Happy Earth Day!

Do you remember doing these activities on Earth Day? Ah nostalgia and to be little again.
Thanks Christine for the photos!

K Through 6

Elementary School Grades K-6

When I drive in to Tucson, I like taking the long and windy (as in road, not weather) way in so that I can pass all the places that bring back memories. Last weekend, I drove past my old elementary school and stopped to walk Dookie and take some pictures. It really has changed a lot. Jenni, if you didn't get to stop by during your visit, I hope at least you, Joe and your mom can appreciate these pictures and post.

Looking North: The Little-Kids' Playground

There were two playgrounds at Whitmore. The one at the back of the school was for the 'big kids'. The big kids' playground had kickball fields, separate basketball courts, a giant jungle gym for climbing and bars up to 10 feet high. The photos here are of the playground for grades K through 3 and is still the same, more or less. They have added shade coverings over the equipment because the Arizona sun can make the metal super hot and I recall burning my hands and backs of my legs on the swings. In this sandbox, we used to look for sand rubies and 'tornado bugs'. You know, the bugs that burrow in the sand and make a hole that looks like a tornado. In second grade, I got my first kiss from Timothy Gustofson (a first grader) while hanging upside down on the bars. I made my pinky fingernail black by jamming it in the gate, and sucked the nectar out of little purple flowers in the field. The field is now a parking lot and there are 'portable' classrooms where the little-kids' soccer field used to be.

Me on the Monkey Bars, 1980

Looking South: Playground and Main Building

Looking South:
The Bar, Monkey Bars and Greenberg's Portable

In the distance is the building where Mr Greenberg's sixth grade class was held. We called it a 'portable' but it really wasn't. It was a lone building in the back of the school property that looked like it was somebody's house at one time. My Kindergarten class was also taught in this building before they moved it and the G.A.T.E. class to the main building. The 'portable' had a porch and a gated 'yard' with tot-sized playground equipment. I met my very first friend on this playground during the afternoon session of Kindergarten. We both picked the same concrete tunnel to play in. She was skinny and was wearing purple tights and introduced herself as 'Lia'. I remembered her as Leotard.

The Cafeteria

The lunch room was the place where the net-headed 'lunch ladies' could hook you up with chocolate milk, mac & cheese, salty canned green beans and steakette patties. This was an entre that I would keep a look out for on the menu-calendar. On the days I brought my lunch, it would come packed (by Gramma, no doubt) in my metal Disneyland lunch box that had a picture of the castle and a flying Dumbo. Christine had a plastic Little House of the Prairie lunch box of which I was envious. The smell of lukewarm, hours-old milk still reminds me of sitting at lunch and drinking from my thermos. While we sat eating our food the janitor, Mr Karcher, would sneak up behind the kids and tip our chairs back and up really fast to try to get a scream and a laugh. Everyone always wished that they would be next. The cafeteria was also the staging area for ice cream socials, concerts, dances, after school activities and summer 'rec'.

While I was walking along the front of the cafeteria I remembered our first principal, Mr Rhodes, and decided to make him my next entry in Project *x365. He was probably in his late fifties, was balding, had a little beard and glasses. I remember that he was very nice, not scary at all (for a principal) and was fun to be around. If you were a Girl Scout, he referred to you as a 'Sprout'. He used to gather us up, sit with us on the steps to the stage in the cafeteria and sing songs. The one that sticks in my mind is the one about the bear. It's a repetitive song, so it was easy for us kids to sing along. He would sing a line and we would repeat it. Then, as a group, we would sing all of the lines in that verse together.
No where in the song does it mention it but, in my memory, the bear wore tennis shoes and/or came from Tennessee ("I met a bear... In tennis shoes" or "I met a bear... From Tennessee.") At the time, I was in kindergarten and Laura was in sixth grade, so maybe she can shed some light on why I remember it that way. Anyway, I found the lyrics via Google. Have I mentioned how much I love Google?

