GROWING UP ME -

Saturday, June 19, 2010

5:40 AM

Projectors

We didn't have t'v's in every room in the house back then so this was a very big deal. I could crawl into bed at night and watch a cartoon right there on my wall for as long as the batteries held out. Crazy fun. LOL

*sidenote: My one and only complaint I have about Christmas in our house was that Mom and Dad would buy us lots of toys that required batteries and other things to work. They would buy us one set of batteries for each toy and then once they went down, their Christmas spirit had passed and they were no longer interested in buying more. When I was a kid, I thought batteries cost an arm and a leg based on my parent's unwillingness to purchase them. I figured they must cost at least $10 per battery or something. lol I never will understand how they expected us to play with battery-powered toys throughout the year if they weren't going to replenish our batteries. They were the same way about film (that's why there are almost no pics of us growing up), long distance minutes, HBO, and anything that had to be ordered from the Penney's catalog. I was in college before I realized that the things in the Penney's catalog were priced the same as the things in the stores. I thought you had to be a doctor's kid to afford to order things. LOL Somewhat related is the fact that I also thought the whole world dropped off at the Mc******* city limits until I was in high school because we so rarely ventured beyond that point. I can't tell you how many times someone at school would show up with a pair of shoes, a shirt, etc. that I desperately loved only to break my heart by telling me that they got it at the mall in Tulsa. In my world, the mall in Tulsa might as well have been the moon. There was no way I was ever going to get to go there to shop. I guess that's why I became such a mall rat once I got old enough to make the trek myself. No more shopping in dullsville where they are always a good 10 years behind the times! Besides. I don't want any of my tax money going to support this place than is absolutely necessary.

5:36 AM

Puffer Kite

I never looked at God as a magic genie and I never prayed for toys.......excpet for one, singular moment of misguided weakness. I saw the Puffer kite on Uncle Zeb and fell in love!!!! I just could not live without one so the Friday before we were to go shopping on Saturday, I included a passionate request for a Puffer kite in my bedtime prayers. I still feel guilty about that! LOL That was not normally my m. o. I did get one, which excited me to no end, but I distinctly remember asking God to forgive me, just the same, for being so selfish and for treating Him as though He were my personal wish granter. I never prayed for a toy again after that. LOL

Oh, and the super cool Puffer kite that I just had to have? It got hung in some trees and burst the very first day I flew it. I went back to regular kites after that. Inflatables and tree limbs just don't play well together. LOL

5:34 AM

My First Record Player

Mine was blue, of course, and it had stars all over it because it played "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". It was such a sweet toy and that song was one of the very first I ever learned. A few years later, when I got a little older, I tried to make it play real records but it wouldn't cooperate much to my dismay. LOL

5:29 AM

Map of the United States

My Granny Mom (my dad's mom) had like, six billion grandkids, and great-grandkids so in the interest of her sanity and survival, she always kept two things on hand at her house: random toys, and ice cream. Yeah, Granny Mom! And in that small stockpile of random toys was a U.S. map puzzle. That thing survived all of us grandkids for years which is amazing. It wasn't a terribly exciting toy. It was more like an old stand-by kind of toy. Some of the other toys would come and go because they would "accidentally" get taken home by some of my cousins, lol, but the puzzle long remained. We all liked it o.k. but none of us were emotionally invested enough in it to "borrow" it. LOL I didn't spend all that much time over at my grandma's house. She had so many grandchildren that she had trouble remembering who was who and besides that, she wasn't really the doting, huggy-lovey type so for the most part, I only saw her on holidays and then maybe one or two other randomly selected times in any given year. But I loved her because she was my grandma and because my dad loved her so very dearly. The few significant memories I do have of knowing her always come back to me whenever I see a tupperware bowl of ice cream or one of these puzzle maps.

5:25 AM

Transistor Radio

I don't remember what brand my first transistor radio was. I don't even really remember what it looked like except that it was mostly black and the dial was on the side. It had a strap, which, for some reason, added quite a bit of cool factor to it in my 2nd grade mind. It was a birthday present from my parents and I was so proud to have it. We had stereos and other radios in the house but there was just something about having my very own that made me feel as though I had officially entered teendom. 8 years old is teen, right? LOL

5:18 AM

Radio Flyer

You don't have to be a baby boomer to understand the sentimentally-charged radness that is the Radio Flyer. If you grew up anywhere in America, anytime in the 1900's, then you totally get it.

I miss you, little red wagon. Wherever you are today, I still heart you madly. And thanks mom, for yet another priceless Christmas toy memory. I adored my wagon.

5:08 AM

Some of My Faves

Some of the most memorable 45's from my childhood. I remember seeing all of them in my record stack, just like it was yesterday that I sat in my room, listening to them on my little blue record player.

When I was a preschooler, there were a lot of Beatles hits on the radio but my hands-down favorite was this one. When you really think about it, the song was, lyrically speaking, written at age level:

Oh yeah I'll tell you somethin'
I think you'll understand
And I'll say that somethin'
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your ha-a-a-a-aaand
I wanna hold your hand

So you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about.

