Childhood Nostalgia (sigh)

[[Syl]]

Peeling carrots. My grandmother owned a restaurant in Fernley, NV called the Mill House. The building's still there, though it's gone by many other names since. I even worked there as a teenager washing dishes when it was under the name of Buffalo Bill's. But the satisfaction of minimum wage was nothing like being given the important task of peeling the carrots. I loved the fact that I could eat prime rib, my favorite food, just about every night, even after I choked on a piece of fat (to this day, I can't stand a piece of fat on my meat). The au jus was the best part.

Some mornings or afternoons I'd spend the day with Les Sarasola, an old cowboy and friend of the family that lived in the house behind my grandmother's. We'd drive out in the mornings to feed hay to the horses. He always had saltwater taffy. I remember he liked to drink buttermilk, and trying it once, I had no idea why. Sometimes we'd play a game of horseshoes out front, and sometimes we'd read cowboy poetry.

My dog Willie, part golden lab and part golden shepherd, and I would go on long walks through empty fields. I remember being lost and not really caring because I knew I'd find my way back if I just walked long enough. After Willie had to be put down because his arthritis was so bad, I'd spend about half an hour a lot of days just talking to him at his grave in the backyard, then another half hour or so talking to the lizard that would come out and sun himself on the brick that ran around the house.

There was also a garden back there. Tomatoes, radishes, and a lot of corn. It was hard waiting until they were ripe to pick them. I remember being pretty mad that an early frost took it out one year, but the tomato fight my cousins and I had might have been worth it.

There was a huge yard in the front and another in the back. The old riding lawn-mower my grandfather used to mow it with and which I vaguely remember my Uncle Dan using a few times sat mostly unused in the garage. The grass grew long and green, which is an accomplishment in that climate (as was proven by the bare dirt that sat in its place years later when we moved back). We had well water, so we watered the lawn by pumping water out of the ditch which ran through the front of the property. The pump was an old diesel beast in a small shack. Each time we watered the lawn (irrigated would be more accurate) we had to hook up these long aluminum pipes that fit together to run the whole length of the yard. Man, they were fun to play in.

So was that ditch. When it was running, my brother and I would throw sticks or whatever we could find into and race along it as far as possible. One time I took a soda can and tied a long piece of yarn to the tab and tossed it in at the upstream end of the culvert. I called my brother over and convinced him I caught a fish, pulling on the can near the surface to make it look like a struggle. When we were a little older, we'd wade around in it, though the irrigation water wasn't exactly clean. And one time I found an abandoned piece of insulation and floated a good quarter of a mile or so. Probably would've made it farther if I hadn't tried standing up and surfing, cracking the insulation down the middle. When there wasn't any water in it, the culvert was a nice, cool place to hang out in the summer. In the fall, my uncle would break out the weed burner and clear out the tumbleweeds. I can still remember the smell.

Resting my head on the tabletop Donkey Kong, the glass cool on the outside where my arms were, warm above the screen. I didn't know they were pixels then, but they sure looked cool with your eyes shoved up right against them.

Some days after school I'd walk about a quarter mile to the Gold Nugget, a bar that my grandmother helped manage and spent a fair amount of time at. I probably went through about two dollars in quarters most afternoons at the video games in the Country Store or Firehouse Pizza. Report card day was the best, since I got a dollar for every A and a quarter for every B. When I wasn't playing video games, I was drinking coke and grenadine or 7-Up and grenadine (with maraschino cherries, of course) or annoying the old people in the bar with my choices from the juke box.

I had a sled, and I couldn't wait for winter, even though the chance of getting a decent amount of snow in the winter in northern Nevada is about 50/50. There was a big dirt hill whose back slope led into an abandoned irrigation canal.

Outside of winter, the place was pretty fun as well. Kind of like kids going online today to play video games against random opponents, my friends and I would show up to see who we were facing off against in dirt clod battles. There was also a big, old cottonwood to one side of the hill, and man were you cool if you were the kid who climbed the highest on it (I was never that kid. Always sucked at climbing trees).

