Monday, September 18, 2006

MORE SIGNS (CONT)...I LOVE THE 80'S (1ST HALF) [edited]


I LOVE THE 80’s! (First half)
Even though I was born in the mid 70s I spent most of my rememberable childhood in the 80s. What a great time it was, I can just close my eyes and be brought back to that time. I am excited to share these mischievous and funny stories with you during this time of my life. In almost all of these stories you can see the signs of my disability. None of them made me stop doing what I did, and it would sometimes make me fight harder to achieve them. I was very blessed to have had several childhood friends. They looked at me no different than anyone else.

I loved to be outside, and my imagination would not stop! I was quite content playing outside in the backyard with our dog Spanky (Jughead ran awayL)! I was always climbing trees, riding my bike, and making mudpies with the boy next door, Mark! He brought out the tomboy side of me. There was a swing set in my backyard and we would play like it was a ship and we would climb to the top of the slide to look out over the water. We even drew a map, burned the edges like it was worn, to make it look like the one in the movie Goonies! One-eyed Willie was who were looking for!! We also loved the movie Clash of the Titan's. I have no idea what was going through our heads on this one! He would be Perseus and would kill the scorpions and cut off Medusa’s head with his fake sword and shield. All to rescue the Princess Andromeda (played by me) from the beasts. My best girlfriend at the time and I would play on the swingset for hours jumping off the swings pretending we were in the Olympics for gymnastics. I always would give myself a perfect 10 like I was the next Mary Lou Retton!!!!!! Both of them had above ground swimming pools. I was a fish! The water made me weightless therefore you couldn't tell that anything was wrong. “Marco Polo” was the ultimate game! There was also a public pool at the park down the street. My brother and I (my mom made him walk with me, hehe) would go over there sometimes daily during the summer. My family and I decided to take a trip down the river on none other than an intertube (it was a special river just for that kind of stuff- no fishing)! As we began our float we felt the cool breeze as we were going at a nice speed. All of the sudden the water started getting shallow. We were forced to pick up our intertube's and walk on the rocks until we reached a good amount of water to where we could begin to intertube again. We ended up having to do this several times. I had a hard enough time walking on a flat surface let alone carrying a intertube on a bunch of wet rocks. It was crazy but all in all I am glad to say I did it. I could not have done it without my Dad’s help. Going fishing was another family function we did often. We had a boat, and would go cat fishing by the dam at the river (not at the same place where we intertubed). I caught a few fish in my day! Getting in and out of the boat was not the most graceful thing I ever did, but again am glad to say I did do it. Dind't I make quite the fashion statement too!! I loved going to amuseent parks. Walking all drunk there everyone thought I looked normal like I just got off the tilt a whirll!
Jumping rope and playing hopscotch were two other activities that I enjoyed doing even though I was not the best at them. My best girlfriend and I loved to play tetherball so much that we improvised it so when we got home from school we could play. We would take a plastic pumpkin that was used for trick or treating tie a long piece of rope on the handle for the tetherball, and placed it somehow on a pole. We would play with that for hours. If I wasn’t doing those things I was at practices for my sports. My main chore was to keep my room cleaned. It was my brother's responsibility to mow and rake the backyard. One time I insisted that I wanted to help. It then became my responsibility to rake. Why did I ever open my mouth? It did not last very long for I had a hard time doing it, and would be out of breath pretty quickly. Our backyard was big. I remember going to see the movies E.T. and Gremlins at the drive-in movie theater. In the winter my other neighbors lived on a big hill, and we would have a blast sliding down it and having snowball fights. I loved to make the snow angels and snowmen! I did not let rainy days or Mondays get me down! There was always something to do or something to make up and do. Being mischievous was what I was meant to do. I also enjoyed playing by myself at times. Yes I had imaginary friends, didn't you? (We know that Kelley did, hehe) I used to love watching Little House on the Prarie, and it would inspire me to play school with all my imaginary friends. One fateful day I decided to use my wall as a chalkboard and wrote in pencil (like I thought that would fade, LOL) all over it. As my punishment I was given a big eraser and told to get busy. It was harder than I expected (go figure) so I stopped erasing and started crying. I lived with that writing on my wall till I was a teenager. It made me learn my lesson for sure. My parents took guardianship of my cousin when he was a teenager and I was 3. It was like I had another brother! He introduced me into the world of music television. A couple of years after he came MTV started. My favorite video was Thriller by Michael Jackson, and I learned to look cool like Madonna! My first cassette I bought was by the group Heart, If looks could kill was the name of the tape. My mom and dad had records, (Country and Oldies, which I both love) and my best girlfriend's parents had an 8-track player so I was familiar with it all. The boy next door had some 45’s of Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield, and Sunglasses at Night by Corey Hart that we would play air guitar too or just look cool with our sunglasses on and the light off! My cousin, brother, and I watched MTV all afternoon along with wrestling. You didn't want to mess with me, because I could do the DDT (that rhymed)! My brother and I would bend wire hangers to make a hoop and put it up on his door, and practice with tennis sized balls to make baskets. I would jump around with a long towel wrapped around my neck trying to save the day just as I saw wonder woman do it on TV. My best girlfriend and I had the biggest crush on Ricky Schroeder from the show Silver Spoons. When Atari came out we had a fight on our hands (not literally) to see who would get a turn to play Pac-Man, Frogger, or Pong. There could be only two players at one time. My mom was also an avid player, so she would normally be one player and one of us kids could be the second player. My hand eye coordination was not the best and I would not win very often, but still loved to play. My Aunt was a school teacher for a magnet school in Oklahoma, and she would always take me to their school plays and musicals with her. I really loved that kind of stuff, and enjoyed watching all of the musicals on TV (still do) like Annie, Wizard of Oz, Sound of Music, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, and many more. I was never into the whole Barbie scene. The two Barbie’s I did have I cut their hair off, and that ended my collection of Barbie’s. I did however love my strawberry shortcake baby doll that when you pushed in her stomach she would blow you strawberry kisses! I went to the rolling skating rink lots. Whether I was doing the hokey pokey or singing Celebration by Kool and the Gang, I had a blast. I would always either hang on to the side railing of the rink or hang on to someone for balance (usually knocking us both down). A lot of times I would skate on the carpeted floor next to the rink. It was more comfortable to me. Falling is usually a common practice when skating for anyone. So when I was there I did not feel singled out due to falling! I even tried ice-skating once, and once was all it took!

