More Childhood Memories

Well, I lost another two pounds last week.  How I did that, I'll never know.  I was sure the scales would show a weight gain.  But I'm not taking those two pounds back!

I slept late this morning, with two alarm clock radios playing for two hours before I woke up.  However, in my defense, they weren't very loud.  It's unusual for me to sleep this late.  I'm usually up at 5:30, and I am the first one from my boat to arrive at work.  If this had been a weekday, though, I would have been late for work. 

Okay, back to my childhood.  I'm trying to recall my childhood as objectively as possible, so I'm just going to relay little bits and pieces as I remember them, in the hope that it will help me to remember.  So, my posting may be a little disjointed. 

I used to spend a lot of time next door at Nanny's house.  She taught me how to brush me teeth, treated my mouth ulcers, and taught me how to cook and set a table.  She also gave me candy when I shouldn't have been eating it.  She had a friend named Florence who made me laugh.  We had great times battling over fried baloney sandwiches.  Nanny's husband was away working on a dredge most of the time when I was young.  Everyone thought that I was jealous of him because I did not like it when he came home.  But the truth was that he exposed himself to me and touched me.  I would be on guard, trying to avoid being alone with him, but eventually I'd let me guard down, and there he would be.  Of course, I didn't tell anyone.  When I got older, I figured if I told Mama, if she believed me, she would blame Nanny. 

I remember walking into the kitchen one day when Mama was asking Judy what was wrong with her.  She did not like her behavior.  Judy burst into tears, saying that she was having boyfriend trouble.  I don't remember what Mama said in response.  But it seemed to me that Mama was angry at her for having a problem.  I remember thinking that the best thing to do is to keep your problems to yourself. 

Okay, what about some happier memories?  Daddy barbequeing in the back yard.  We would eat sausage right off the grill together while he mopped the chicken with barbeque sauce.  Eating cumquats right off the tree in the back yard.  I always peeled mine first.  Finding hidden Easter eggs a few weeks after Easter.  Playing in the wisteria bush, and pretending that the fragrant blooms were a bunch of grapes and the seed pods were green beans.  It was a multi-purpose plant.  Going to pick out a Christmas tree.  Decorating the tree was special because it was something that I got to do with Queenie and Judy.  Watching Daddy shave in the mornings.  I guess there was a time when I got up early when I was very young because it seems to me that we were the only two who were up.  Daddy always wore these old seersucker pants in the mornings.  They would start to slip down as he raised up his arms to shave his face.  He would have to continually pull them back up.  I made a game of grabbing them and pulling them down.  He was wearing underwear; it was all innocent fun. 

Childhood is that wonderful time of life when all you need to do to lose weight is take a bath.  ~~Richard Zera