I was just back there at the end of the summer for my grandmother's funeral. The fields are gone. Housing tracts everywhere. My grandmother sold the house and property a few years after I graduated high school, and though the house was still there, it was so dingy and untended that it looked awful. My mom, brother, and I stopped there one last time to see it, since we knew there were plans to move the house and build on the property. It was almost as sad of a moment as my grandmother's funeral.

[Worm of Despite]

Resting my head on the tabletop Donkey Kong, the glass cool on the outside where my arms were, warm above the screen. I didn't know they were pixels then, but they sure looked cool with your eyes shoved up right against them.

Heh. I did something similar when I moved my face close to the TV and everything turned to fuzzy dots. I made sure my parents weren't looking, as I remember the whole "Don't stare at the TV too close" schtick.

[SoulBiter]

My brothers and I used to live by a river and we would go there any chance we had. We would fish, build rafts that wouldnt stay afloat for long, and we explored. When exploring you would have thought we were in some remote unexplored area. It was such a blast.

Wild Wild West... I wouldnt miss that for anything.

Laying on the floor reading comics. I specifically remember a HUGE Thor comic I had when he was staving off the coming of Ragnarok.

Saturday morning... Ultraman, The Banana Splits, The Monkeys, Gullivers travels (we're doomed, I know we are)

Sitting on the porch making home made Icecream and arguing about who's turn it was to turn the crank.

Shelling peas until your thumbs hurt
Snapping peas and having Grandma fuss cause we werent doing it right.
Waking up under tons of blankets and Quilts and smelling coffee and bacon and eggs that were cooking and hearing Grandpa slurping his coffee from the saucer.

Oh man... I love those memories

Those were the days

[Cagliostro]

Schoolhouse Rock! and Time for Timer.

Mr Morton was lonely, Mr MOrton was, Mr Morton was the subject of our sentence and what the predicate says he does.

I'm hanking for a hunk a... a piece....a slice... a chunka...I'm hankering for a hunka cheese

Planet Janet was a galexy girl
I'm just a bill yes I'm only a bill and I'm sitting here on capitol hill OH its a long long journey from the bill into commitee but until I a still just a bill

Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here
He was a scary bear
He was a hairy bear


need I go on
Oh wait, I do
Conjunction Junction whats your function
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses
Conjunction junction hows that function
I got three special words that get all of my job done
I got and but and or and they will get you pretty far

Yeah, I remember lying around watching Schoolhouse Rock and so forth with you Jenn, while eating Lucky Charms in our PJs.

By the way, did you know there is a DVD out there of all the Schoolhouse Rock videos, including at least one new one they created just for the DVD? It's way cool. I have the boxed set of the music too, and the tribute album Schoolhouse Rocks. So damn good.

[Menolly]

Oh man...

Tent Camping in the Adirondaks.
Finding a hollowed out five foot tall tree on the bank of the stream.
Me becoming Captain Hook to my kid sister's Peter Pan...

[Cameraman Jenn]

Cag, I already got em.

Mr Morton is the subject of our sentence and what the predicate says he does....

[sgt.null]

being the oldestchild sometimes in winter i would get a wake up call at around 2 in the morning. snow day! dad sanded the roads in the winter so i had to shovel the drive. i would shovel it all out, i drive way dropped down. and if i was unlucky the snowplow would scream through and drop a slushy mix in the drive. i also had to shovel out a path from the front door to his pick-up. i would go back to sleep and my mom would wake me up around six so i could shovel her out. man what i wouldn't give for one of those wake up calls now. dad drank coffee like air. so i could smell the coffee in the kitchen. dad sat at the table in the dark with a coffee and a cigarette. and sometimes i would sit with him and just talk.

