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(not quite) 100 things - cont'dI started here. I may never finish it.
3 - I used to drink, too, a lot. I even remember how it got started. In April 1959 at the 50th wedding anniversary of my step-dad's (for all intents and purposes we'll call him dad or much later he became Pop to me) parents, Gramma and Grampa Larson. Niles, my brother (by marriage) and I were put in charge of serving the champagne to the guests. I was 15, he was 16 and we were responsible teenagers... right? Anyway, the pouring station was set up in the garage with no supervision. We would pour a bottle each and then we would look around and stash a bottle. We did this until we had about a case, then just poured for the guests and a wee bit for ourselves. We had enough sense to wait until most of the guests had finished at least one glass. Dad hadn't scrimped either. Even after the party there were still plenty of unopened bottles of the champagne. No, where he saved was on the quality. I'd never heard of the stuff before or since.
4 – I no longer sing (see number 3)
5 – As a youngster I attempted to learn to play the trumpet. Practice was the problem. It's not that I didn't practice. The noise was a problem for the neighbors, particularly since the tree house kid from up the street was also taking lessons. He was no better than I.
6 – Our favorite game as kids was called Kill the Pill Carrier. It wasn't a team sport. It was more like a free-for-all. We'd start with the ball in the middle of the playing field (and I use that term loosely). Any number of kids would sort of circle it. Finally one of us would run, grab the ball and try to get away from all of the others, whose sole goal was to tackle the player with the ball so everyone could pile on. Then the player who'd been tackled would toss the ball in the general direction of one of the others so it could start all over again.
7 – I was an only child and so was my brother... until we were united by marriage (our parents) when I was eight.
8 – I spent two years in the first grade. It was traumatic for everyone but me. All the good it ever did was undone when I only spent about two weeks in the second grade. I wasn't stupid, just immature, always testing really well for intelligence. They don't test for the application of that intelligence.
Keep coming back for more.
is this nuts?
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I also took trumpet lessons, for about three weeks. It was in the sixth grade. The only options offered to parents of kids at my school, insofar as instrumentation was concerned, was the trumpet or drums. I was hideous, and really didn't have any desire to stick with it after I found out you couldn't just put the thing up to your mouth and make beautiful music instantly.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I later became a keyboardist, then a bass player. I'm glad the way it turned out.
The "only child" thing is interesting to me because I was one until my late teens. I still consider myself one, really, as I've never shared living quarters with any of my step-brothers and sisters at any time.
Fifth grade here and my folks had to rent the instrument from a music store.
ReplyDeleteMy brother (step-brother) and I shared a room for about a month after our folks got married. Later when our sisters (half-sisters) were added to the mix, it was bedroom roulette. My sisters shared a room all the way through high school. Heck, my brother an I still can't be in the same room for long without stirring up something. We're still like the eight year olds we were when we met.
"I was an only child ans so was my brother..." Great line!
ReplyDeleteNana - When you want to get folks attention when introducing yourself, you drop a truth like, "My brother was an only child." Then hold back the explanation.
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