It Has Come To My Attention

It has come to my attention...as I sit here on this dark rainy windy Saturday afternoon...that I have not really revealed a lot about myself on this journal.

I am not even sure anyone is interested in ME personally...but, in light of the weather being what it is...and I am stuck inside looking longingly out the window like a caged animal...I choose to elaborate some today. If this is not your thing, and you just want to hear about chickens...you may skip todays entry, I will understand.

I was born in Columbus, Georgia. I was raised by two wonderful parents. We lived in a modest neighborhood near the Columbus Airport so I grew up hearing airplanes overhead. When you grow up with a particular sound like that you tend to tune it out after a while and you dont even hear it anymore until someone that is not used to it mentions it. We had a big clock on the wall that was like that. It had a loud tick tock sound as the pendulum would swing back and forth. Growing up with that sound, unless I tried really hard I couldnt hear that clock ticking. The type of batteries in that clock were those big huge batteries. I don't know where to get them, but my Daddy worked where they had them. Once we moved up to Jonesboro the clock batteries died and it hasnt run since, but it still hangs on their wall to this day.

I had a normal existance I guess you could say. Nothing out of the ordinary. Mama stayed home with me (which is a rarity these days) and Daddy went off to work during the week. I had an older sister, but at this time in my young life I didnt know her yet. My younger sister was born when I was six years old. We had one dog, Prissy. She arrived on the front door step about the same time as I was born, so I grew up with her. She lived to be thirteen years old. Cancer overtook her body and she had to be put to sleep. It was very sad. She was such a very good dog. Just a Heinz 57 as they say, but she was a good dog. When I was little, I would lay my head on her tummy and fall asleep. She wouldnt move until I woke up. Back then they didnt have all the fine flea medications they have now. She never got fleas though, I guess they didnt like the way she tasted. They only found her when she was sick with cancer.

Growing up I wasnt a fan of Barbie dolls and Baby dolls. I did have one Baby doll. She could wet her diapers...her name was Baby Wetsalot or something like that. I never took to human figure toys much. My favorite past time was playing with my stuffed animals. Not really a big shocker there eh? I was very careful with my stuffed animals. All of them meant a lot to me and I treated them with all the kindness and consideration you might have for a live animal. If they were held by the foot, or fell off the bed, I thought this was wrong and might hurt to them. What an imagination.

When I was growing up we didnt have fancy plastic toy food and boxes like they do now. I made my own. I did have a tea set. The whole shebang. Forks, knives (plastic of course) pots, pans..(these were actually metal!) plates...everything. I had a box that my Wonderwoman costume had come in (from one Halloween). I turned it upside down and drew stove 'eyes' and knobs on the bottom, just like a stove top. Perfect for my pots and pans. I was supplied with plenty of markers, crayons, construction paper, any art type things to be creative. I would make my own food to go on the plates and in the pots and pans. Oh I made everything from strips of bacon and fried eggs to chicken legs and pizza. It was a lot of fun to make exactly what you wanted.

My stuffed animals would sit around my little table and chairs set. Oh my table and chairs was not like you see now...you know the ones, those plastic set ups. Noooo...this was a miniature version, real wood, of a full size dining room table and chairs. I don't know what ever happened to it, but that is one thing I wish I still had for when Shelby was little. We think it got left in the attic when we moved to Jonesboro and someone else found it and now its gone. I would always feel sorry for the stuffed animals that didnt get to sit at the table and sometimes the ones stacked on the bed would get plates of construction paper food in their laps. When it was bedtime I always had to choose just a few stuffed animals to sleep with me at night in my bed. I hated that the rest of them had to sleep elsewhere. Mama always said there just wasnt enough room for me and all my stuffed animals too. I rotated them out though...so everyone got a turn.

Isnt it funny, how things start to come back to you...to flow from your mind as you sit undisturbed on a quiet day and just begin to write. Here I was going to just give some brief synopsis of my childhood, but I find myself thinking in more and more detail.

For instance. I remember having a pet squirrel. Not one kept in a cage, but one in the trees. The way this came to pass is to me, very odd. One day I was standing next to my tire swing, which was attached to a tree of course. A baby squirrel came scampering down that tree with mother following behind, all the while scolding the youngster. The youngster promptly jumped onto my shirt and hung upside down on the front of my shirt with his back feet. He was not afraid at all. My Daddy was right there and he just said not to move. I think he was afraid I might get bitten. I didnt though. After a minute the youngster jumped back onto the tree and his mother escorted him back up into the trees, all the while scolding away. That squirrel had a notch of fur missing from his tail. A couple of months later, I had a squirrel, with a notch of fur missing out of its tail...come right up to me. That was the beginning of a very odd relationship. You couldnt pick the squirrel up, but you could call him out of the trees, whistle for him I think it was...and he would come, jump on your shoulder and I always had peanuts in hand waiting for him. I know it is common in big cities for squirrels to come right up and take food from you, but this was in a small little neighborhood.

Even then, I loved animals. I have always like them more than people. Growing up I never had a slew of friends...a pack to run with you might say. I had one or two close girlfriends. Sherry was my constant starting at the age of 13. We have been best friends ever since. She was there when I had my pet squirrel. I have some old pictures somewhere of this...I must find them to show on here.

I am going to close on this note for today. It was nice to sit and just ramble and remember some good memories from childhood. I have many more rolling around in this head of mine. One is of the visits to my aunt and uncles place on the Chattahoochie River...but that is for another day.

If you made it through and read all of todays entry...thanks for sticking around and hopefully it was at least mildly entertaining for you. If you could see the images in my head of the things I have spoke of today it would be even better. You may get a better idea of what it was like.

After Becky told me the name of her doll I decided to look up my old doll...it was a Baby Alive doll, above is a picture of the one from the 1970s I found when I googled images of the doll.