Birthday Answers

[susandennis]

(For my birthday, I asked for Ask Me Anything Questions. I got so many wonderful ones. I'm answering them in entries from here until I get to the end. If you think of something you want to ask, just leave a comment or a note. Deadline is totally not a thing.)

maju01

1. Please describe a typical Saturday in your life when you were ten years old.

What a fun question. I pretty much always got up early. There were two reasons for this. The first is that my sister always slept late and I always wanted to do the opposite of what she did. BUT, the better reason really was what Ann Parrish told me once.

We were at a slumber party on a Friday night. Ann was one of the kids there and someone who’s opinion mattered to me. We were talking about Saturday morning and all the other girls were talking about sleeping late and Ann said to me that she always got up early on Saturdays. “It’s the only day of the week that is truly mine - no school, no church. I don’t want to waste a minute of it sleeping!”

That made so much sense to little me, I never slept in on a Saturday again. So up early.

And probably with my nose in a book - I think by 10 I may have grown out of Nancy Drew but maybe not. But I was always reading something. And then outside to find the neighbor kids. Our neighborhood was full of them and there was always something going on that needed more kids to make it better. And, really, that’s how I’d spend my day.

We played Kick The Can. We’d play in Steven’s airplane. We’d ride bikes or roller skate or go into the woods (which was a half acre in the city but, it had trees) and dig up stuff. Or we’d work on the big hole in the empty lot where we were digging a hole to China. Stuff like that.

We lived in a neighborhood of all houses and relatively quiet streets. We had free range of about a 4-5 block area. We knew everybody and everybody knew us. And every house was a safe place to go to if you needed something. And every Mom was police so you tended not to do stuff you should not. It was the 50s in small town America.

Starting around that age, my parents joined a club where Mom could play tennis and we could take swimming lessons. Once we got that membership, we spent every single day from mid-June to Labor Day in that pool.

Comments

[maju01.livejournal.com]

What a fun answer!

[manue7a.livejournal.com]

What was the name of that airplane again? The one you misunderstood?

[susandennis]

It was a Piper Cub (pronounced in the South "paper cup")

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Sounds like some good times.

[seekerval.livejournal.com]

Sounds pretty much like a perfect way for a youngster to spend her/his summers! We played Kick the Can back on the farm too! And softball. And--most preferred of all--we rode ponies! We were pretty lucky, as well.

Good memories. Thanks for stirring them up.

[zippybeta.livejournal.com]

A wonderful Leave It To Beaver neighborhood!

[lostincandyrain.livejournal.com]

I am impressed that you can remember specific things about Saturdays at ten years old. I am not sure that I can... Most my ten year old memories are of school...

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Ok.. you were 10. I was 6. I'm always amazed that I do not remember you. Hardly at all. I was up watching the test pattern waiting for the cartoons to come on eating Cocoa Krispies in my footed pajamas. Our paths must have crossed but I don't remember. Part of that is my ADHD. I don't remember a lot of people interactions and I'm sure you ignored me and I'm sure I hardly noticed.
But, yeah. The rest is pretty much the same. Kick the can and lightning bugs and e e cummings said it

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
....
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and


And the road next to us (Fieldcrest?) covered each year with fresh oil that I proceeded to walk in. And the mosquito sprayer drove down the street and we ran through the mist. And the milkman, Mr. Weatherwax, would give me a ride on his truck as he delivered and he moved the dead dog out of the middle of the road one time. And we climbed the trees out front until one of the branches cracked under Lou's weight. We laughed but I don't think she thought it was funny and I still feel badly about that.

[susandennis]

Yes, yes, yes and yes except laughing at Lou wasn't the pivotal moment of breaking that limb off — Mom was FURIOUS. Those maple trees were a strict no climb zone. She was mad for days.

I wonder how old Mr. Weatherwax was then.

Stepping on rusted nails. Why in the hell were there so many rusted nails? And you used to get infected fingers all the time.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

I have a permanently deformed fingernail from having it removed twice. It was due to the fact that I bit my nails down completely, a sign of my inner anxiety. So I had some sort of bacterial infection. I did use to stub my toes, badly, a lot. Of course it was because I never wore shoes. Somehow I missed the rusted nail, though but did step in a lot of dog droppings since all the dogs in the neighborhood ran amuk.

And I think I stayed away from the house long enough I missed the mom being mad part. Or somehow she figured it wasn't me but blamed it on you.