I Met a Bear

The other day (The other day)
I met a bear (I met a bear)
A great big bear (A great big bear)
Away up there (Away up there)

The other day I met a bear,
A great big bear a way up there!

He looked at me (He looked at me)
I looked at him (I looked at him)
He sized up me (He sized up me)
I sized up him (I sized up him)

He looked at me, I looked at him,
He sized up me, I sized up him!

He said to me (He said to me)
Why don't you run? (Why don't you run?)
I see you ain't (I see you ain't)
Got any gun (Got any gun")

He said to me, "Why don't you run?
I see you ain't got any gun!"

And so I ran (And so I ran)
Away from there (Away from there)
And right behind (And right behind)
Me was that bear (Me was that bear)

And so I ran away from there,
And right behind me was that bear!

Ahead of me (Ahead of me)
I saw a tree (I saw a tree)
A great big tree (A great big tree)
Oh, golly gee! (Oh, golly gee!)

Ahead of me there was a tree,
A great big tree, oh, golly gee!

The lowest branch (The lowest branch)
Was ten feet up (Was ten feet up)
I had to jump (I had to jump)
And trust my luck (And trust my luck)

The lowest branch was ten feet up,
I had to jump and trust my luck!

And so I jumped (And so I jumped)
Into the air (Into the air)
And missed that branch (And missed that branch)
Away up there (Away up there)

And so I jumped into the air
And missed that branch away up there!

Now don't you fret (Now don't you fret)
And don't you frown (And don't you frown)
I caught that branch (I caught that branch)
On the way back down (On the way back down)

Now don't you fret and don't you frown
I caught that branch on the way back down!

That's all there is (That's all there is)
There is no more (There is no more)
Until I meet (Until I meet)
That bear once more (That bear once more)

That's all there is, there is no more,
Until I meet that bear once more.

The end, the end (The end, the end)
The end, the end (The end, the end)
The end, the end (The end, the end)
The end, the end (The end, the end)

The end, the end, the end, the end,
This time it really is the end*!





*of the song and of this post

A Gramma Mary Moment

When I was six, Christine had a friend named Emily and Emily had everything. Going to her house to spend the night was like going to Disney Land (or China, where they make all of the things we envied). Hello Kitty, Little Twin Star, Atari, you name it. She even had a fluffy-headed stuffed animal named Frou Frou. When you shook her head (in the most loving and affectionate way, of course) her soft, pretty pink hair would stand up all over. Every little girl's Must Have. After much begging, pleading and the donation of our left kidneys, our parents decided that we too deserved our own Frou Frous. So, they talked to Santa and he was was given consent to leave, under the tree, a pink headed white headed Frou Frou for Christine and a blue-headed Frou Frou for me.
It was not long after we got our fluffy headed Froufs that we discovered putting baby powder in their hair was too much fun! A little shake of powder went a long way. A half a bottle would make it into the next room, at least.
We stayed at Gramma Mary's one weekend and were having our usual fantabulous Frou Frou fun when Gramma came in and took the powder away, telling us, "You're going to give yourselves asthma!"

*** UPDATE***

For those of you who were wondering, this is a Frou Frou Doll.
(Gotta love Google)

Frou Frou, Made by Dakin.

Aromatherapy

After the Rain, Tucson Arizona

Out of the blue, you may be walking through the market or down the street and catch a scent and suddenly be transported to a time in your life that could not have been brought back more powerfully by any other means.
One thing that I have observed while taking the time to think of certain scents and the memories they conjure, is that I can not recall a bad thought or negative feeling associated with scents that caused me to remember and reflect. Anytime this has happened, I am filled with nostalgia and wanting. I yearn to be back 'there' for just for a moment, to feel how I felt at that time.

This meme is courtesy of Sandi.

