Skip to main content

I Remember

I remember that Florida vacation when my brother, Dave, and I played in the ocean. A wave knocked us both down, and he landed on my leg, twisting my knee painfully. My dad carried me the rest of the week whenever we had any distance to walk. I was twelve and thoroughly embarrassed. Now it's one of my most treasured memories of my dad. He died five years later.

I remember my last vacation with my dad. We went to Washington, D.C. He was so sick, but he refused to accept defeat.

I remember my dad laughing at a remark that Dave made about the quality of McDonald's hamburgers. He laughed so hard he cried. I'd never seen him do that before.

I remember taking my Donald Duck umbrella outside on a windy day and trying to fly like Mary Poppins (it didn't work).

I remember my brother, Ed, watching Batman. I thought it was a stupid show, and with only one TV and Ed being the oldest, he got to watch what he wanted to watch. I was out of luck - no Gilligan's Island for me.

I remember drawing an imaginary line down the middle of our double bed, so that my sister, Connie, and I would each stay on our half.

I remember Connie crossing that line when she came home late from babysitting or a date and putting her cold feet on my legs.

I remember making beds out of our lawn chairs so my three sisters and I could sleep on the screened-in porch in the heat of summer before we had air-conditioning.

I remember stealing coins out of my mom's purse. I'd use them as the eyes, nose, and mouth on faces I'd draw and then give to her as gifts.

I remember the first day I got to decide for myself what I would wear.

I remember my sister, Judy, spitting toothpaste into my hair when we both bent over the bathroom sink to spit at the same time.

I remember my sister, Debbie, and my dad's relationship. I think he liked her best. She would be silly with him.

I remember all eight of us playing games some nights after dinner.

I remember growing up in a home filled with imperfect people, but they were people who loved each other. . . and I will be forever grateful for that.

Comments

  1. I'm soooo glad you didn't write about what a mean big sis I was to you in so many ways. My heart still aches at some of the ways I took advantage of you. "Imperfect" sounds so minor to how I acted sometimes. But you know what? God is God and somehow He managed to let you know I really was, and am now more than ever, your biggest fan who loves you purely and deeply.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Do You Wait?

The barren one is now in her sixth month.  Not one promise from God is empty of power  for nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1: 37 The Passion Translation I've never thought that much about Elizabeth. Gabriel speaks here to Mary - the mother-to-be of none other than GOD Himself! Who has a thought to spare for this side character in THE story of divine visitation? God come to earth. Wow. Talk about a headline for the New York Times! Why does Gabriel even mention Elizabeth? I don't know, but I'm glad he did.  I read these verses with a different perspective this morning.  "The barren one." Elizabeth is now past childbearing years. It's not a secret. Everyone in her community knows she's barren (it's obvious). The life part of her life is over. There is no hope for her to have her dream - a life like her friends have. She's different from her family, her neighbors. In a time when children are everything, she has nothing.  And now it's too late...

Rethinking My Rightness

I used to label myself as a conservative Christian. Used to. Lately, I'm almost ashamed to even be called a "christian" (that lowercase "c" is on purpose). It seems that over the last eight to ten years, being "christian" has become more about being right than about being Christ-like. It's more about enforcing a perceived level of moral behavior that has nothing to do with a person's heart (what was that Jesus said about a "whitewashed tomb" in Matthew 23:27?). Being "christian" has become more about power, control, and supremacy than it is about loving your neighbor or your God. I'm deeply saddened by the current "christian" focus on the sins of others (LGBTQ anyone?), by the lack of humility, by the pain inflicted (knowingly and unknowingly) on those who are unlike us. I've recently seen the ugliness of my own whitewashed tomb. I don't like it. I cried to see that my heart contains such haughtiness an...

Kippy Is Born

I awoke in the middle of the night or so it seemed for it was still dark outside my window. I was groggy, but I knew I'd heard something. What was it? The puppies! I was awake in an instant. Glady was having her puppies! I scrambled out of bed as fast as I could and ran down the two flights of stairs that took me to where my mom and one of my three sisters sat and watched Glady, lying in an open box filled with old blankets. She was licking one of three tiny black puppies. I'd never seen anything so small that was actually a real live puppy! They were so small even I could have fit one in the palm of my hand - and I was only 7 years old. They were cuter than any stuffed animal I'd ever seen. I wanted so much to hold one, but my mom said that Glady wouldn't like that very much, so I just watched as she licked them (Mom said that was her way of giving them a bath) and as they snuggled with her. They couldn't even open their eyes yet. It wasn't too long before the ...