Five: I have a new lunchbox and a thermos filled with Nestle Quick tucked under my desk. I can't stop thinking about it, all through Dick and Jane. We take turns stuttering through the pages. I daydream. Dick and Jane go to the candy store. I wanna go to the beach....and slurp my Nestle Quick through a straw, blow chocolate bubbles....Eight: I'm dialing the radio station over and over again, on the rotary dial, shink,click,click,click,click....shink,click,click,click....shink......I'm going to win the red Batman Hotline, who wants this silly pink Cinderella thing? I don't win it. Mom buys me a pink batman sweatshirt instead.
Eleven: Ronnie stuffs the giant velveteen valentine in my construction paper heart. I pretend to faint. I want to shave my legs and let my bangs grow out. He gets suspended from school for having a Beatle haircut and his picture is on the front page of the newspaper. All the other girls faint.
Yesterday: I'm thirty two. In love for the first time, dancing in the kitchen to Fine Young Cannibals, clinking! with pink Champagne in dixie cups. Skinny, Persichetti and I are working for beers at the beach, parading around in macrame'ed swimsuits, reading palms and telling fortunes. The babies are beach bunnies, pink nosed and brown toed, naked from the waist up. And life is good....
This morning I wake up in a blur.....
On a moving sidewalk... slipping, sliding, speeding, flying.....
Yesterday, today, tomorrow, all clanging by, flash framed out the Amtrack window....
No wonder we had to change the clocks....the sun is setting and rising and rising and setting in a never ending circle.....
The contest.....
Who can be the first to reach the finish line......
34 comments:
I can hardly remember what happened last year, let alone when I was eight! I envy your wonderful memory.
Bangs... that's a fringe, right?
The last one up wins!
Your writing is so vivid and playfull and inobtrusively descriptive.
This morning I wake up in a blur.....
On a moving sidewalk... slipping, sliding, speeding, flying.....
Yesterday, today, tomorrow, all clanging by, flash framed out the Amtrack window....
And it always flows like a river.
You call it the circle. And that's what it really is.
Clink! To the circle. And to jumping off the sidewlak sometimes, just to see what the do not walk on grass feels like on bare feet.
Electric...Ha! I remember Eight better than I remember eight-thirty last night! And I hope bangs are the fringe, cause I'm back to wearin' them!
SLB....You are so very very right! The race is on, little one! ILYSVVFM!
Eric...My favorite place to jump off.....anywhere I can run barefooted and free! Clink! To the circle, the river, the thread.....
Peace~love~into the sun
seems like you're on a train of memories, singleton, taking you right to the station of here-now.
your writing is incredible....
oh samalama, i loved the pink princess telephone, I remember I would call the time and weather!!!!
Each day, we take one more step towards the end of the diving board of life. We just can't see the water until the one in front of you is gone.
I remember not me at five and eleven, but my daughters. I'd pack their lunches as Mrs. Spadoman went to work. I'd make sure they had enough to eat, these three little girls. Maggie was 11, Al 8 and Jayne 6. They all had lunch boxes with their favorites on them. I see the General Lee and Wonder Woman.
Each day, when the girls got home, I'd unpack their lunch boxes and get them ready for the next day. They'd always be empty. Always the good Italian, I'd think that maybe they were still hungry. After all, they ate all I gave them.
I find out that these munchkins were trading and giving away the contents of their construction worker sized lunches as there was no way they could devour 2 sandwiches, a bag of cookies, apples and oranges, potato chips and a thermos of chocolate milk.
In some ways, I see the same person as I ever was. After all, I have been with me for a long time and I am my own best friend. The mirror is a different story all together.
Peace to All.
what a memory boost !!! sk
Here's to 100 yrs and looking back knowing that you didn't miss a thing!
That took me back, thinking of me at those ages. Also didn't realse how universal Dick and JAne were.
I must say getting to the senior citizen status has its compensations, but the problem is when the poor old bod' doesn't do what it used to do.
All part of the cycle of life - just as well we don't know where it will end. Just enjoy it while we can I say
Your words fill me up.
You are the sunlight that warms my face in the morning,
I want to bask in your beauty,
Love and deep peace to you my friend,
M
Beautiful memories, skating through time... and some things never change... while some things change for all time... good, that we have the memory, to carry us forever forward, without ever really forgetting. I've got something going in draft, regarding 'the past'...
Peace, Sister...
KJ....I've been on a soul train this entire year, zooming over mountains, teetering across bridges, backtracking through deep tunnels.....to the here and now, but most importantly, to tomorrow....Clink! To that, for all of us!
Timberely.....
God I love, love, love you!
To hiding under pink canopies,
clunking down the steps in cardboard sleighs,
making giant mile long streamers for our bikes outa the playboy centerfolds!
To Tom Jones, Chubby Checkers, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Vinton, Ray Charles and the grasshoppers in the living room!