Throughout childhood and even adulthood certain people always smelled different to us, what scents remind you of a loved one?
When we were little mom always smelled of cinnamon gum. Her purse was filled with all of the things that my sisters and I could ever need. To use her handkerchief or tissue meant you would get an extra big whiff of cinnamon Trident Dentyne.
Stetson cologne reminds me of getting ready for church on Sunday mornings. My dad would splash on a little just before leaving. On the way there the air in the car would be filled with the smell of my dad.

Are there any scents that remind you of a certain place or time in your life?
Every now and then I'll smell something in the air that brings me back to elementary school. Specifically, I recall sitting on that big, spiral-woven rug listening to stories told by my teachers. It's frustrating that I can not put my finger on what the scent is but instantly I am transported back there.
The smell of a coming storm and the smell after the rain can bring me back to a few different places and times, depending on the time of year. I remember the park, long walks, deep talks, lots of laughs, teasing, playing and chasing. Kissing and dancing, after the rain.

What are some comforting smells for you?
With a click and a bang, the heater turns on and the air is filled with warm memories of snuggling under my Gramma's afghans and not ever wanting to get out of bed.
My mom is in the kitchen, the sounds of football are coming from the family room. The air outside has turned cool with the arrival of fall. The smell of a turkey cooking in the oven instantly brings me home to Tucson.
Cookies baking reminds me of winter, a warm kitchen, Gramma Marcy, her Melting Moments and stealing hot, gooey cookies cooling on the table.
The smell of the warm, wet air after a monsoon rain in Tucson reminds me of Gramma Mary's house. I remember the cold, damp from her swamp cooler and the cicadas buzzing in the trees outside. I don't know if its the soil, the Creosote or the Desert Broom that gives the air its distinct smell but there is nothing like it that brings me back to Tucson, to Gramma Mary's and Home.

What are some of your favorite scents/smells?
I love the smell of rain, a new book, fresh coffee, popcorn, fresh baked bread, Pier One, Victoria's Secret grape lip gloss...

Do you use any form of aromatherapy in your home or throughout the day?
There are scented candles in my living room and incense in the kitchen and bathrooms.
See SPF: Fresh.

If you had to describe yourself as a scent (or combination), what scents would you be?
I would love my favorites to describe me: Melting Moments and a Tucson Rain.

Project *x365

I come across some pretty cool posts and interesting ideas when reading other people's blogs. Today, I was over at Schmutzie's site and found a link to the *x365 project. This guy decided, when he turned 40, that he would make a list of 365 people he has encountered in his lifetime. He wanted to write about each person, in 40 words- no more, no less, each day of the year, and take "a year long journey" through his life.

I think this is such a great idea to recall those people, who may be just a fleeting memory, who have made some impact in our lives. Every person we encounter makes something of an impression on us but certain people do so in a way that causes us to remember them for one reason or another. I have decided to participate in the project and am in the process of compiling my list of people, which is not as easy a task as it would sound, according to the *x365 mastermind. I created a page so that I can keep track of my own project's progress.

If you are interested in finding out how this project was started and how you can participate, please visit the *x365 website.

Why, Hello There!

and... manamana! DO-DO-BEE-DO-DO!





: )

SPF: Rainbows

Color, originally uploaded by scoobers1.

This week Miss Kristine said she would like us to show her a rainbow.

This rainbow sits, neglected, on the easel in my dining room. It beckons but I simply ignore it since the last disaster. When I get over the hideousness of the thing I created I shall give it another shot. Until then, the easel, the palette... my rainbow of colors shall remain an accent piece, unused.

Since reading the subject of this week's assignment, I have a song stuck in my head and it will not go away. It's not completely unrelated because the original version does mention rainbows. However, it's the angry version that I have stuck in my mind, for some reason.
Remember those clapping games we girls used to play at recess?
Bo-Bo-Ski-Watten-Tatten? Miss Mary Mack? Miss Lucy (had a steamboat)? Yes, I know you are all singing them in your heads now. You're welcome.

