I suppose this weekend was the creative nudge I needed to start blogging again. I'm trying to write a book, and it's been taking up much of my writing time. Well I'm not trying, I am... but trying makes it sound like the entire thing can be a rough draft and a catalyst for further writing. So I'll leave it at that.
Talking with my family and laughing about all the funny stories of the past made me consider writing a post about me through the years.
I will spare my reader(s) and do one decade at time, my writing is similar to my the way I talk, and I really never shut up.
I will spare my reader(s) and do one decade at time, my writing is similar to my the way I talk, and I really never shut up.
Flash Back!
1980's
Too bad I was too young to really enjoy the full spectrum of 80's activities, but I still have fond memories. My younger years I was mostly concerned with swing sets, sand boxes, and... my pig tails. I would go into a frenzy if they were not on the exact same position on either side of my head and the same thickness, the bows also needed to have the same sized loops and ribbons.
But right around 3rd grade I got first my Jellies (bought from a bin at Ace Hardware in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho) started my love of 80's fashion. Shortly after I acquired a pair of Keds and the next thing I was all about stone washed jeans and banana clips. Nuff Said.
My favorite 80's toys and games: I had an Atari, and loved Frogger and Pong. Candyland is timeless, I will still play it with anyone when I get a chance. Strawberry Shortcake was my goddess, this is before her 2000's makeover of flowing pink hair and Mary-Janes. She used don a poofy bonnet over red ringlets, white pinafore and clunky brown shoes. I know my mother can't see past that pigtail little girl and probably why my mom still sends me Strawberry Shortcake things. (This is not a joke, she sent me a 3 ring binder to take to work... at the time I worked at the Ritz-Carlton. The visual makes me laugh hysterically.)
I eventually grew out of Strawberry Shortcake, and into Curious George.
I have a great mother who read to me often, and Curious George became my next hero. When I was 5 I had to have my tonsils removed over Christmas, she brought me Curious George Goes to the Hospital, and read to me while I ate ice cream and recovered. After that I had to have EVERY Curious George book I could get, I'd sit outside with my books and read. Mom recently sent me a Curious George lunch box. I really should bring that one to work. HA!!!
Books... ahh my books! Loved them, I started reading fairly young, I don't mean like See Spot Run. In kindergarten it was Curious George and Amelia Bedilia, 1st Grade Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary, Loved the Ramona books, 2nd Grade I took a trip to AZ we drove the 1300 miles and I discovered Charlotte's Web and Pippi Longstocking, 3rd Grade: Baby Sitter's Club, Sweet Valley High. Around 4th Grade I tried reading Clan of the Cavebear and The Hobbit... the Clan I didn't really get. But I do remember making it through The Hobbit. After 5th Grade I didn't read much YA Fiction, I got really into historical biographies, Queen Elizabeth, Joan of Arc, Helen Keller and Louisa May Alcott. Which turned into a whole different obsession with the classic love stories Austen for days. I'll stop here, now you'll see why my TV & Movie tributes lack content.
Mostly I was an outside kid. We moved around a lot so I was able to pick up different hobbies based on region. I started skiing in my hot pink and yellow ski suit when I was 7 and went some great places British Columbia Fairmont, Schweitzer, Big Sky... to name a few.
From 7-10 I was all about my horses. I had an Appaloosa (the ones with spots on their rump), I don't know what happened but my mom's husband did something and it caused the loss of someone else's horse and I was forced to give up Honeydew and give her away to the other person. BUT WAIT!! We had an Arabian and Quarter Horse that bred and were expecting a baby, so that was promised to me. She was a beautiful buckskin and I could spend hours braiding her fuzzy new mane and tail. I named her Motley Crudac (I couldn't decide between Motley Crew and AC/DC.) This is a great segue into music.
I grew up with brothers, two, one is 13 years older than me, so by the time I was 6 he was already enlisted in the Army, my other brother is 5 years older than me. I got most my musical influences from them. I remember the first tape I ever received was Michael Jackson's Thriller. I hated it. Sorry to the MJ fans out there. But one day, I was watching this VHS we had that was a 3 hour recording of MTV, we lived too far out in the country to get cable so this was all I had. While watching my VHS Hungry Like the Wolf came on, and I had my first crush. We had a big screen TV in the basement and I fell deeply in love with Simon Le Bon... I believe, I was actually busted kissing him on the TV. Look at this face, what 8 year old could resist? Ha!!
But right around 3rd grade I got first my Jellies (bought from a bin at Ace Hardware in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho) started my love of 80's fashion. Shortly after I acquired a pair of Keds and the next thing I was all about stone washed jeans and banana clips. Nuff Said.
My favorite 80's toys and games: I had an Atari, and loved Frogger and Pong. Candyland is timeless, I will still play it with anyone when I get a chance. Strawberry Shortcake was my goddess, this is before her 2000's makeover of flowing pink hair and Mary-Janes. She used don a poofy bonnet over red ringlets, white pinafore and clunky brown shoes. I know my mother can't see past that pigtail little girl and probably why my mom still sends me Strawberry Shortcake things. (This is not a joke, she sent me a 3 ring binder to take to work... at the time I worked at the Ritz-Carlton. The visual makes me laugh hysterically.)I eventually grew out of Strawberry Shortcake, and into Curious George.
