Personal History Challenge: Early Childhood

Like I said in my earlier post, I was born and raised in Kentucky. Growing up in that house was fun. What I remember the most would be playing in the yard, playing Barbies with my sisters, and playing with friends, and pedaling bikes, riding scooters (just the kind you push with your foot), and taking walks up and down our street.

Lydia was my first best friend. She lived in a house down the street from me. I remember often walking down the street to go to her house and play, especially on the swing set. It was so fun having a best friend right down the street from me. At first, we went to the same elementary school together as well. We rode the bus together. One of my first memories of us is waiting for the bus to go to Kindergarten. We were both scared and nervous, but excited as well. Later, they moved to a bigger house so they could have more space and own horses. Their new house was not too far down the road, maybe 5-10 minutes. I still came over to their house a good amount after they moved. I loved playing with their dogs, cats, and bunny, as well as feeding, petting, and riding their horses. Over time, life has caught up with us, but I still enjoy catching up every now and then with this sweet girl. She has such a good sense of humor that I love to see through her Facebook posts and pictures.

I feel like a house is so much more fun growing up when you have pets. I, myself had a yellow pet parakeet named Tickles. At one time, we had 3 cats, a dog, 2 parakeets, a hamster, and fish. My sister had a bunny at one time as well. The cats names were Stripes (black,brown, and tan stripes), Cotton (all white), and Sage (all grey). Our dog was a cocker spaniel named Lady. She had golden fur and looked like Lady from Lady and the Tramp, but we named her that before the movie came out. I remember we were so excited when that movie came out, though. I don't remember any names for the bunny, hamster, or the fish. The parakeets were named Joice (green, yellow, and white, with a blue tail) and Tickles (all yellow except for blue dots on his cheeks).

My sister Jenny got Tickles for me for my 8th birthday, I believe. I named him that because of the way his feet tickled my me when he would walk on my arm. He was a fun bird to have, but he was sure loud and messy. He liked to wake up really early in the morning and tweet like crazy. He also enjoyed going to the bottom of the cage and flapping his wings, causing feathers, seeds, and poo to fly all over the place. I liked holding him, but more than that I liked closing my door to our room and letting him fly around. His wings were clipped initially when we got him, but I didn't have the heart to have them clipped after that. I thought it would make him sad, or hurt him, and I thought birds were meant to fly, so his wings stayed un-clipped from then on.

My little buddy, Tickles

One day, the window was cracked open to let in a little air, and Tickles climbed out the window, up the screen, and flew out the corner of the screen that was detached. I thought he was long gone, so my mom took me to the pet store to get another bird. My favorite lunch lady at school was named Joice, so that is where I got the name for my bird. Funny how kids get their names for pets, huh?

When we got home, I saw Carl, my brother, outside. He had spotted tickles in a nearby tree. After chasing him around the neighborhood a bit, Carl finally caught him in the lilac tree next to our porch. So, that's how we ended up with two birds. To make it fair, since Renee didn't have her own pet yet, we agreed Joice would be hers, since I still had Tickles.

In the 1st grade, I made my second best friend, Michelle. I actually don't remember how we met or became friends in the first place. (My "mommy" brain has gotten the best of my memory these days. I guess it's a good thing I'm typing these things up sooner than later, before my memory gets any worse, haha!) I think we were in the same class, with Mrs. Owen. What I do remember is that once we became friends, we were pretty much inseparable for a good number of years. We both have a love for animals, and I remember both of us collecting Beanie Babies and showing each other which ones we had. We both loved the cats, especially. I remember her saying how much she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grows up, and that's exactly what she's working on and going to school for today. Talk about being determined and following your dreams! I think she's the only one I know who actually is going to end up doing and being what she wanted to be as a kid. The rest of us crazy people, including me, have changed our minds a billion times before we come up with something we figure we'll stick with.

I remember I got her and I butterfly, mood-color-changing, best friend necklaces. I still have that necklace in my stash of old jewelry somewhere. Even though it looks pretty old by now and it's not something that's in my fashion sense that I would wear these days, but I can't part with it because it has too many good memories attached to it. Although our friendship has become closer, more distant, closer again, more distant, etc. over time, I still love seeing updates of her life online and getting to chat every now and then. She's a great, sweet, hardworking, funny girl, and I hope we can continue to catch up with each other, every now and then, over time and just stay in touch.