[aliantha]

being the oldestchild sometimes in winter i would get a wake up call at around 2 in the morning. snow day! dad sanded the roads in the winter so i had to shovel the drive. i would shovel it all out, i drive way dropped down. and if i was unlucky the snowplow would scream through and drop a slushy mix in the drive. i also had to shovel out a path from the front door to his pick-up. i would go back to sleep and my mom would wake me up around six so i could shovel her out. man what i wouldn't give for one of those wake up calls now. dad drank coffee like air. so i could smell the coffee in the kitchen. dad sat at the table in the dark with a coffee and a cigarette. and sometimes i would sit with him and just talk.

Oh yeah, waking up to the smell of coffee perking and bacon frying. My dad had bacon, eggs and coffee for breakfast every day, and my mom always got up early to make it. (That's one memory I didn't give my kids -- never got into the coffee-first-thing habit, and bacon's bad for you so I rarely make it.)

[Cagliostro]

Cag, I already got em.

Mr Morton is the subject of our sentence and what the predicate says he does....

Well, there goes another gift idea.

[Cameraman Jenn]

sorry...

[Menolly]

...my two favorite School House Rock vignettes in various formats...

(I can even listen to them on my dial-up)

School House Rock

[sgt.null]

Oh yeah, waking up to the smell of coffee perking and bacon frying. My dad had bacon, eggs and coffee for breakfast every day, and my mom always got up early to make it. (That's one memory I didn't give my kids -- never got into the coffee-first-thing habit, and bacon's bad for you so I rarely make it.)

I enjoy coffee from time to time.

one winter we drove from NH to minnesota to see my brother. so at some point around 3 am we pull into a truck stop to get dad some coffee. i wake up when he pulls in so he invites me in to the stop. when i get out of the car i see well over 100 eighteen wheelers parked for the overnight. the mosttrucks i have seen at one place before or since. we go in to the restaurant and he orders a coffee for himself and a cocoa for me. it was freezing outside. so i got to share a moment with him while mom and my brother and sister were asleep.

[Furls Fire]

One of the happiest memories for me was the day I met my husband for the first time...

1971, second grade, Miss Halibrook's homeroom, he came in with the office lady halfway thru art (we were making valentine card pouch holders). She took him to the front of the room and I stared at him along with all the other kids. I remember thinking how lost and scared he looked. Miss Halibrook announced..."class I would like you to say hello to Russell Hammon, he is going to be part of our homeroom now." We all said "hello Russell". She then told him to take the empty desk next to mine. I looked at him and he at me, I smiled and said "hi, my name is Tracie." He didn't smile back, he looked at me and then spit on my desk!!!

It was love at first sight....

[Menolly]

awww...

That is awesome, Furls!!

[DukkhaWaynhim]

I looked at him and he at me, I smiled and said "hi, my name is Tracie." He didn't smile back, he looked at me and then spit on my desk!!!

It was love at first sight....

All of these childhood memories are awesome, but that one gave me a pretty big chuckle.

[sgt.null]

not something i remember first hand, but i have heard the story many times.

my grandparents had neighbors with a huge chicken coop. this thing was a huge building. when i was around 4 i went in to collect some eggs. my pants had rhinestones on the outside seam. the chickens saw the sparklies and decided to investigate. they started pecking at the metal. my folks say i ran out of the coop screaming with chickens trailing after me. wish i could see a tape of that.

[Zarathustra]

Nostalgia . . . that must be what adults who actually liked their childhood have now.

Let me see, I remember hiking 1000 feet down a hill through the woods with two buckets in order to get our drinking water from the spring under the cliff, and then hiking back up trying not to spill it all over myself. It really sucked in the winter. I remember breaking the ice on our pond in order to get water to heat up for our baths. I remember goats' milk ice cream (actually better than it sounds). And despite all the hype, don't let anyone tell you that outhouses are just as good as the flushing kind. I remember worrying about spiders biting my balls. Hell of a draft. That also sucked in the winter.

