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The Birth
Mothers first child. Eighteen and already in the worst pain and joy thats supposed to happen in a womans life. Eight at night, the begining. -
Camels in Indianna
The year I turned on my aunt and uncle wanted to take me to my first trip to the zoo. I loved the whole thing. Besides the reptiles. The last animal we visited was the camel. I toddled up to this rope they had around them. A man was standing there and he got a camel up to me so i could pet it. All was fine and dandy until the camel licked me. I jerked back then smacked the camels nose and screamed. Needless to say they got me out of the zoo. -
Slide
Wearing my pink ruffled dress i climbed the stairs up to the big slide. My aunt, uncle and mother were all waiting hands stretched out for me to slide down. I was scared. It was to high. But they were their and they wouldn't ever let me fall. The thought was a comfort but not enough, I turned with my back to the slide and got on my hands and knees and crawled backward all the way down. I stood up to find everyone laughing. I realized they thought what i had done was unusal. Well, time for swings -
Pops
Brush Harbor, the days of running around with no shoes on and always having a dirt smudge somewhere. I went out on the concrete slab in my backyard with a bowl of cereal, Pops to be exact. A girl came out of her back door the next apartment over and ran up to me. "I'll race you for it." I knew she was talking about my cereal and oddly enough I agree. We sat the bowl in the yard and backed up creating a triangle. She cheated and beat me, and ate my cereal. I punched her when she finished. -
Angel
We really weren''t that close as friends. Why i was standing in her empty living room with her close inner circle i didn't know. All i know is that Angel had called me over from her yard and said she was moving and was giving a few things to her friends. I ran over to her house and three girls were already there. One girl got a necklace with a heart on it. The next got a stuffed animal. The other got a sparkle pen. She gave me a Brittney Spears barbie doll. I never saw the girl again. -
Papaw
"P-R-E-T-T-Y, not purdy." My papaw sat in his big armchair in our tiny living room.
"Pretty, purdy, pretty." I sat there looking at him. He asked me, a six year old, what I did today, he corrected my grammar the entire story.
"Jimmy shes six, leave her alone." My grandmother was standing in the kitchen connected to the living room. She made the joke that one day i would write a book about him that day. -
Baxter
Papaw was a diabetic. He was connected to this fluid in a bag that hung from this big rolling hook. Like what they conncect the iv's in the hospital to. Looking from our little kitchen back towards my bedroom all you saw was boxes. Boxes and boxes of the fluid with Baxter written in blue across the side. Holding my barbie in one hand i would run down the hall to my bedroom letting my hand glid across the boxes. Taking in the feel of carboard on my bare skin. -
Road Trips
I remember every other weekend me and my grandmother would drive the long four hour trip from South Carolina to my mothers house in Corbin. She drove the trip twice. One to drop me off and then all the way back. It was like taking a road trip every weekend. A lot of my time in South Carolina i remember being in a car. -
Princess me
"I'll be the princess." I announced standing up out of the circle made up of my sisters. "Why should you get to?" Brittany whined. "Because I'm blonde and my hair is long." My idea of a princess was long hair and pretty dresses. I was oldest and Brittany knew I'd win so she sighed and gave up. We were playing out castle game. Our whole yard was set up in a maze. We played for hours fighting dragons and working with fairys and elfs. Our imaginations out ran us sometimes. -
Music video
My sisters and I loved 80s music. My mamaw would play it on the radio and we danced around my moms house. Mamaw also used to constantly have a video camera in her hand. So I came up with the bright idea to make a music video to one of the songs. We got dressed in cut off shorts and tank tops and in our back yard we used hair brushes for microphones and sang our song loudly into the camera. We still have the video somewhere. -
New School
I looked like a labratory assistant. A big white jacket on with a white t-shirt and jeans. i was certainly a fashion statement. I really felt like curling up in that big jacket from embaressment the moment Mrs. Napier called me out as a new student. I wouldn't have ever showed that though so i smiled at everyone. Sydney was the very first person i met. She turned toward me and introduced herself and we became best friends. -
Cancer
Sitting at the dining room table, i could feel the tension. My dad's knowing face, my grandmothers gentler, wheathered face, and last my stepgrandfathers calm, reasoning face, all looking at me. Tears came to my grandmothers eyes as she told me that my step grandpa had less than a year to live. I didn't know what to think, i'd only known him a year. But he seemed calm enough. He had already went through this three times. -
Uncle Tommy
I walked in to find the house quiet. My dad walks out of a room with puffy eyes. "Jess let's talk." he says. I just stand there, confused. "Your uncle, tommy, is gone." "Where?" -
Football Head
In eighth grade i was never the 'pretty girl'. My hair was usually in a ponytail. Then came the day i really needed to impress a boy. So I got the purse id gotten for Christmas off the shelf in my closet and put some stuff in. I got my tight jeans and pretty shirt down and the next morning i got up early to straighten my long hair. I perfeced my makeup and went to school. At break I was strutting across the field when a football came down on my head and i fell. I was so embaressed i went home. -
Phony phone
For my fourteenth birthday I was getting a really expensive phone that i'd been dying for. I had been waiting three months. On my birthday they were saving it for last. I had to go through opening everyone else's presents before my phone. Then finally the moment was here, they handed me the bag. There sat a pink razor phone. Not at all my phone. I was so mad i almost threw the phone. Mom let me think the company messed up. Finally she gave me the real phone and everyone laughed, except me. -
State
Standing head bent, heart pounding, waiting with my flag. The music begins head snaps up and we're off. All the people staring, what are they thinking. (Smile, shoulders back.) I hope no one falls, What if my sail gets caught. (Toes up.) First part over. My confidence increases as the second part goes and by the third part im loving the attention of the audience. The last song ends and the crowd cheers. Marching off the football field with the band i feel proud, we made it. -
Sweet Sixteen?
Even though my birthday was the fourteenth my party was the eighteenth. It was the party of my dreams. Held at the country club, a dj, a professional cake, and a car.Party dresses and doing hair. Blowing up balloons and covering the floor in glitter. Dancing, pizza. Sounds fabulous, and it was except for the fact that i was really upset that night. As a teen the cause of my distress was my boyfriend of two years. He didn't approve of parties at all. I considered it fun, he condsidered it dumb.