But I digress. Again.

My cousin, Pat, forgot and left our first copy of this song in the back dashboard of her mom's car. The sun melted it quite nicely. We eventually replaced it though and that copy lived to experience about a million spins before cassette tapes and Yoko Ono rendered it obsolete. : )

Daydream Believer by the Monkees was the very first record I ever bought for myself, which means it was the very first record that I could put my name on because it was really, truly mine. I bought it with money I received for my 6th birthday. I had been wanting the record for weeks and had memorized what the label looked like so I could check every time we visited Ben Franklin's to make sure they didn't sell out before my special day arrived and I would be able to buy a copy of my own. I guess that's why that red and white Colgems label is still so vivid in my mind.

My birthday fell on a Saturday that year so my mom took me downtown bright and early to get my record and spend my other gift money. I got other more expensive presents that day but I'm not sure I loved any of them more than I loved my new Monkees record. DB was my favorite song that year and I wore it out playing it over and over in the months and years afterwards. Besides, I was also madly in love with Davy Jones so I had to have the record because he was, without a doubt, singing that song to me. lol

Indian Lake by the Cowsills actually belonged to my brother but we lived in a fairly small house and he played his music loud so whether I wanted to or not, I listened to whatever he listened to. This is one that I came to love a lot. It takes me back to preschool summers in our house on Madison, when my mom was young and healthy, I was free of school-related self-esteem issues, and the days were ours to breathe in with abandon. The lyrics are kind of silly and the song structure is rather rudimentary but it's very catchy just the same and I can still listen to it over and over when I'm in the mood to just get lost in a song that I don't feel compelled to over analyze. I'm a trained musician but you know, sometimes the fact that a song brings you unexplainable joy is really enough.

We've already discussed the obsession that my best friend Reena and I had with Donny Osmond so I won't go into that whole background again. (You're welcome) But I would be remiss if I did not mention that Puppy Love was my all-time favorite D.O. song and every girl in my class dreamed of being the girl in the story. lol

In my 5th grade year, we had an unusual amount of extra cold, sometimes snowy weather which dictated that the schools hold indoor recess more often than they normally would. Mrs. LeFlore, our homeroom teacher, allowed us to play records during recess to pass the time away, something we loved to do. We all brought our favorite 45's and we had a great time listening to them, dancing, and singing along. Those times were fun, but largely uneventful. That is, except for when Puppy Love was spun. lol

Oh my, did that song ever bring out the drama queen/trying to grow up way too fast/girlfriend wannabe in all of the girls in my 5th grade class! We would sing that song with conVICTION, now! Let me tell you. And sometimes, we'd get so caught up in the pretend drama that we'd even squeeze out a tear or two. LOLOL Yeah. We were THOSE kind of girls. But don't judge us too quickly. From the beginning of time, ALL girls have been "those" kind of girls. Well, except for Reena, who dearly loved the song but just didn't have it in her to get all weepy over a make-believe love affair. That just wasn't her style. She has always been way too rational and mature for her own good. LOL

I also used to sing along to this song in my bedroom and when I did, I would pretend that Donny and I, who were dating (for REALZ, ya'll), wrote the song as a testament and plea to our parents who just didn't understand that in spite of our young age, we were deeply, passionately in love and destined to wed one day. In my retarded fantasy, I was also a famous singer, and Donny, as well as both sets of parents were in the audience watching my performance. He and I cried as I sang this song as an emotional statement to our folks who just didn't understand. At the end of each performance, Donny would leave his seat, come up on the stage, give me a passionate kiss, and then put his arms around me as we both turned to face our parents, all of whom were, by this time, offering a tearful, "now-we-get-it-and-you-have-our-blessing" standing ovation.
Oh, it was quite the dramz, my friends. Quite the dramz.

5:05 AM

45 rpm's

For many years, everyone kept their 45 rpm's in racks like this because, you know, scraping fragile vinyl discs that contain your favorite songs across metal bars several times a day is a really good idea. lol

This image brings back SO many childhood memories.

4:59 AM

Punch Balls

Punch balls were not exactly innovative genius, but they hung there by the check out counter at Ben Franklin's looking like lonely puppies in a shelter so I bought them from time to time. They were pretty fun for an hour or two. Life-changing or not, they were a permanent 60's/70's toy store mainstay so my childhood memories would not be complete without them.

