My First Day Of School!

I was looking through photos to find something else when I came across this, MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Obviously the sun was shining in my eyes, so I did when anyone would do right? I blocked the sun and let mom take the picture. There is another photo of me getting on the bus, but that photo is still in my parents possession. I make it sound like they'll use it to blackmail me. LOL!! I am finding I was so happy in Des Moines and this was one of my favorite days from that time...

Lee, Canary Lake Elemetary and Burk

Lee is one of the friends I had in Des Moines and he was quite a character. Let me preface this with saying his home life wasn’t the best and he did like to punish you if you did something he thought was wrong I think he felt entitled since he was a year older than me. Here is one of the things he did, he was getting spanked and he told me not to watch and of course I did, so when he came back outside he wanted me to turn around and I didn’t want to do that. I knew what was coming. Anyhow, I turned around he gave me a spanking.

I have to say, now I would welcome a spanking, but let’s get  back to Lee. I don’t remember why, but my mom said Lee wasn’t allowed in the house, maybe he had done something my parents didn’t like, I don’t really remember. So he comes over and wants me to come outside and I didn’t want to or couldn’t and I had to tell him he wasn’t allowed to come in. How awful, looking back at it now to tell someone that they couldn’t come into your house, I’m sure that didn’t make him feel good.

The last memory of Lee is a day in winter when I must have came home from school with him and I was all bundled up in a snow suit, mittens, hat and scarf. I think my mother took my sister to the doctor or something and I remember I was hot in all of that and then I saw my mom pull up and I was glad to leave. Lee’s mom wasn’t a woman I wanted to be around as I remember, I think she scared me.

I went to Canary Lake Elementary School for my first semester of kindergarten and I mostly remember the room we were in. There were double doors and you walk in and along the back wall are listening stations where you could hear stories or books and to the left of that I think there was a bathroom or hallway at the end of the listening station. To the left of that was an area with a table and around the edge were cubbies where books or toys were and then there was a short partition, then on the other side of the partition was an area where I think we rested and another partition with a tall cabinet there. I think the rug on the floor was blue and had shapes or numbers on it and then I think around the rest of the room was cubby shelving, with toys and books and that area was open as I remember it.

I remember one day I was sick and I didn’t get to go to school, I was so upset and the bus driver waited for me to come out and I didn’t. I was sad! Then there was the day my mom took me to school and we were sitting at the stop light and I could see the school to the right and I remember walking in with my mom and the teacher was told I would go home on the bus. My teacher had two helpers too.

I loved riding the bus, in the morning.  As far as I could tell the route started somewhere around our house, we were at the beginning of a sub-division, we would go around this corner and pick up other kids and there were all these other houses, go figure. There was one day this girl Jill and her best friend were together and we stopped at one house and she wasn’t there and when we went to the other house they both came out and got on the bus.

The day we had our pictures taken I dressed up. I loved to dress up as a kid. I looked good and all of the other kids just wore regular school clothes. It was one of the first times on the bus I knew I didn’t look  like everyone else and that was scary, but I didn’t care, I did get a few funny looks though. I even remember having my picture taken and sitting on some little white box. I was so cute!

One afternoon it was raining and I could hear the rain coming down and it was dark in the hallway and we were standing against the wall, we all had rain coats/coats on. There  was a panel of windows in front of us and you couldn’t see through them. I think we ran out to the bus that day after we were all accounted for. The thing I loved most about school at Canary Lake was the listening station and my friends.

Burk was my best friend at the time. I was at his house before school one day and his mom gave me some orange juice and I sat at their kitchen island or counter, but I’m thinking island and then it was time to go and we got on the bus. There was one time we were at his house and I think we hid all of his toys behind the couch. There was also the time we were in the back yard and we went through the gate into his grandfather’s farm, in fact there were several times we did that and Lee was with us once or twice. I even remember picking up a picture he left on the bus and took it back to him. The crazy thing is, I think he even wrote his name on the picture all by himself.

Friends are so special! I wondered for a long time what happened to Burk and Lee.

Memories of Des Moines, IA.

My earliest memory of living in Des Moines was when I was sitting in the hallway in front of my sister's room while my mom was changing her diaper. I was playing with a toy and I got an erection, I remember thinking I hope they go away when I get older. I must have been two or so, maybe two and a half. 

I also remember standing on my mom's suitcase and I think I jumped up and down on it, there's a picture of that too. There was also a time when I heard this cow mooing. I went into my mom and dad’s room and I looked out of their window and  said, “Mommy there’s a cow in our back yard.” so my mom called Steve (the guy who owned the farm on the other side of our back yard) and told him to come get his cow and I remember he did. 