We used to sing one at the YMCA that went something like this:

Say-Say oh play mate
Come out and play with me.
And bring your dollies three,
Climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rainbow,
Into my cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more. More. One, two, three, four!

We used to follow it up with this little ditty,

Say say oh enemy
Come out and fight with me
And bring your pistols three
Climb up my thorny tree

Slide down my razor blade
Into my dungeon door
And we'll be enemies
Forevermore - More - More, One, two, three, four!

Nice, eh? Did you play?

My Childhood Home

Me, Laura & Christine, in front of our house

We moved from Illinois to Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 1976, when I turned three years old. Grandma Mary, my mom's mom, had lived there for a few years and we stayed with her until my parents bought the three bedroom house on Towner Street.

Turning '3' at Gramma Mary's House

Exercises with Gramma

The Interior

Mommy and Daddy made a pretty, cozy, 1970's home. Each room was painted a different color that was no doubt inspired by the times. We had a lime green living room; a yellow kitchen with an orange vinyl diner booth; yellow, pink and orange bedrooms; and a bathroom wallpapered in bamboo with orange beaded window treatments. The best thing about the bathroom, hands down, was the toilet seat cover that was the color of golden-rod with a picture of an owl on the inside lid. My mom collected owls at the time and they were everywhere! We used to play 'Bloody Mary' in the bathroom mirror with the lights off. We also used it to make 'The Haunted House of Horrors', where we tape recorded SCARY sounds and screams, then guide one another through.

Carving Pumpkins

That's me in The Bamboo Bathroom

Despite disciplinary actions, my sisters and I were notorious for leaving chewed gum on tables, not putting our dishes away and spilling various dark juices just about everywhere, including behind end tables and couches. In order to protect the carpeting we had large, shag area rugs in the colors of rust-brown and lime green. Lime green was apparently a popular shade back then.
We were not a family that ate at the dinner table. Instead, we would all park ourselves in front of the television to watch holiday claymation shows and the annual broadcast of 'The Wizard of Oz'. My parents & Grandma Marcy sat in their respective recliners and the girls on the shag carpets with our TV trays.
Grandma Marcy, my dad's mom, used to fly out during the fall and we got to keep her all through the holidays! She was an expert crocheter, UNO player, puzzler and cookie maker. Peanut butter and "Melting Moments" were her forte, as I recall. After my parents bought their own chairs, she had dibs on the olive green, rocking recliner with the vibrating back massager. We used to sit in her lap and she'd do "the spider" and we'd play with the "worms" on her hands. I loved rocking in that chair with her.

Christine and Gramma Marcy in the chair

My dad and us in the chair

Gramma Marcy in the kitchen

We were left in Gramma Marcy's charge when my parents went to work. Me and my sisters would stand on the couch in the front window and wave to my parents when they left in the morning. The big blue Chevy Impala would back down the driveway, pull out into the street and they would honk at us waving, smiling kids. Every morning she would have breakfast on the table. To my mother's disdain, Gramma would pour our cereal, sprinkle the sugar and pour the milk. She would also pick up after us, make our beds and give us pretty much what we wanted. She spoiled us rotten and made us lazier children, in the eyes of my mom. Don't get me wrong, Gramma could put her foot down when she needed to but this is how I choose to remember it.
Our dining room & living room have hosted many holiday meals, birthday parties and sleep overs. They have doubled as a stage for dance routines, plays, magic shows and housed blanket forts. Our dining room table was where we would play Trivia and help Gramma with her puzzles.

The Nativity Scene, 1978

Birthday Sleep-over, 1985

Our bedroom saw many changes through childhood and adolescence. Laura, being the oldest, had her own room (the pink one). Christine and I shared. It was a love-hate relationship between two girls, only eleven months apart. My parents painted it yellow and decorated it in a Raggedy Ann motif. There were two poodle lamps that changed colors whenever the walls got a new coat of paint.
I recall a few broken windows (I'll have to ask C about the details, but there was a rubber alligator involved), playing tennis with apples against the wall and a Bandaid that stayed stuck to the ceiling for at least 10 years.