4:24 AM

Portable Record Players

The year my dad lived in Tulsa, he bought both my brother and I new record players. Bernie got a cool white one first and I really loved it so a few weeks later, I asked my dad if I could please have one as well. The next weekend, when he came home, he brought a brand new blue record player for me. I was so happy and surprised. Not only did he get me a stereo that I desperately wanted, but he even went out of his way to get one that was my favorite color. And unlike Bernie's record player, mine also included a built-in radio because, you know.....I was dad's favorite. LOLOL (Just kidding, Bernie)

Those little stereos don't look like much by today's standards but (you should be used to this part so say it with me now) BACK WHEN I WAS A KID, lol, (there you go) they were very hip. Portable record players were all the rage and we loved that we could take our music with us wherever we went. If we were going to a sleepover with a friend who had no stereo, it was no problem because we could easily just take ours. Tre chic. lol Compared to the modern-day ease of carrying 10,000 songs on a credit-card sized ipod, it was a bulky, pain-in-the-rear process but we couldn't even DREAM of such convenient technology back then so we were more than happy to lug those stereos, and a huge stack or records around with us.

My cousin got hers for Christmas one year and she loved it too much to leave it at home on Christmas Day so she brought it to our grandparent's house and we kids listened to records in my grandparent's spare bedroom all afternoon. You'd just have to know my grandparents and you'd have to know what our sweet, but quirky family Christmas Day gatherings were like in order to understand why that is a fact worth mentioning. LOL

Not exactly like the ones my brother and I had but closer than the one on the bottom. My cousin had one like that one in the bottom pic.

4:17 AM

Mickey Mouse Watch

When we were in the 2nd grade, Reana and I both got a real watch for Christmas. It was the first time that either of us had ever gotten a watch that wasn't a toy and we were both very, very proud of them. Now, I'm very sensitive where my mama is concerned so let me just pause to clarify right here that the beautiful little pink watch I got made me so happy that I stared at it all night after opening it. I wore it over to my grandma's house that Christmas Eve and just couldn't stop marveling the fact that it was really, truly mine. I loved that watch DEARLY and out of all of the really sentimental things I list on this blog, I think that watch is definitely on my top 5 list of things I most wish I had kept. I loved it so much and I thought I was very, very grown up when I wore it.

Having said that, there was one other watch on the planet that I liked a little more. (I am so tender hearted that it hurts me to type that as I feel I am saying something ungrateful to my mom though I certainly don't mean to) Of course, my pink one was beautiful and dainty and I adored it because of that and most importantly, because of the fact that my sweet mama had picked it out for me. I must have thanked her a million times during Christmas for that watch. BUT, when I got back to school in January and saw Reana's new watch, I couldn't help myself. I totally fell in love with hers even more. To this day, I don't know why but that red, shiny, patent leather band completely spoke to me. I loved that thing SO much. Reana loved her watch but a part of her liked my pink one better so sometimes we would trade just for the school day but never any longer. For reasons still unclear to me, I continued to pine for that watch for many years to come and even as an adult today, I STILL, without even thinking about it, keep my eyes peeled when looking at watches in a store, for another just like it. The original is long gone and to be honest, it really wouldn't look good on me now but still, my brain cannot forget that silly little watch. I have found lots of other Mickey watches (and I own several) and some I've run across have even had red bands but never patent leather red bands and it's that shiny patent leather that made Reana's stand out to me so much.

A few years ago, while talking about something related, I told Reana the story of how I had always wanted a watch like the one she had in 2nd grade. She couldn't believe I remembered it, much less still wanted it. lol But because it meant so much to me, she told me she would ask her mom too look through some old drawers, because she thought her mom might still have the original watch laying around. She said that I could have it if she could find it. 40 years after the fact and I still got excited by the prospect of finally getting that watch I had wanted for such a long time.

Sadly, Reana's mom couldn't find the watch or begin to remember what she did with it so I didn't get to own it after all. Being the thoughtful friend that she is, Reana surprised me shortly after by buying a brand new Mickey Watch while visiting Disneyland in Florida with her family. I couldn't believe it! It doesn't have a red patent leather band. Apparently those are nowhere to be found. But that's o.k. because I love having one that comes directly from the actual theme park. It's adorable and I will treasure it always because of the timeless friendship that is attached to it.

4:10 AM

The Stuff of Which Nightmares Are Made

TOP: Recks Brynleee
BOTTOM: Jean Leroi Hawrt
(spelled incorrectly on purpose in hopes of keeping search engines from randomnly pointing strangers to my blog)

Sadly, not all of my childhood memories are happy ones. I grew up in a town that houses a state prison which means that escaped convicts were a regular way of life for our citizens. They don't get out very often these days but back when I was a child, they got out quite a lot and when they did, our town was always put on high alert. My grandparents owned and lived on property that was directly across a dirt road from the prison property so my Grandpa carried a gun with him 24/7 because they frequently had escapees prowling through their yard, attempting to get into the house and/or steal one of his trucks.

Here, in town, which is adjacent to the opposite side of prison property, the radio stations always sent repeated warnings out over the airwaves, reminding all of us to lock all windows and doors, and to be aware of our surroundings when we had to be outside. I can't speak for all of the kids in the town but for me, the prison situation made for some very scary childhood times. Nightmares were a way of life for me because of the stories I grew up hearing about the evil people who inhabited that place.

