the world according to... Kimmie

Through a fault that is ENTIRELY MY OWN, this guest post on The Creamery was written by my sister Kim (called Kimmie by me and the Little Brother), but had to be posted by me. Anyway. Written by Kimmie, but posted by me even though I wasn't going to be posting this week due to this thing we're doing over here in Denver. I sort of feel like telling you all LA LA LA YOU DON'T SEE ME, I'M JUST PASSING THROUGH! But I miss you guys, I do. So a brief highlight and then we'll get to the post by the sister: large box elder bug INSIDE MY SUITCASE just crawling around wily-nilly and a two-night stay at an actual tried-and-true working ranch with cattle and large farm equipment and no other house or sign of civilization in sight. So no sign of civilization, but SEVERAL dead animal trophy head-things on the walls. There were even two in our room. Chip worried about getting too close, for fear that the deer was going to reach out and nip him on the arm. I was thinking more along the lines of the animals coming alive like at Disneyland (a girl can hope) and starting to tell jokes. Sadly that didn't happen. I think they were very amused about the CITY FOLK. I didn't know how to refer to the dead-animal-trophy-head-things-on-the-walls so I pretty much called them that: Hey, did you guys, um, catch, all those dead-animal-trophy-head-things-on-your-walls? Yes? Well wow. That's...cool. We've now left the ranch behind and are staying up in the mountains for the next few days at a huge YMCA complex. It's rustic and see above with the bug INSIDE MY SUITCASE. I have my doubts about my ability to cope with roughing it.



Now. Written by the sister:

Well, my sister asked me to post something and at first I thought it would be easy-peasy but I am finding that it is rather difficult.

Have you ever wondered why you were here? What is your purpose? Just kidding!! However, I have been wondering what things are going to be like for my kids when they get older and are building their own lives. In thinking about this, I had many flashbacks to when I was younger. My favorite things to do were roller skate, play barbies, and play in my little kitchen that my dad made for me. My youngest daughter C likes to point out that I had a lot of "fun" things when I was little. And you know what, I did, and they were fun! My friends and I would skate for hours around the blocks, and on the "smooth street", we would cross the overpass and go visit friends on the other side of town. Robert, Cheryl, and I would collect soda bottles, load them in the wagon and walk to Mitchell's Liquor Store to cash them in. Then we would buy licorice or bubble yum. We would ride bikes for hours every single day, swim, play ditch on the weekends and jump neighbor's fences hiding in their backyards. No one ever called the Police. This wasn't back in the 1950's, it was in the 1970's and early 1980's. Crazy to think about how things are different now.

I had given B the idea to invite a group of kids over and play ditch or kick the can one evening and she looked at me like I was speaking a different language. I promptly looked the games up on the internet and printed them out for her so she could get a better picture of how we played them since my explanation just wasn't cutting it.

Summer always brought trips to the beach and mom would buy grape Shasta soda, what a treat! We would travel to Utah and Idaho to see family. I would look out the car window and see the dark sky with white dots EVERYWHERE and then be amazed as we approached Las Vegas to see the glow of the city lights. The other night, I was swimming with R and B. We were looking at the stars in the sky. We could see the Big Dipper and a very few others. B was amazed at my description of the night sky when I was younger. They can kind of get a glimpse of it now when we visit Grandma and Grandpa in Utah.

We just took a trip to Utah in our minivan and I found myself longing to listen to the Mamas & the Papas, the Carpenter's, Elton John's "Rocketman", and John Denver. I did have some Carpenter's music loaded on my MP3 that my kids navigated through, but I missed the others. Maybe Whimsy remembers sitting in the greet station wagon and singing "Grandma's Featherbed" or "Rocketman" or "Monday, Monday" (Whimsy note: yes, yes, and certainly yes.) My kids laugh at me when I sing the songs but amazingly they all start joining in with me. Funny how I want them to have as many good memories growing up as I did.

While we were at Grandma's house, B & T were looking at old pictures of us as kids. Pictures of Whimsy and Steve (Whimsy: that would be The Little Brother) - and Whimsy didn't look much bigger than he was. Pictures of all of us dressed in Halloween costumes. They even recognized the Indian costume because they have worn it! C was pretty surprised that Whimsy also wore my cheerleading uniform as a costume. Yeah, to be that little again and fit into my high school Cheer uniform... that would be AWESOME! Yet a little impractical. One really can't wear cheerleading uniforms everyday especially with four kids on an outing to the grocery store.

How amazing, wonderful, and beautiful things are through a child's eyes or even an adult's childhood memories. I can only hope that things are just as great for my kids as they were for me. I know they will be immensely different, but still good memories nonetheless. I think we can be creative and have just as much fun with our kids as we did when we were kids.

-Kim




Whimsy note: I should let this speak for itself because it's lovely, but I'm surprised Kimmie didn't tell you what a PAIN I was when we were kids --- busting into her bedroom, putting on her perfume, playing with her clothes. I suppose she knows I've got some stuff on her, too, so she decided to play nice. And she did. So I can too, and tell you all that we really did have a close-to-idyllic childhood. One of my favorite memories? Watching Kimmie and all the older neighborhood kids decide to play Charlie's Angels. AWESOME.