Our room.

Laura moved out after high school and Christine and I immediately moved into separate rooms. This didn't last very long and crisis struck the household when Laura decided to move back in. There was no way either of us were giving up our own room. The solution? We moved all three beds into one room and everything else to the other, dubbed 'the hole'. This was where I sat to listen to music and do my homework in High School. It was also where most of my friends snuck in to visit 'after hours'. The arrangement worked out pretty well and we lived this way in relative harmony until Laura got married and moved out. I was so sad that day. I laid on the couch in 'the hole' and cried. I was sad because she wasn't just moving out, she was moving to California. My big sister would be so far away.
But, just like everything else, life moved on and Christine and I had our rooms back.

Our Backyard
Our backyard was a haven for little kids. The tree house was its best feature. My sisters and friends played up there and in the sandbox beneath it, slid down the 'fireman's pole' and pushed each other on the swing. The mulberry tree that it lived in would shed its leaves every fall. We would rake them up and jump in them until they were spread over the yard again. Once, Christine was running in the tree house and fell through the trap door (see 'Walking Catastropies' picture below).

Us Three In the Tree

Daddy also put up a swing set for us. This was not your average backyard, chinsey, plastic swing-set. It was big, heavy, metal and looked like something you'd find in a school playground. Or maybe I was just little and it seemed big. Anyway, one day, I decided I wanted to swing by my legs from the very top. Of course, down I came, face first. It's amazing that, to this day, I have not broken my head or any bones (*knocking on wood right now*). Again... see "Walking Catastropies" picture below.
I believe that Laura got beamed in the chin with a soccer ball. Just look at us. Is it really less stressful to have three girls rather than three boys? I wonder.

"Walking Catastrophies"

When we first moved in, there was no pool and would walk to Ft. Lowell Park to swim in the community pool. Later, my parents installed an above ground swimming pool in the shape of a circle. At birthday parties, my sister and friends would all swim in the same direction to make a whirlpool and then let the water carry us around and watch whatever dirt/grass/bugs there were gather in the center. Marco Polo was also a favorite past time but the 'fish out of water' part was a bit difficult. I recall, a few times, standing on that teetery white ledge and toppling over onto to the grass/gravel and laughing the whole time.

In the pool. In Daddy's socks.

Warming up in Gramma's afghan.

The yard started off pretty barren. Lots of gravel, dirt, prickly pear. My parents worked hard to make it look lovely and inviting. My mom has always had a way with Things Green and produced a wonderful garden. She had a grapevine, that yielded laundry baskets full. We harvested olives from the trees in the front yard. Strawberries, tomatoes, watermelons were some of my favorite things. She also grew things I did not particularly like to eat; like dill, zucchini and cauliflower. Check this out:

The Green Thumb, My Mom

During my teenage years, certain friends and I would be overcome by springtime and find it impossible to stay at school. We would come back home after lunch, swim in the pool and sunbathe on the roof. By that time, the mulberry tree had died and the treehouse taken down. I remembered I cried the day my dad took a chainsaw to it, telling us it was just unsafe and unsightly to keep. New trees went up in its place and have since grown into canopies that give us shade when we sit outside, watch basketball games and have BBQ's.

I guess that I am lucky because my parents still live in the same house that me and my sisters grew up in. Even now, when I visit and sleep in my room (now the sewing room) I feel the comfort I did as a kid. I hear the rain on the roof, the click the heater makes when it turns on in the middle of the night or the smell of the swamp cooler. The door way where we marked everybody's height through the years (family, friends, boyfriends, etc.) is still there and is the only part of the wall by the kitchen that did not get a new coat of paint during the remodel. Thanks, Mommy and Daddy.

The house looks a bit different now but continues to overflow with new memories. It still has the same red fence, two big olive trees and gravel driveway out front. Now, my parents wave as I drive away. I honk my horn, wave back and tear up a little each time I go.