I was a free-spirit kind of kid. I ran all over our neighborhood freely because back then, (as far as we knew, anyway) kids could do such things. The kind of crimes we hear about in the news today were completely foreign to us back then. There were kidnappings, of course, and I was terrified of that but in general, kids could feel fairly safe roaming the neighborhood because lots of adults sat out on their porches and everybody knew everybody. No matter where we went, there was almost always a few adults within shouting distance of our play area. But when a convict escaped, the adults pretty much stayed indoors and we kids were warned to do the same. So if anyone did venture out, it was more than a little nerve-wracking. Knowing that my grandparents had experienced escapee run-ins made it all the more so for me.

Fortunately though, the majority of convicts who escaped during that time period were low-to medium risk offenders, who were far more interested in getting as far away from town as possible than they were in attempting to harm or abduct someone. Definite silver lining in an otherwise dark and frightening cloud. But there were two very dangerous escapees from that time period who were exceptions to that norm in every way, shape, and form. They were extremely dangerous, evil men who escaped at differing times, leaving not only our city, but the whole state gripped with fear. They managed to remain on the run for quite some time, and while out, one of them invaded a Girl Scout camp, and raped and murdered three young girls. It was a very scary time because law enforcement relentlessly pursued them but, for days, weeks, and months, stayed one or two crucial steps behind them. Prince Kit, who was just a small boy at the time, lived in a city north of here, and even he and his family had a very frightening "when I think what COULD have happened" experience with one of the two men. Law enforcement tracked the most dangerous of the two (Hart) to the barn that sat on the property next to their home in M*******. When LE searched the barn, they discovered evidence that lead them to believe that Hart had not only been in there but had vacated the barn only moments before their arrival. There is no telling how many hours he sat out there watching Prince Kit's family, waiting for just the right moment to rob and likely, kill them in order to obtain money, shelter, and a car. Even now, as I type this, I feel chills running up my spine. I was terrified of that monster and realizing how easily he could have harmed the man I love more than life, itself both saddens and enrages me.

Both of these evil men were eventually apprehended and both also eventually died in prison (one died just recently in 2009) but I have never forgotten the reign of terror they injected into my childhood (and everyone else's lives) and although I haven't had nightmares that are specifically about them in several years, I do still have similar nightmares that cause me to wake up in full panic mode and the experience of living so close to evil definitely shaped the fear-ridden, obsessively cautious adult I am today.

*related: A couple of different convicts escaped one night and ended up trying to break into Reana's parent's cars. They were hoping that one of them would have the keys inside, according to the best guess wagered by police later. Reana was spending the night at our house that night so we missed the commotion but they told us the next day that both of our 10-speeds had been taken across the yard but then dumped by the street. The police hypothesized that the convicts had considered trying to get away on our bikes but decided against it at the last minute since traveling on the streets would make them far too visible to the general public and the people who were searching for them. Even though we missed the whole episode, it still unnerved us and we stayed that way for several days afterwards even though they caught the escapees. Neither of us had ever experienced having convicts come to our house before. That made the proximity between our homes and the prison a lot too close for comfort but like all people who live in this town, we eventually got over it. Such things have always just been a way of life. I never got over my fear of the specific two convicts I talked about early in this post though. When the last one of them died last month, I was relieved. It's not as though I've been living in constant fear as an adult or anything but still, somewhere in the back of my mind, his presence has always been there. It's been a lot of years since I first heard the two names that I feared so much. So even though I had long learned to put it out of my mind for the most part, hearing that the last one was finally, irreversibly gone gave me comfort.

Anyhow, that night back in the 70's when the convicts wandered into Reana's yard, the police and highway patrol followed shortly after. Fearing that the guys may have broken into the house and taken hostage or harmed the family inside, the police pounded on the doors and windows in attempt to get someone to unlock the doors and let them take a look around. For several minutes, Reana's mom refused to allow her dad open the door because she thought a knock on the door by police in the middle of the night could mean only one thing, - that Reana had been seriously harmed or killed while spending the night away from home. She said she didn't want to hear that news so she couldn't bring herself to answer the door. Finally, level heads (Bill's, lol) prevailed and they opened the door to a crowd of police officers who were just about to break in thinking the lack of answer to their knocks indicated a possible hostage situation. It's kind of funny now but back when it first happened, it was pretty creepy stuff.

4:07 AM

Pony Rides

Many stores still have these so they aren't necessarily "vintage" by the most precise definition of the word, but my memories of riding the ones here, in town as a child are definitely and legitimately vintage. It cost .10 per ride back then and my mom almost always let me have at least one ride whenever we visited a store that had one. Safeway had one right by the side entrance, which is the entrance we most often used so many, many of our grocery shopping trips began with her giving me a dime with which I would gleefully ride the pony. I'd still ride them today if I could afford to pay for the inevitable damage that would ensue. : )

*note - the other local store that had one of these for years and years was Ben Franklin's. I rode them at both places.