I have a great mother who read to me often, and Curious George became my next hero. When I was 5 I had to have my tonsils removed over Christmas, she brought me Curious George Goes to the Hospital, and read to me while I ate ice cream and recovered. After that I had to have EVERY Curious George book I could get, I'd sit outside with my books and read. Mom recently sent me a Curious George lunch box. I really should bring that one to work. HA!!!
Books... ahh my books! Loved them, I started reading fairly young, I don't mean like See Spot Run. In kindergarten it was Curious George and Amelia Bedilia, 1st Grade Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary, Loved the Ramona books, 2nd Grade I took a trip to AZ we drove the 1300 miles and I discovered Charlotte's Web and Pippi Longstocking, 3rd Grade: Baby Sitter's Club, Sweet Valley High. Around 4th Grade I tried reading Clan of the Cavebear and The Hobbit... the Clan I didn't really get. But I do remember making it through The Hobbit. After 5th Grade I didn't read much YA Fiction, I got really into historical biographies, Queen Elizabeth, Joan of Arc, Helen Keller and Louisa May Alcott. Which turned into a whole different obsession with the classic love stories Austen for days. I'll stop here, now you'll see why my TV & Movie tributes lack content.
Mostly I was an outside kid. We moved around a lot so I was able to pick up different hobbies based on region. I started skiing in my hot pink and yellow ski suit when I was 7 and went some great places British Columbia Fairmont, Schweitzer, Big Sky... to name a few.
From 7-10 I was all about my horses. I had an Appaloosa (the ones with spots on their rump), I don't know what happened but my mom's husband did something and it caused the loss of someone else's horse and I was forced to give up Honeydew and give her away to the other person. BUT WAIT!! We had an Arabian and Quarter Horse that bred and were expecting a baby, so that was promised to me. She was a beautiful buckskin and I could spend hours braiding her fuzzy new mane and tail. I named her Motley Crudac (I couldn't decide between Motley Crew and AC/DC.) This is a great segue into music.
I grew up with brothers, two, one is 13 years older than me, so by the time I was 6 he was already enlisted in the Army, my other brother is 5 years older than me. I got most my musical influences from them. I remember the first tape I ever received was Michael Jackson's Thriller. I hated it. Sorry to the MJ fans out there. But one day, I was watching this VHS we had that was a 3 hour recording of MTV, we lived too far out in the country to get cable so this was all I had. While watching my VHS Hungry Like the Wolf came on, and I had my first crush. We had a big screen TV in the basement and I fell deeply in love with Simon Le Bon... I believe, I was actually busted kissing him on the TV. Look at this face, what 8 year old could resist? Ha!!
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| SMOOOCHES! |
By the time I was 10 my brother moved to live with my dad, so it was just me and my mom, she's an old hippie (reference CCR & Stevie Nicks), it was a good time for me and her. Helped me figure out that there was a world beyond Fraggle Rock, and my Halloween costumes went from He-Man and Thunder Cats to Princesses and early 80's Madonna, who by this time had moved from crimped hair to the boy cut and pointy boobs.
The final year of the 80's I was finally able to start testing make up, and I loved my electric blue mascara, to wear with my Electric Youth perfume. Yes, I went through a Debbie Gibson look-alike phase and it was nothing but hats, vests, blazers and skinny jeans for a year.
Now I realize I left out most mention of TV & Movies, which I have to tackle. Maybe for the 90's I will do a bulleted list and less narrative, probably not. HA! So as a youngin' I wasn't a huge TV or Movie buff, like I said, I was usually outside playing in the dirt, riding horses and shooting guns or reading a book. (I lived 12 miles outside a town of 800 people on an 80K Acre Ranch.) Not a lot of options, no cable. But I did have the VHS of Duran Duran... *Kiss*Kiss* But occasionally, when at my Grandma's house, I watched HBO Fraggle Rock was my fave.
Eventually, I did move towards civilization and lived only 8 miles from Bonners Ferry, Idaho; population 2000, I actually think I was closer to Canada than Bonners Ferry. They had traffic lights! No joke, I was thrilled! We had an antenna for local TV and a Satellite Dish. If you are too young to remember the old satellites, you're missing out! Once I was able to, I watched more cable and our enormous city had a video store, crazy, I know!
Then there were the life changers, I saw Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Dirty Dancing and Teen Witch. I think I've seen those movies 1000 times at least.
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Girls Just Want to Have Fun is my ALL TIME FAVE!! My cousin and I would take turns being Janey and Lynne and quote the entire movie.
At the time I didn't know what that meant, I assumed she was referring to the two dinosaur clips on the top of her hair.
Now Teen Witch, there's this scene and I'm pretty sure I can still say it word for word. It's a rap scene, "Top That!" Occasionally I will say "Top that!" and fold my arms, and later realize the person, likely has no clue what I'm referencing. For your viewing pleasure:
Well, with that beautiful number stuck in your head, I'm done with my not so brief 80's tribute. Next will be the 90's, that was my decade, so I will definitely have to figure out a way to streamline. :-)