My room, I remember thinking it was big and I had a full size bed to sleep in. I only have one memory of sleeping in my room and waking up seeing the clown, in the dark, sitting on the chair. The clown, my mom says I was afraid of it, it was bigger than me and I think it sat in the rocking chair in my room. There was also a time when I set this doll on fire, I think it was my sister's doll. I was playing on my bed as I remember it and I knocked a lamp over onto my bed and there was this doll laying on the bed and the bulb was on the doll's leg. I must have left it there and went to do something else and when I came back there was a fire on my bed. I ran to tell my mother and I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember the bedspread was bright orange for a time, then I had a white one with a design of these balls on it. I remember thinking it was a little sophisticated for me, but then again it was only a passing thought.

My room, I remember thinking it was big and I had a full size bed to sleep in. I only have one memory of sleeping in my room and waking up seeing the clown, in the dark, sitting on the chair. The clown, my mom says I was afraid of it, it was bigger than me and I think it sat in the rocking chair in my room. There was also a time when I set this doll on fire, I think it was my sister's doll. I was playing on my bed as I remember it and I knocked a lamp over onto my bed and there was this doll laying on the bed and the bulb was on the doll's leg. I must have left it there and went to do something else and when I came back there was a fire on my bed. I ran to tell my mother and I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember the bedspread was bright orange for a time, then I had a white one with a design of these balls on it. I remember thinking it was a little sophisticated for me, but then again it was only a passing thought. What was I? 3 or 4?

My mother says I remember the weirdest things, but my question is how can memories be weird? I think I remember the day we brought my sister home. I looked over the back seat and said, "A baby! Do we get to keep it?!" and my mother said, "Yes Craig, we get to keep it." That memory may not be remembered, but I can see myself doing it if I search back far enough.

I remember sitting on the couch feeding my sister as a baby. Mom put a pillow next to me (I think) and then she put her in my arms and gave me a bottle to feed her with, I think it was a yellow bottle with grape juice or milk. I remember that so clearly. I remember watching H.R. Puffnstuff sitting on the floor by the kitchen and we had a black and white TV. I remember one day I had gotten up and I got dressed, I thought I was going to school that day until I remembered it was Sunday and we were going to church so I went back to my room and changed for church.

I also remember it being night time and walking through our kitchen, which I seem to remember thinking was an odd shape or set up weird and I had two blankeys. I put them on the buffet in the dining room and I walked through the kitchen and I think I tied them together. I also remember the living room lamp being on then and I think my dad may have even been in there reading. Oh! I also remember the day that my sister's finder got smashed in the side door off or the driveway. Lee, (a kid from next door), who I considered a friend, came to see if I could play. I opened the door and my sister was standing in the doorway and the wind blew the door shut. Lee ran away I'm sure, thinking he would get blamed for it and my sister cried and it was loud!! Lee now there is a character, but that’s a story for another time...

The X Factor

I have been watching The X Factor since it began and I am hooked! I see the contestants stories and some of them are heart wrenching and they are meant to get you to care about the contestants I know that. However, I relate to what they are going through. The struggle they have lived, the fear, the not knowing of whether they can do it or not or whether they are meant to do it or just kidding themselves. I know what that feels like, yet they are pushing through the fear and self doubt and going for their dream. I really like how it parallels my life right now going through my process of self discovery and the contestants are discovering they are talented and they can live their dream. I will shatter an old idea of who I was and re-discover who I was in the beginning. I know It may sound confusing and it is, but I am truly grateful for the loss of my grandmother to give me this time to re-discover myself and to learn to live life again. It is exactly what I needed.

Des Moines, IA. Part 1

I was born in Des Moines, Iowa at Blank Children's Hospital during one of the hottest summer's on record, according to my mother. She said they would go down to the basement to cool off and drink lemonade. My mother said the day I was born labor started at 3:00am. Nothing like grabbing your mother's attention early and then making her wait until I decided to make my entrance into the world at 11:29pm July 6th, 1969.

My mother tell's me I was a very talkative child, which I do remember being. That I would go up and talk to anyone, that made my mom nervous because I would ask my mom how much money she had and then I would go tell people. I just know I was so interested in finding things out, knowing things and sharing them.

I was very curious and I think I just wanted to meet people and talk to people. I'm surprised my mom didn't have a heart attack with me doing that so much. I can just see her apologizing for me to people just for going up and talking to people I didn't know. Hey I was ready to start a conversation. I mean I was a kid and what was really wrong with that anyway?

There are so many memories I am finding I have and I am actually going to share them all with you soon. I also have become a little obsessed with finding out what happened to two of my friends from Des Moines and the elementry school I attended. So I am anxious to see what I can unearth from that time in my life.