On this, my 100th blog, I wanted to share 100 fond memories from my life. I hope I won’t bore you with this slightly indulgent journey down memory lane on my part. Without further ado, here they are…
1) Going to Grandma’s (my great-grandmother) every Tuesday at
2) Getting stuck on top of the monkey bars during recess in kindergarten after repeatedly trying to make my way there over several weeks. When Mom came to pick me up, I was frozen with fear and it took me a while to get down.
3) Dropping my jaw at the kindergarten scandal--the principal’s daughter in my class wore a tube top to school one day! Oh the shame of it all!!!
4) Watching with envy as Bob White’s cow was the one that was put up with the head over the fence for a first grade bulletin board. I so wanted my cow there. I quickly got over it.
5) Passing out and falling in the middle of a collection of wooden chairs while making a Mother’s Day candle out of soap, toile, and a washcloth. Ouch!
6) Drinking milk out of plastic bags as part of a year-long experiment. It was fun!
7) Staying at the Helms Motel,
8) Driving the go-cart by myself at
9) Kissing all the first grade girls during recess. I was such a Casanova! I’m not sure why I did it! Maybe I was bored??
10) Watching Mrs. Overman open her end of the year presents and discovering that someone had given her underwear! The giggling and tittering were ceaseless!
11) Finding out that second grade math speed tests weren’t as frightening as they sounded in first grade.
12) Stapling my finger while trying to close my bag of chips. The second grade substitute was rushing me to music after lunch. I don’t like being rushed! It was an afternoon at the ER complete with pliers and smelling salts! Fun fun!
13) Making mud pies under Grandpa’s pecan trees and adding the appropriate local-grown “vegetables” to create a culinary masterpiece!
14) Cranking the car engine on the 1976 Buick Stationwagon so I could lower the back window. Boy! I got in so much trouble!!
15) Blowing bubblegum bubbles in Grandpa’s den while he was in the kitchen. He still heard us and we were reprimanded. We giggled hysterically!
16) Following my sister underneath the clothes racks at department stores while Mom shopped. Mom wasn’t happy and she let us know it! haha
17) Changing classes for English and Math in third grade. Wow! Are we grown?
18) Performing around the May Pole on May Day. I was cute in the blue sash, but I was very self-conscious skipping around the pole in front of all those people!
19) Accepting Christ as my Savior one morning after church.
20) Being the tiger in a Japanese version of Little Red Riding Hood. Grrroowwwlllll!
21) Being an angel (not much of a stretch!) for a production of Hansel & Gretel.
22) Walking in the Walk-a-Thon in fourth grade and not thinking I would make it the whole 12 miles. But I did!
23) Drinking Cheerwine after that Walk-a-Thon. It was the last time for quite a while. I know why! I don’t care for it!
24) Growing up on the dairy farm--the open space, the lovely countryside odors, the bobwhite calls. Nothing like it!
25) Washing out the barn with the pressure hose every other weekend after milking was finished.
26) Having wee Kellie hold the same pressure hose after I had finished washing the barn while I turned off the pump. The whole milking parlor, including us, was soaked!
27) Changing the teat cups once a month. We liked it! Really!
28) Learning how to drive the Bobcat. Never could get the hang of the bucket controls!
29) Going to the garden early during the summer to beat the heat. I hated picking corn and butter beans, but it was worth it. Mom picked circles around us kids.
30) Riding up the sycamore tree in the golf cart while Kellie was driving. Yes, folks, she drove up the tree. I had to back it off. Somehow it managed to survive and thrive!
31) Riding out in front of an oncoming car on the same golf cart just a few minutes later. The same driver hopped out and left me and the cart in the middle of the road. Needless to say, driving privileges were revoked for a while.
32) Being in my 6th grade play where we repeated a section of the play twice during the performance and the audience laughed both times at the joke!
33) Entering Jr. High School (for me 7th and 8th grades). Not my best year!
34) Having to go to PE everyday for 3 1/2 years. My favorite part was Health class!
35) Having to go to the locker room to change with all those boys! My first PE had 8th graders in it as well! Don’t they have private rooms here????
36) Catching the softball pop fly with no glove as I heard the PE coach say I would never catch it. I was the hero for the day!
37) Reciting the Preamble for
38) Making Christmas presents for our teachers! Candies and cookies and breads, oh my!
39) Receiving the Timothy, Meritorious, and Citation awards in AWANA.
40) Being embarrassed by Kellie during Health class when she raps loudly on the trailer door to switch lunches.
41) Having my classes come out each year to the house to build the Homecoming floats.
we had so much fun planning and building.
42) Wearing the same tiger costume from 3rd grade for the 7th grade float. A tad snug!
43) Going to Old Salem in 7th grade. I didn’t care for the pickled peach, but the bread was wonderful!
44) Getting up at
45) Sitting in the warm truck on a cold morning, falling asleep, and waking up to discover that the trough had overfilled and silage was in a large pile at the end of the trough. Oops!