4:04 AM

Pedal Cars

Pedal cars were the bomb diggity. Mine was a hand-me-down, not only from my brother, but also from older cousins so by the time I got it, it looked pretty rough. The paint was old and dull, there was some rusting, and it squeaked when you drove it. But you know what? I didn't care at all. Not one tiny bit. I loved that car and I had a ball playing with it. If I had a place to store it, I would still like to have one of these little cars just for sentimental reasons. They were really quite the big deal in their day.

4:01 AM

Romper Room

Romper Room!!!!!! I LOVED this show. I watched it every weekday morning. They had the neatest toys that you couldn't buy anywhere as far as I know even today. It was such a cozy little classroom setting. My mom used to fix chocolate milk for me each morning when the kids on Romper Room took their milk and cookie break. Oh, and I wanted to drive that RR milk truck in the worst way!!! Everyday the teacher would select one child to go over, get the milk truck, and drive it over to the desks where he or she would deliver the milk. If for no other reason, I wanted to be on Romper Room just so I could drive that cool truck! : ) Don't think for a minute that I wouldn't still try to squeeze my big butt into the cab of that thing if I were to run across it. I was born to drive that milk truck. LOLOL

3:53 AM

Safeway

The grocery chain of choice in our area for years and years. I don't know why but I really miss the original one that was up on CA Parkway. I wish it were still there, in business, and just the way it was when I was a kid. This picture of the old signs reminds me of sweet, lazy summer days spent hanging out with my sweet mama. Precious, simple, good times.

It also reminds me of the time I went grocery shopping with Bernie and his wife, L. and he called some asian kid a slanty-eyed little bastard but that's another story altogether. LOLOLOLOLOL

3:28 AM

Pencil Box

I LOVED that thing! LOVED it! It was one of two extra-special pencil boxes I had in elementary school that I treasured as though it were a toy. No idea why it meant so much to me but if I ever run across another one, I'm going to buy it because it is one of my most sentimental school-related favorites. School supplies were great fun when I was a kid and teachers weren't allowed to tell you which ones you could or couldn't have (like teachers do today) in your desk so we could buy our every heart's desire when we went back-to-school shopping. Every August, my mom always made sure that Bernie and I got lots of cool stuff that made us extra excited to begin a new school year. I loved back-to-school shopping. It was "second" only to Christmas and birthdays as the funnest shopping day of my year.

Are you getting that my mom was/is the best one who has ever lived and that she busted her hard-working tail to make even the smallest of things special and memorable for Bernie and me? I feel sorry for anyone who isn't her child.

3:25 AM

See 'n Say

This was a "just because I love you" gift from my mom. She ordered it from the Jewel T man. Any of you remember the Jewel T man? Loved him. He always had toys in his basket! What human being can hold one of these toys in her/her hand ant resist pulling the string? Don't even lie. Just thinking about it is making you want to put your finger through that little ring. lol

3:19 AM

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Mid 60's Buick Electra. My dad bought one of these for our family the year they came out and although it was a huge, tank of a car, everyone who was into that sort of vehicle ooh'd and ahh'd over it for quite some time. Ours was actually a convertible, rather than a hard top and it was a deep blue-green color with black interior, rather than the white that is pictured here. Still, you can see the design of the car which was, according to my best recollection, exactly the same as this one. Our had all of the bells and whistles that the technology of the day allowed and it was quite the rolling luxury queen. Twice a year, when parade times rolled around, we always received requests from various organizations who wanted to use it to haul the homecoming courts, etc. down Choctaw avenue. It was perfect for that because it really was a long, shiny show car. My mom, who was/is less than 5ft. tall adored that car. She had to stack two pillows on the seat in order to be able to see over the steering wheel, lol, but she felt like the beautiful princess that she's always been to us when she drove down the street in that big, gas-guzzling thing so I'm glad we owned it. She deserved that and so much more.

*Related notes: It had power everything. Power windows, power locks, power seats, power convertible top, etc. Inside of the glove compartment, was a little red power button that opened the trunk. It had air-conditioning, heat, stereo radio and every other "extra" that my dad could have put on a car in the 60's. It was quite a car. Once it started to age, I was embarrassed to be seen in it for the most part because it was just so HUGE, but when it was new, it was an impressive mode of transportation for the family whose house was almost always in need of paint. (Dear 4th ward neighbors, you're welcome for the comical juxtaposition) My dad had his own unique ideas regarding the organization of priorities, don't you know. lol I guess I remember that car more than any other we owned simply because we owned that one the longest. I wouldn't want to drive it now, but I do wish we had pictures just for old time's sake. I don't have any idea how much my dad paid for his prized Buick but the memories I have of care-free Sunday afternoons spent cruising down the highway in it with the wind blowing through our hair are worth far more than any inflated price he possibly could have paid.*random related memory: Bernie, Kevin, and some girls snuck our Buick out of the driveway one night and used it to run away from home. You'll have to ask Bernie what the running away thing was all about because I was much too young to understand any of it. But I wasn't too young to laugh at the stories they told the next day about how my dad beat the steering wheel and cussed all the way home, after going and finding them somewhere around Wetumka. LOLOL