*****



*** If you want to participate, please visit Owlhaven, and leave a link to your post. I'd love to learn about the childhood homes that shaped who you are today.

Tagged with a Music Meme...

Little Pink Houses for You and Me

... and feeling nostalgic!

First of all, I had to look up the word, "meme":

meme (mēm)
n.

A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

I'm not sure if this definition covers what is going on when one 'tags' another with a blog post but here it is anyway.

1. Name between 5 & 10 songs that have made an impact on your life. I'll leave it up to you to decide how many you wish to describe.
2. Pass it onto five other people with a link back to your own post and this one as the original.

Only ten?! Where do I even begin? ok... I know... Memories. Most of the songs that cause an emotional response, of some sort, have a memory attached to them. Funny how most of the songs are from days long gone. I tell you... they just don't make music like they used to. Is that the truth or does that mean I'm old now?
Here are some of the songs that can still bring me back to the moment:

• "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd: This has always been one of those songs I could listen to over and over on my headphones. Some how it makes me feel just that... comfortably numb. Memory association with this one... we camped out in the mountains and I could hear this song echoing through the darkness. Perfect.
  
• "Yesterday" by The Beatles: My friends and I were influenced early by 'Ch's' dad, 'GWM'. He was a Beatles fanatic and was hell bent on turning us into fans too. He succeeded. We would sit on her living room floor after school and play his records. Sentimental, emotional teens we were. We laid in the middle of the floor and sang this again and again, sometimes tearing up. Oh... what we thought we knew about "yesterday" back then. If only I could have a word with those girls.
  
• "Love Song" by Tesla: I remember the very first time I heard this song. We were sitting in geometry class in HS. 'Bill Sam' handed me his Walkman and told me to listen. I fell in love with the song right there during the guitar intro. It has remained one of my all time favorites and has become my personal ballad of late.
  
• "Hysteria" by Def Leppard: There are so many years and people associated with this one but if any one song could transport me back to a specific time and place, this is it. It was graduation night and my ex-boyfriend and I went back to the football field for one last time in the middle of the night. He brought his radio with him and played "Hysteria". We cried and danced on the field knowing our high school days were over. I'm still a major Def Leppard fan and went to the concert last year. We are planning on going to the September 2007 one, as well and I can't wait!
  
• "My Old Friend" by Tim McGraw: This is a fairly new song, but in keeping with the nostalgic flow of this post, I will tell you that it makes me think of certain people I have lost contact with. Some make me sad. Time goes on. We all move on. But memories linger and will stay as long as I keep sane in my old age.
  
• "Come Softly" by The Fleetwoods: My sisters and I used to play my parent's records on their old HiFi record player. The Fleetwoods' Mr Blue .33 was one of my favorites. It made me look at my mom and dad fondly. It still does.
  
• "These Are the Days" by Van Morrison: My sister and I sat in my car up on top of Mt. Lemmon. We just sat and talked while it rained and this song played. "There is no past. There's only future. There's only here. There's only now."
  
• "Sad Songs Say So Much" by Elton John: I can't help it. Fun songs are great but the sad ones are the best!
  
• "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet: Anyone who knows me at all will tell you that there is no place that I would rather be than Mexico. Warm sun, cool breeze, flip flops, Dos Equis and friends. Muchos recuerdos maravillosos!
  
• "Small Town" by John Cougar Mellencamp: Anything Mellencamp will bring back great memories of a more simple time in life. Long, hot summers full of friends, birthdays, swimming, parks, dancing and just plain good times. I visited with one of these friends a few days ago. It has been ten years. Been too long, Jenni. It was great to see you!

I tag the following five people:
Jenni
Christine
Borracho
Jana
Kim

I hope you guys respond because I would really love to hear what you have to say. : ) Email, blog, bulletin... I don't care.
Anyone else who would like to partake in music nostalgia, leave a comment!
GawdMom? Mommy? C? L?