And speaking of winter, I actually do have some good memories of going out in the forest for firewood. My father bringing down a tree with a roar of chainsaw and the crack-and-boom of a massive tree coming down was very exciting. We'd all watch for that first movement, when you knew the tree wasn't just swaying in the wind, but actually coming down. It was always a bit of a gamble where it would fall. That made it exciting, too. And then we'd spend the day turning that tree into firewood. That was kind of fun. We each had our job. Dad would trim it up with the chainsaw, and turn it into chunks that my older brother could split with the maul. My little brother and I would move all the branches out of the way, and collect the split logs in the wheel barrow to stack it all in the trailer. There was a neat sense of working as a team to keep ourselves from freezing to death. I don't have that now with my kids. They've got it too damn easy.

Hell, I guess I'm nostalgic, too.

[Sunbaneglasses]

There used to be this 5th grader named George who lived up the road when I was in second grade. George was a real piece of work who was always bullying me and my neighbor Josh who was also in the second grade. George the fifth grader actually carried a pocket knife which he used to puncture my new $22 real leather basketball one day while laughing and daring me to try and do something about it.........................I didn't forget.


One day while Josh and I were playing we noticed/felt the overweight George
fall out of a tree he was climbing and land flat on his back. The 10 foot fall knocked the wind out of George long enough for Josh and I to exact some measure of revenge, and after several sharp kicks to the face, back and ribs
Josh and I ran like hell to my house and watched George out the window.
George rolled around on the ground for a few minutes, got up and stumbled home. The next time we saw George he had two black eyes, and he never bothered us or even came to our houses ever again.

[Chrysalis]

not something i remember first hand, but i have heard the story many times.

my grandparents had neighbors with a huge chicken coop. this thing was a huge building. when i was around 4 i went in to collect some eggs. my pants had rhinestones on the outside seam. the chickens saw the sparklies and decided to investigate. they started pecking at the metal. my folks say i ran out of the coop screaming with chickens trailing after me. wish i could see a tape of that.

that would have been quite a sight!

That brings back memories for me as we kept chickens when I was little. I've had many things snatched out of my hand they decided looked like food.

other memories include:
*feeling the sun heat me to the bone while lying out in our front garden watching to wispy clouds on hot summer days after spending time splashing through our sprinkler system to cool off

*cycling to the local swimming baths with my grandfather for a couple of hours swimming then home to watch cartoons when the tv channel started at 5pm. I still can't believe that tv had start and finish times and only 2 channels. I wonder how kids would cope with that these days...

*listening to huge thunder storms and watching lightening fork through the sky by candle light at night because our power had gone out

*picking vegetables in our back garden and eating them along the way (mainly peas)

What I remember most of all is being happy, really really happy. Carefree and content with my childhood. Being brought up in Africa is something I wouldn't change for anything!

[bloodguard bob]

I remember two-man skateboarding where you sit on you board with your feet on your buddies and vice versa; you steer by tilting. Big wheels were fun too..."ice cream, ice cream!", I always wanted a Green Machine.

We'd also surf down the cow hills on cardboard in summer when the grass was dead or ride our bikes fast as we could down a hill and see who could make the longest skidmark. Lots of trout fishin'. Pickin' tomato bugs off the plants and June bug swarms.

We first moved to a new house when I was four and there were field mice all over so we'd go out and catch a Kingsnake or two and toss 'em in the garage and in the morning they'd have lumps in 'em. We'd catch tarantulas and lots of lizards too. We had a pie pan set up across the road behind the house that we'd shoot at with BB guns; last time I was home my dad had a new one set up. We'd crack bullwhips and instead of throwing a baseball we'd throw a steak knife back and forth so it would stick in the ground between the other persons feet.

Lessee... boogie boarding at the beach, green hair from swimming pool chlorine, Krofft Superstars like Bigfoot and Wildboy, Electrawoman and Dynagirl, Wonderbug and of course Land of the Lost.
I was crazy 'bout The Six Million Dollar Man and S.W.A.T