Dear Bernie: If you're going to go to all of the trouble of running away in mom's car, which is eventually going to get you killed by dad, then at least make it worth it by choosing a fun destination. Wetumka is hardly worth the kind of ass whipping that a boy can get for grand theft auto. LOLOL

3:15 AM

My First Calculator

This is as close as I have gotten so far to finding a pictorial representation of my very first calculator. Mine was white, with NO silver background, and, the top angled upward. Also, mine was made by Texas Instruments. I know they sell them for a buck in almost every store today but in jr. high, when I received mine from my dad, they were a brand new thing as far as we regular people knew. My dad had gotten a calculator for himself the year before and I remember having to ask for special permission to use it for my math homework. It was as unique as the first home computer to me at that time so I loved playing with it. I thought it was quite the innovative marvel. Precious few kids my age had their own calculator and actually, very few of their parents had yet to invest in one for their home so I didn't even bother asking for one when my dad got his. They sold them at his place of business so after hearing that I was struggling a little bit with 7th grade math, (which really wasn't an I-need-a-calculator problem as much as it was an I-can-hit-three-pointers-all-day-without-ever-using-net-so-why-should-I-care-about-math problem but hey, it yielded a cool and uncharacteristically thoughtful guilt gift from my dad so who was I to argue?

I've had countless other calculators representing most every normal price range since that time but I still think about my little white calculator that was so special to me because it was new technology AND because it was a rare gift from my dad and I wish I had possessed enough foresight as a teen to hang onto it, even after it stopped working properly, just for sentimental purposes.And about guilt gifts: They're nice but never as good as that which you have to give up to get them. I would have rather had a sober, involved dad than a calculator any day.

3:04 AM

Track Shoes

Notice the real Adidas has only the trademark three stipes ,

while the generic has four. If you're gonna roll with me, you've got to know these things. lol

The shoe in the top two pictures is an Adidas. I didn't know, until I started doing research for this project that Adidas made this particular style shoe. How can that be? I'm the shoe queen. I know everything about shoes! The bottom pic shows the knock-off that so many of us wore.
All thought my elementary school years, this was the shoe most often worn by every kid of every age. What we apparently didn't realize back then was that the ones we were all wearing were the cheap knock-offs of the original Adidas running shoe. And since we didn't know any different, we didn't care at all that the ones we were wearing were the cheapies. Every young person I knew had at least one pair of these. Most people had multiple pairs in multiple colors. They were everywhere. It was the one time of my life when both my brother and I wore the same exact shoes. They were considered unisex and kids and teens alike wore them and loved them. Bernie and I used to get at least one brand new pair of them every spring, and then, usually again, in the fall. There were a few times when I used my own money to buy more of them because I couldn't get enough of them. I had the black/white, the red/white, the all-white, and the red/white/blue. In their day, they were every bit as popular as and Nike the world has ever seen. Even though they were the secret knock-offs, they cost $6 at Ray's, which was a lot of money considering most every other shoe in the store cost $3 or less. No one I knew had ever heard of a $30 sneaker at that time. ($29 was the cost of my very first Nike and that was considered outrageously high - I had to put them on lay-a-way at Penney's and pay them out in order to get them)

One Christmas Eve day, when I was in the 1st grade, the Dollar Store ran their children's shoes on a 2/$5 special. They carried both penny loafers AND track shoes (that's what we called these sneakers) so I was able to buy one of each with the traditional $5 that my Grandpa gave to me that year. Ask me if I was in heaven. A brand new pair of penny loafers AND a brand new pair of track shoes on the same day? Oh YES, please.

As you can clearly see, my shoe illness goes back to the very earliest days of my life.
My name is Maddie and I have a problem. : )

3:00 AM

My First Adidas

Few words are necessary. Let us just take a moment to gaze upon the beauty that is my very first pair of Adidas sneakers, otherwise known as the famous "Starsky" shoes. It's enough to make a blind man weep. Retail price: approximately $30-$35, depending where you purchased them, which was an unheard-of price at that time. Small price to pay for an athletic shoe that could take you from "Get out of my way, Freshman" to "That girl over there knows what shoes are cool" in 0.1 second.

Ah, the rainbows and lollipop joys of high school politics. But aren't these still freaking sweet?!!!!

2:55 AM

Penny Loafers

It's not just a shoe. It's a work of art.

