*Age 8 Third Grade: I will not talk in class
*Age 9 Fourth Grade: I didn’t really need those fingers anyway!
*Age 10 5th Grade: Nothing’s Scary in the Fifth Grade
*Age 11 6th Grade: Jenny Got Ran Over by her Grandma
*Age 12 7th Grade: Youth Camp Stinks
*Age 13 8th Grade: “Talent” Show
*Age 14 9th Grade: (N)O Christmas Tree
*Age 15 10th Grade: The Newsboys Wouldn’t Ditch Their Friends
*Age 16 11th Grade: Acrophobia Gets You the Good Seats
*Age 17 12th Grade: In School Suspension
My Young Adult Years
*Dreams and Aspirations: The Long Road There
*Friends and Fellowship: Friends Don’t Get Friends Grounded
*My First Job
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 1
*How I Met Cool Daddy Part 2
*Colonel Mustard on a Rollercoaster with a Plastic Fork
Coolest Family on the Block is committed to helping you find creative ways to have fun and make memories with your family all year-long. Don’t miss an idea, tip, or trick…subscribe and have updates sent directly to your email!
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Fun and Dysfunction 