To "Curt's So Heavy".....
Ketchup soup,
and stolen Ford Fairlanes....
to getting whopped outa the bed with the broom by Robbie Riley, God rest her soul......
To Tom's pizza and
skipping school....
To Barbeque chips and The Beanery....
To love....
love...
love!
Sweet Spado....Oh memories, precious lunches tucked with love and treats.....traded for ball point pens, and bubble gum! I love it! "In some ways, I see the same person as I ever was. After all, I have been with me for a long time and I am my own best friend. The mirror is a different story all together"
I've missed you, Man!
Ibeati.....Funny, how the past is unraveling as I get older, a paper kite with a million colored tales to tell.....
Spongy.....We grow, we learn, we turn old.....the words I hear so often working with older patients reflect not regret that they did anything, they learned and grew from all they did, but regret that they didn't do MORE! Here's to all of us learning that lesson by hear-say and not the hard way! To life....may we live it, love it, and laugh!
Into the sun, out of the blue...
Clink!
To fly on the wall...
Max-E....so nice to see you again, and that little profile pic takes me swimming back in time, too! And yeah, I'm feeling the weight of years on this old bod, myself....needs a little oil every now and then to get everything up and running, but then....it's just like yesterday! Clink!
Maithri....Thank you, sweet friend, I'm hoping for deep peace, too, sometimes searching for it,
but mostly
content
knowing it comes
with acceptance....
with being free,
with letting free....
I wish us all peace...
and love....
it grows....
Shimmerings....less, I forget to say it, the pleasure of knowing you is mine....your thoughts and tellings are so deep and genuine....just beautiful. When you hit "publish" on that draft, I have a feeling we're going on one heck of a roadtrip! Bless you, sweet girl.....
Peace~love my friends, Soul Kitchen blasting through my Friday night world!
Eric...Hah! Hey, Guy! Clink!
Clink! Real time, my friend.
Clink!
Practicing Friday night dancing in my kitchen....
TWO boots on!
Good for you on a Firday night. I guess that answers the how's the foot healing question.
I could fly in that damned cast.....Now I'm in construction boots.....Thank God I'm not a girlie girl!
Heels would suck! But at least your not lazy at all about recovery.
You'll be in flip flops before the boots are painted. Hippie, you should know this.
There's a finish line?
Eric...Oh, I'm so gonna wear heels again! I love teetering on platforms, spinning, twirling.....
and I'm so gonna go barefoot again, scrunching, digging, graffiti-ing in the sand,
and I'm so gonna wear the damned yellow, absolutely favorite, pair of flip flops again that started this whole silly saga......Until then, I'll just keep paintin'...:)
suchacoolcat....Caught that, huh? It aint even over when the fat lady sings....it goes on and on and on......I'm banking on it!
Peace~love my friends
Dear Singleton,
Please write a book.
You're life, your soul...
is so eloquent.
Love, M
Maithri is so very right.
I'll buy the book Singy.
As for the contest, it is one I don't care to win, but when I cross the finish line, I'll skid sideways into it, at full speed.
xo
Gillian
Uh, tinkity tink tink my deah.
i was always calling radio stations trying to win stuff. did you record songs off the radio too?? but, just by holding the recorder next to the radio, so it also picks up everything else. haha!
You gave me chills, Singy.....And now I'm all reminiscent. Going to pull out the journal my bff and I shared when we were teens.....
Blue...Smiling! You and me, you sliding,me tumbling....right past the black and white checkered flag, Arms up in the air, cheering!
Those pearly gates'll be clinkin'!
Mindy.... :) Shockingly enough, I finally did win! When they called my name, I had to break sterile,and leave surgery to call and claim it within five minutes! And that would be how Kimbies and I sat lower bowl watchin' Tom Jones swivel hip it on the stage! Uh, yeah.....it was a really long time ago! :)
karma...oh, I'm so glad you still have those....I parted with such wonderful things when I left with the wind.....almost 20 years ago....every now and then I ache to just run my fingertips over the pictures in the yearbooks, the writings inked there....to flip through the days of my teenagehood....Reminisce my friend, love grows......
Peace~love to all
Maithri.....
This is the book.....
The only story I know by heart.....
Clink! My friend.....to each chapter as we live them, full, and blessed.....
Peace~love
I'll contend to be the last as long as there is dancing in the kitchen and still have energy to go to the beach ...
I have enjoyed so much you sharing your life, memory and what a lovely litte you.
Delightful post. I love the perfection of such random details.
Drips....I honestly did chat right here, back with you, and blogger is just sweeping my words under a magic carpet somewhere! Floating in never-never land! Dancing in the kitchen is the bomb!
Princess...It's funny how you wake up one day, and a lifetime has gone by, and then looking back, it's the little things that
meant the most....
the moments that almost passed us by.....
the random wonderfulness of life on the fly.....
Peace~love my friends, and life....
may we all live it!
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