For as long as I can remember, penny loafers have been my all-time favorite shoe. I have no idea why this one style of shoe is so appealing to me but it always has been. Even when I was really little, I was head-over-heels in love with these shoes and every time I saw a pair, whether in person, or in a catalog, I used to stare longingly at them and beg my mom to get them for me. I asked for them for Christmas, for my birthday, and for every day in between. One day, when I was a preschooler, I found a pair at Ray's that I just had to have but much to my dismay, my mom refused to buy them. (Bless her heart. She couldn't say yes all of the time!) As a rule, I was not much of a fit-throwing child. I would tear up sometimes or beg a little too much if I saw something I wanted in a store that my mom wouldn't buy but I was never one to just have a conniption and create a scene over such matters. However, this one particular day, for reasons still unclear to me, I had my heart set on that pair of penny loafers and when my mom refused to buy them for me, I absolutely lost it. It wasn't a kicking and screaming kind of a lost it but when we got into the car, (and all the way home, and for an hour or two after we got home, lol) I cried my eyes out over those shoes. It's not as though I had never been told no before so I don't know why that particular shoe disappointment was such a big deal to me but it really was. I loved those shoes and I was desperate to have them. I ended up crying myself to sleep that afternoon. My dad, who was a traveling salesman who was regularly gone for a week or two at a time, came home from the road and woke me up to say hello. Even though I had been asleep for quite awhile, he could tell that I had been crying so he asked my mom about it and she told him that I had cried myself to sleep because she refused to buy a pair of shoes that I wanted. By this time, and really, understandably so, my mom was furious with me because I had ruined her whole day whining about those shoes and I'm sure that the main reason she didn't buy them was because she was just trying to watch the budget and not spend frivolously. My dad made good money back then but we also had a lot of bills and I'm sure my mom had some reason for worrying about spending that I was too young and myopic to understand at such a young age. Also, they really didn't have the size I needed. The ones I had tried on, and begged to be allowed to purchase, were actually a little big. Given the fact that my mom thought shoes didn't fit properly unless your toes were protruding out of the end of them, I'm sure that they were way, way too big as far as she was concerned. lol

Nonetheless, I was sad all over again once I woke up and realized I still didn't have my shoes and my dad, having been gone for several days, naturally felt sorry for me (and probably also a little guilty for being absent so often) so he sort of jokingly scolded my mom and told her to take me back to the store to get those shoes immediately, as it was late Friday afternoon by then, and they were about to close. Back to the store we went, and I got the coveted penny loafers. They were indeed too big, just as my mom had said, and I had a hard time wearing them because of that but I wore them just the same. lol On the bright, slightly redemptive side of things, having to wear a pair of shoes that were about a size too big taught me a valuable lesson and I never asked for ill-fitting shoes again, no matter how much I loved them. lol

Over the years, I've owned more penny loafers than I can begin to count or remember. I have two or three pairs in my closet right now and I still get that happy feeling inside when I see or wear them. I just don't wear the cheap kind from Ray's or the Dollar Store anymore. I stopped wearing those when I was in jr. high. Cheap, faux leather loafers give me the willies. I can't stand to look at them. But for as long as I'm alive, wherever quality leather, name-brand shoes are sold, I'll be there eagerly looking for my size, and willing to sacrifice all of my disposable cash on another beautiful addition to my lifelong collection of penny loafer dreams.

2:51 AM

These Boots Are Made For Walking

One day my mom surprised me by taking me to Brown's Shoe Store (my lifelong local favorite) and bought for me a snazzy pair of white go-go boots, which were all the rage in the early to mid 6o's. I hadn't asked for them and I had no idea I was going to get them prior to going into the store. It wasn't my birthday and it wasn't Christmas and the boots were fairly expensive. My mom didn't make a habit of shopping for shoes at Brown's because my mom hates spending a lot on shoes. In the earliest years of my life, before I got old enough to rebel, lol, she bought most of my shoes at Ray's Discount Shoes or the Dollar Store. (My mom STILL shops the cheap stores when buying shoes for herself. She refuses to pay for name-brands. She grew up wearing cheap shoes and that's what suits her. If I were to buy name-brand shoes for her, she would return them. They're just not her style.) Therefore, I was more than just a little happy/shocked that day when I heard her tell the salesman that she was looking for the white go-go boots in my size. New shoe suprises are my favorite surprises! Have I mentioned that to you before? lol

Long story made a little shorter......they did have my size in stock and I danced out of the store with a brand new pair of "just because I love you" boots. It just so happened that at that same time, Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking" was a huge radio hit and we had the 45 at home. According to family lore, I spent the next week or so marching around the house singing along with that record in my new made-for-walking boots, but you can totally believe me when I tell you that I have absolutely no memory of that. (insert wink)