It has been so much fun sharing with you about my childhood in the 80’s. It is now your turn to share or comment on some of your mischievous and funny stories from when you were a child. Do not hesitate I would love to hear them.

Thanks for taking the time to read,
Miss S

6 comments:

do1203 said...

I have alot of memories of us growing up, but the one that always comes to mind is when you swallowed that hard piece of candy at grandmas house. I can tell you this everytime i put candy in my mouth I think of you and what not to do(ha ha). I love reading about you memories and i remember some of them. Hope you will share lots more. Love ya Deana

MISS S said...

Kelley,
LOL about u being Ponch. I liked Chips too. We did have a lot in common. I am a 32 year old women with no excuses about watching Annie or other musicals with anyone, lol. I sing along and everything!! Did u have a piano in your house? If my memory serves me correctly u taught me to play the extra part of Chopsticks.

MISS S said...

do123,
It made my day that u wrote on. I am sooo glad that we all stayed together. Memories last forever, and I am so glad that Candy didn't:) LOL! Thats what we got for jumping on the bed. One summer you and Cindy went to camp and came back and taught me the song Alice, Where r u going... Do u remember that song? I still know all the words!!!

do1203 said...

I remember some of the words, something about her going down the drain glug glug glug or somthing like that. Hope to see more of your memories. love ya Deana

Parisjasmal said...

Oh what memories--Mary Lou Retton, CHiPs (rofl Ponch and John), Rick Springfield etc. Hilarious.

Sounds like you had a very fun childhood!

xo

Anonymous said...

Thanks Stephanie! I have so enjoyed reading your blog and how interesting that you can now look back and see signs everywhere of your dx. One memory I have of you is when we went to Bells with Chaillia. Somehow you ended up in the middle of the Himalaya. Ive always felt guilty that we smashed you during the ride! LOL!