The Things we Recall

 

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How much do you remember—I mean really remember about your childhood? I can remember vividly the details surrounding my grandparents; I remember clearly waking up in the middle of the night in my daddy’s arms and seeing the flames of fire swirling around us as our house burned with us inside it [another post]. I remember that someone, though I can’t remember who, gave me a big, stuffed white cat for Christmas one year that was hard as a rock. I swear it was filled with packing peanuts.

It’s strange what kind of vivid [and sometimes not so vivid] details our minds can absorb and recollect.

I remember the day I started wearing makeup. My aunt and my grandma gave me some of their old makeup. One of them gave me a tube of Clinique concealer..and I’m pretty sure I wore it as eye shadow for a while.

I remember going to the salon and having my hair foiled. On one day in particular, the stylist wasn’t paying attention and my head literally scorched. Ever had to feel and smell your own hair frying? Not fun. My sister remembers this day vividly. And we still laugh about it from time to time. I had a big sore on my head for almost a month.

I remember my first kiss. The guy was….not really attractive. And not a good kisser at all. At all. Seriously. Worst kiss ever.

I remember my first day at a Private School. I left Public School in the middle of the first semester of my Freshman year of high school. The school I was going to was cutting all of the advanced classes and I was a nerd who took only advanced classes so we transferred. I spent two and a half hours picking out the perfect outfit. A pair of L.E.I. jeans and a Green long-sleeve Union Bay shirt. I thought I was decked out. Guess I missed the memo that private school kids [at least where I went to school at] only wore Polo, Abercrombie, and American Eagle. Oops.

When I was six, my parents were house parents at a Boys Home outside of Birmingham, Alabama. It was…different. A lot of seriously sad stories and disturbed teenage boys. But there was one guy, can’t remember his name, that had blonde hair and blue eyes. He was always really nice to me and my sister and would sometimes sit and play Barbie’s with us. I remember a fight broke out one night right after supper…one of the boys grabbed something out of the kitchen drawer and threw it at the blonde headed boy. My daddy jumped in front of it without hesitation. Fortunately for him [and us] it was only a pie cutter. It was intense and I can still play out the details of that night without missing a beat.

I won my first beauty pageant when I was in first grade. Our theme that year was Arabian Nights because Aladdin had just come out in theatres [This was in 1994]. Our onstage question was If you had a magic lamp, what would you wish for and why? I answered: that everyone would believe in God because he died on the cross and he died for our sins. I was Contestant number 14.

Later, after winning our hometown pageant, I had to go on to a bigger pageant where girls from Alabama, Florida and Georgia competed. I made it to the top 10 out of those 47 girls and my question that night was If you had $100 what would you buy? The local Morning Show anchor was the Mistress of Ceremonies and she made fun of me on stage when I answered that I would give it to the homeless to buy them a house. I was six. Who knew? She laughed at me and said that $100.00 wouldn’t buy a house, but the little girl who won answered that she’d buy a Red Convertible. To this day, I still don’t like the morning show host.

What about you? What are some of your fondest, funniest and most embarrassing childhood memories?

I have a few more that are specifically related to high school and college that I’m going to share at a later date. But I’d love to hear what kind of things you remember from your younger days.

Happy Monday, ladies!