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hi stephanie!

each summer throughout my childhood, my sister (technically half-sister) stephanie went to visit her father "daddy bob" in new york city. while she was gone--often times for a full month or longer--my brother raleigh and i waved at every airplane that flew overhead and yelled "hi stephanie" until it passed by. i think we knew she wasn't really on the airplane the whole time, but we associated them with her and it was our way of remembering her until she came back home to us.

[written 28 august; posted 1 september]

September 01, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

good cheese

one time my grandpa came to visit our house, and during dinner, he cut a big slice of butter off the block on the table. while we were watching, expecting him to get some bread to spread it on, he bit into it and said "this is some good cheese."

[written 27 august; finally posted 31 august]

August 31, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

quisp

quisp sugared cereals weren't allowed in our house, but whenever we went to visit grandma peters, we each got to pick out our own box. it turns out that mom never liked this, but i never realized that as a child.

raleigh and i always picked quisp. i think it was the bright blue box with an alien on the front that attracted us but it might have been the resulting sugar rush. quisp is still being sold today, and in fact i found it as recently as last week, but the distribution seems to be quite limited.

August 15, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

big bird is a girl

as a childhood viewer of sesame street, i thought big bird was a girl, and i was really disappointed when i found out i was wrong.

[written 28 june; posted on 29 june]

June 29, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

halloween as a pencil

one year when i was a kid, i dressed up as a number 2 pencil for halloween. it was made from a huge cardboard tube that fit over my body. we added a cone for the lead, cut holes for my eyes, and my dad spraypainted it for me with metallic paint. it was perfect except for the fact that i couldn't bend my knees once it was lifted over my head so walking and climbing stairs was incredibly difficult. and, since my arms were also trapped by my sides, i couldn't hold a bucket for candy collection. and i couldn't ring any doorbells.

details, details. it was still an incredible costume.

June 20, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

blow out

i was in the back seat of my friend kim's car with kim and her two younger sisters, when one of the tires blew. we were coming back from some vacation, and we were on the highway going at least 55 miles an hour. i remember that we were singing songs in rounds when there was a loud sound, then we started swerving all over the road. we all started screaming.

kim's dad managed to stay calm and got the car back under control and pulled off to the side without an accident.

June 09, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

raleigh and shannon

June 08, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

lifesaver

one day when i was a toddler, i fell out of the car.

we were on our way home, and i could see our house in the distance. as my dad slowed the volkswagon to round the last corner before our driveway, i opened the door.

being before the days of seatbelts, i fell out onto the gravel road, clutching a fisher-price television music box. the television still works fine, but i can never say for sure whether i had any lasting damage.

May 28, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

in pots and print

my parents owned a store in clarksville called in pots and print, where my mom sold a combination of plants and old books. when they closed the store, my parents kept the sign from the window and a bunch of leftover bookmarks, which still show up as scrap paper and in random books to this day.

i remember in pots and print as a bit dark and musty and smelling of soil. mom sold sensitive plants that closed to the touch, and i couldn't resist running my little finger along their leaves to watch them respond. npr played on the radio in the shop, and a very young age i learned to recognize the melody that introduces "all things considered."

the store had a back room, where my brother raleigh and i played as toddlers. mom made us ketchup sandwiches for lunch, and we preferred it when she folded the bread over instead of cutting it in half, so we could bite through the fold and squish the ketchup through the semicircle bitemark in the white bread. we played with neighbourhood kids in the alley behind the shop, and robert ackerman laughed at raleigh and told him sandals were for girls.

April 22, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

embarrassment

the first time i remember being embarrassed was when i was five years old. it was the summer before kindergarten, and my mom and i went into school for an introduction and sign-up session they called "kindergarten round-up." mom was off registering me for school, while i sat playing and eating cookies at a little table. distracted by a puzzle, i accidentally tried to bite into one of the puzzle pieces instead of the cookie, and then glanced quickly around to see who had witnessed this act of stupidity.

February 25, 2007 in b) clarksville, iowa | Permalink | Comments (0)

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