2:48 AM

Earth Shoes

I looked and looked for a picture that better represents the earth shoes that my friends and I wore in late jr. high/early high school but I have yet to find one. This particular pair is quite ugly. In a way, so were the ones we wore but at least ours didn't look like old man shoes. I think this pair looks terminally geriatric. Nonetheless, earth shoes became all the rage at the end of my 8th grade year. My friend Dian had a blue suede pair that I wanted so much I could barely stand it but the family budget was very, very strained that year and my mom just couldn't justify spending for an expensive pair of shoes that I didn't need. I had lots of sneakers and a few pairs of nice school shoes, as well so it's not as though I was hurting for shoes but man, did I ever want some of those blue suede earth shoes. I never got those but the following fall, (the beginning of my 9th grade year) Anthony's got some fairly cool earth shoes in stock and my mom allowed me to get a pair of those. Over the course of the next year or two, I got a couple more pairs of earth shoes including a really nice brown suede pair bought for me by my dad at the beginning of my 10th grade school year. I loved that pair a lot because they were the suede I had long wanted and they were name-brand instead of Anthony's generics. (No offense to my mom intended in that statement. I loved the ones she bought for me and besides that, she bought me lots of name brand shoes over the years, while that one pair is the only pair of shoes my dad ever bought for me in my entire life)

Fortunately the earth shoe went out of style almost as quickly as it had come into style. It was replaced by the preppy-inspired loafer styles that are still my favorites today. I heart preppy. In spite of the fact that I've never been rich, I've still always been a sporty prep at heart and that is definitely my chosen style.

Glad I dragged you through that long, drawn-out ode to shoes? You're welcome. And take heart. It's not over. There are more shoe tales to come. By the time I'm finished, you, too will appreciate the fine artistry that is shoe design. Oh, yes. You will. Don't even try to fight it. lol

2:45 AM

Hiking Boots

These look surprisingly awesome with a pair of Levi 501's and during my senior year, they became the "it" thing to wear. Some kids wore the cheaper, generic brands, which just didn't get the job done. My sweet mama dropped about $80 on Christmas Eve of that year to buy me the name brand boots that I desperately wanted. When I wore them with my straight-legged Levis, which had also just become an "it" fashion statement in my school (I LOVED the preppy era), I felt very cool and I strutted my stuff with the pride of a peacock. lol I miss those boots in the winter. We have never really had the kind of weather that requires such a severe boot but that was never the point to wearing them in the first place. It was all about having that preppy, John Denver snowy mountains loving image and that is an image that will always speak to me. If I weren't sadly much too heavy to fit into a pair of my beloved 501's, I'd buy another pair of these and wear them every fall and winter from now on. There's just something about that gorgeous brushed leather coupled with that magnificent red shoe string that sets my heart aflutter even now.

2:41 AM

Vintage She Ads

Random shoe ads from my childhood days. I loved brown leather loafers/oxfords, (Penny Loafers are my lifelong love) and I loved shiny patent leather. The red shoe in the ad above was my favorite style, (next to Penny Loafers) though I would have preferred it in brown. Oh, and I also loved shoes with kilts! Actually I loved all good leather shoes in just about any color. I have loved shoes for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, there was no toy in the world I loved more than I loved a pretty new pair of shoes. New shoe day was an event of epic proportions in my young life, just as it still is today. Oh, how I LOVE new shoe days!

2:35 AM

Keds

For the first 6 or 7 years of my life, I almost exclusively wore Keds when I wore sneakers. There's just something very fresh and clean-cut about a brand new pair of Keds. The toddler Keds, (the ones with the adorable little rubber toe) were very comfortable. The other style never was very comfortable to me but I was too young to know that they didn't fit my wide feet properly. I just assumed foot discomfort was a natural part of life. lol My mom also always bought my shoes at least a half size too small. She likes her own shoes to be as tight as can be which means you can always see the imprint of her toes at the end of all of her shoes. I was in jr. high or high school before I figured out why my shoes were always tight and uncomfortable because she had always taught me to make sure my toes reached the end of the shoe. lol Goofy woman. I used to get ingrown toenails when I was little and of course, I now know why. Once I started picking out my own shoes, I stopped having nail problems because I picked out shoes that fit properly. lol But before that, I would have problems and so rather than just taking me to get a new pair of shoes that fit well, my mom would cut the toe out of the ones I already had. Can't you just imagine the lovely?

Years later, when Prince Kit and I had little goobs of our own, we bought them lots of toddler Keds which looked unbelievably adorable on both of them. They especially loved mixing things up by wearing one red shoe and one blue shoe, ala Punky Brewster style. That will always be one of my very favorite fashion-related memories of our sweetie pie baby girls. I know. I digress. I do that.

Once our little girls outgrew the toddler version of Keds, we pretty much left the brand behind. Remembering how uncomfortable the designs for older kids were, and realizing Princess Jordy inherited my foot shape, I determined not to repeat my sweet mama's accidental shoe abuse issues. lolol But if Keds would make the toddler style in sizes big enough for them, and even for me, I would happily go back to them. I will miss seeing my beautiful, tiny-footed little girls dancing across the living room floor wearing their impeccably clean and adorable toddler Keds for the rest of my life.

*Related side note: My most memorable pair of Keds was the bright orange pair my mom bought me to wear on my very first day of kindergarten. I wore them with a brand new blue and white summer dress. The shoes didn't match the dress at all but I loved both so much that my mom just couldn't tell me no. Thanks, Mama. I felt so special on my first day of kindergarten because of that outfit. I love you very much.