Shady Lane

I feel I have boo hooed too much about my childhood.  If you feel you have heard enough of it, skip this one cause I am going to visit it again today.  This time with a happy twist.  It was an ugly existence but if you give a child a chance they will find ways to have fun. 
I have talked about how dirty our house was.  How I was afraid to take a bath cause the roaches would fall off the ceiling on me and I didn't feel like I could get away from them while soaking wet and naked.  Of course this means I was a dirty little kid.  Our clothes did not get washed.  We wore the same thing over and over or looked for something that was in that pile of crap that was on the floor that wasn't covered in dirt or cat poop. 
I look back now as an adult and I am amazed at how normal it seemed to me.  We all had friends and they didn't live like that.  I should have connected the dots, but I didn't.  I had plenty of kids make fun of me.  I even got in a fight with a girl in Elementary School over it.  She had the nerve to make fun of me to my face.  So I hit her.  I knew others made fun of me.  As long as they didn't do it to my face it didn't seem to matter to me. 

I remember a group of boys that threw rocks at me once.  They hit me a few times.  I just stood there and let them.  I called them a few names and didn't let them know that the rocks that hit me hurt.  They gave up after a few minutes and found something better to do.  I bet none of them even remember doing it.  If you think back to your childhood, how many of you remember the family with all the "dirty kids"?  That was my family.

Ok enough of the boo hoo.  The reason for adding all the sob crap is I wanted you to be aware of some of the good people from my childhood.  It does NOT include the school teacher that always grabbed me from whatever class I was in to check ME for head lice EVERY time there was another outbreak at school.  I can't tell you how glad I was that the old hag never did find any.  Sorry, I went back to the boo hooing again there.  BUT if y'all ever think a kid can't figure out what you are up to, guess again. 

So that was me, the mostly clueless stinky kid.  But not everyone made fun of me or threw rocks at me.  I had a best friend.  She was one of the most beautiful girls in school.  Why she picked me to be her friend I have no idea.  We did everything together.  We played with her toys (barbies and horses) in her bedroom and in her backyard.  We listened to records in her room.  Oh and the Pepsi floats, yum!  I spent so much time at her house!  I remember her mom often having to tell me it was time for me to go home.  But there were a few times she let me sleep over.  We had the run of the whole neighborhood as kids.  We both mourned together when they cut down dozens of trees on what we called Shady Lane.  It made it hard to walk barefoot in the summer when the trees no longer shaded the road.  I remember running as fast as we could on the hot pavement and the loud oohhs and ahhhs when we finally made it to a shady spot again.  I remember one year we made our own costumes for Halloween.  We were matching "bed sheet ghosts".  We smoked our 1st cigarettes together down at the cement slabs.  We sent my little sister across a busy street to buy them for us.  We thought that the clerk would never think that such a young girl would ever be buying them for herself.  I cringe every time I think of that memory.  What WAS I thinking of, sending my little sister across that busy street all by herself?  There was such a terrible ache when I was sent off to Turley.  Not only did they split me up from my family but from my only friend.
We stayed in touch for years.  Whenever I would go visit my Grams I would always go spend time with her.  But as time went on she made new friends at her school and I made new ones at mine.  I never had that good of a friend again.  Until this Saturday night we hadn't talked to each other for about 23 years.  We had chatted a little bit on FB during the past week, but not talked.  I knew when we got on the phone together we would be hours talking!  We talked for two and a half hours and only got started catching up.   We have already made plans to go to a concert together, Heart/Def Leppard in July.  For those that know me well, yes I am going downtown willingly.  Yes I am going to a concert in a whole crowd of people.  How could I say no, it's Heart.  We used to sing Heart songs together when we were girls.  I still remember us singing together, during the lunch break, while making clover chains at Owen Elementary.  I guess she was mostly exempt from my "memory loss habit" because I could go on and on with so many of my fond memories of the time we spent together.  It makes that long ago little girl's heart that is still inside me sing again.

There! 
Another missing part of me has been filled!