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Mum likes reading, decorating, shopping with the girls, and Starbucks. She also feels funny writing in the 3rd person. Papa (also known as Sparky) is currently looking at me with a blank stare having asked him to add something about himself to the blog. (Now he wants to say something) The only thing he loves more in life than music and Coke is his wife and kids. (Awww...) :) Little Lotte is a genius on the computer and makes me fall over laughing every day with her quick wit. She loves computers and animals. Sweet Pea abandoned her family and moved to Phoenix for work and is now married as of 2/28/06. She is beautiful and smart and the most nurturing person I know. She gave me the greatest gift ever when she made me a grandmother. I am the proud Mum Mum to Andrew Christopher. There are no words to describe the joy of having a grandson!

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Missing all things Pennsylvanian


I don't have many pictures of me as a child. The fact that we were very poor, (the rich people lived in the "projects" -- we couldn't afford that), my mother had cancer, (twice, she survived the first bout and lived for another 28 years), my mother didn't marry my father until I was 10, (she was still married to her first husband and I dunno what the story is there, really), I lived in the murder capitol of the world (Chester, Pa.) and the fact that my mom was probably too busy dodging bullets to take pictures MAY have something to do with the lack of childhood pictures I possess.

But here is one of maybe a dozen pictures of me as a child that I DO have. It was taken in the yard of a house that was rented by my Aunt Cora and her family. My mother is the woman in the photo. There are three girls in front of her. My cousin, Cheryl, my half sister, Jeannie, and me. I LOVE this picture for so many reasons. One being, where did I get those glasses and that purse? I LOVE how HAPPY I am in this photo. This picture sums up my whole personality. I DELIGHT in the little things in life that make one happy.

Everytime I look at this photo I am instantly flooded with memories. My cousin Cheryl and I were constant playmates. She had GRASS in her backyard. The house was rented but it was H-U-G-E. It had an UPSTAIRS. IT had more than three rooms! I lived in a tiny apartment with my parents that had a livingroom, bedroom, and a kitchen. I couldn't believe my cousin had her own bedroom and she had 4 other siblings living with her! She had an Easy-Bake oven. She had a baton and a scooter. She taught me how to take a glass jar and use an icepick to poke holes in the lid. This was our habitat for the lightning bugs we would catch on summer nights. After we got tired of them lighting up the jar, we would take them out of the jar and remove their little lights (I AM SICK just THINKING about that!) and make little "light rings" for our fingers.

Later, my cousin would teach me about smoking and french kissing. (I inhaled deeply and promptly blacked out -- never picked up a cigarette again) and as for the kissing, Sparky is the unfortunate benefactor of my first attempt at locking tongues. I think I almost pushed him over -- no one mentioned how much BALANCE it would take!

Eventually, my cousin and her family moved from that house. They moved out of Chester into another rented home in Prospect Park, Pa. The house is no longer there. It's been torn down along with every other building I remember or lived in as a child. But I've still got this picture. And today I have another really great pair of fancy sunglassess and an equally cool purse. All is well with the world. :)

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