46) Learning new sayings from Dad when the cows didn’t co-operate early in the morning (You cows irk my rectum!) and trying not to laugh!
47) Being the pump man for Dad when he treated recently freshened cows with VUT. It wasn’t pleasant if they still retained the placenta!
48) Going barefoot all summer long at the barnyard. Mom forbade it afterwards because of stained toenails.
49) Finally being allowed to have a pet hamster only to be made to get rid of it after one week because it escaped its home!
50) Having swimming lessons when I was around 13. I felt very self-conscious about blowing bubbles before each class and never could get the hang of breathing and swimming.
51) Having all the cats over the years. Misty was the Queen. No one can dethrone her. She lived to be around 19 years old. I used to carry her around in my robe pocket.
52) Being stalked by my sister after she entered Jr. High. She was everywhere!!!
53) Loading up a buggy with all the cabbage on display at Farm Fresh with 2 of my friends because we had run out of slaw for the Country Fair. People were indeed staring!
54) Learning how to dissect frogs, worms, fish, and other creatures in Biology.
55) Traveling to
56) Going with my friends to the Emerald Isle for a week between Junior and Senior year. What a fun week! Burnt soles and all!
57) Being chosen as the co-editor of the yearbook. I loved it!
58) Screeching into the post office at
59) Riding in the back seat while a classmate drove us to take pictures for the yearbook. We didn’t think we would make it safely!!
60) Traveling to
61) Graduating!!!!! Could it have been any hotter or the speaker any more boring???
62) Having fun at
63) Watching the last milking at Greenview Farms. Bittersweet!
64) Looking like a Freshman 110% on my first day at NCSU. What a large campus!
65) Deciding to get a 4-year degree in 5 years. Why rush?
66) Having to go from one end of the NC State campus all the way to the other end in the 15 minute time span between classes...up hill...both ways.
67) Surviving 4 semesters of chemistry--regular and organic--with no previous chemistry classes. Anyone for acid-baseball?
68) Foolishly taking German classes three semesters apart. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
69) Trying to make my way down a cliff in what is now
70) Camping in the mountains with the Mammalogy class for a weekend live-trapping small mammals. The wind howled all night Saturday and all day Sunday when a cold front came through. BRRRRRRRRRRR
71) Taking 4 semesters of college PE classes--angling, bowling, archery, golf. Haven’t participated in any of them since then.
72) Scouring
73) Starting my first real job with CARQUEST. Not long after, I ran off a driveway into a ditch while delivering parts! Luckily the man had a tractor. No harm to the van!
74) Driving around in the delivery truck singing “Nobody Does It Better” at the top of my lungs because there was no radio in the truck!
75) Welcoming Steve into the family. Where did all the people come from at the wedding?
76) Learning how to sell auto parts without knowing how to work on a car. It can be done!
77) Falling out during an interview in front of the interviewers. Didn’t get the job!
78) Passing out twice within a few minutes of each other in the bathroom at work. Scared a lot of people who made me go to the ER.
79) Passing out while sitting during an interview for another position with CARQUEST. The interviewer thought I was having a seizure! I’m beginning to see a pattern here…
80) Going to the hospital while Kellie was “birthin’ dem babies”! Is that my sister moaning like a dying animal??
81) Holding Wesley and Mikayla for the very first time. I was a bit nervous!
82) Taking my first ever flight to anywhere visiting Aaron in
83) Working for 5 months with Midway Airlines. I was able to travel for free!!
84) Being re-hired by CARQUEST after being “furloughed” by Midway.
85) Taking my first international flight to
86) Meeting Noel for the first time in a
87) Traveling to
88) Taking my Albanian gondola ride (a raft pushed by a guy in the water) down the river.
89) Riding bumper cars in
90) Switching positions at CARQUEST. Now I’m working in the office and loving it!
91) Eating arracheras and drinking horchata de coco. ¡Nada está más fino o delicioso!
92) Watching Steve’s jaw drop when he unwrapped his banjo. Priceless!
93) Planning Dad and Mom’s 40th anniversary party. We managed to actually surprise them! Their facial expressions were worth all the time and effort!
94) Seeing the awesome power of
95) Having Mom home again after her hospital stay.
96) Sightseeing in
97) Winning prizes at the fair for jams, jellies, baked goods, and produce.
98) Showing Wesley and Mikayla the joys of cooking. If only their mother could see it...
99) Taking recent family vacations. It is good to finally see Dad and Mom go somewhere regularly!
100) Working in the garden with Dad and Mom. It’s amazing to see what Dad comes up with for improvements each year.
Wow! That list is full of many good memories. Thanks for letting me share them with you!
Until next time, have a memory-filled day!
1 comment:
I loved them all!!! I laughed at many. Gee, thanks, for blaming me for trying to kill you. Hey... where IS the winnebago memory???? LOL Thanks for taking ME down memory lane.
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