As a kid, we did road trips all the time. They were not fun. But as I got older my sister and I did road trips and they were fun.
This past week in my writing class we read Joe Brainard’s I Remember. It gave me a great many thoughts and send me down memory lane.
I remember strawberry soda, winos, and the Jackson Five playing on the jukebox.
I remember read meat and yellow meat watermelons that grew in Ms. Paramore’s garden.
I remember tea cakes and pickles from Ms. Tiny
I remember Ms. Fannie Mar watched everything, doing laundry and making her dinner
I remember playing in her grass because it was the best grass in the whole neighborhood
I remember when my dad build a fence around our yard, even though there was a still scary alley with overgrown weeds we could cut through to get to the next street.
I remember playing kickball in the street, using different pieces of trash for bases and stopping when cars came, playing till dark and sweating profusely cause we were professionals
I remember riding my bike up and down the hills (how did we have little hills in the flattest part of Texas) I am afraid only the garbage man knows.
I remember playing on the church ground and when that little boy jumped off the outside stairs because he thought he would fly. He didn’t.
I remember when there was a meeting at the church and old people and the young argued.
I remembered when I couldn’t go outside to play on Sunday’s until church was over and when my mother used to send me to church with Ms. Fannie Mae who went to the church with the old old people. Ms. Robelow taught Sunday school.
I remember when the Nazarenes came to teach vacation bible school in the summer
I remember accepting Jesus into my heart, it changed everything and being stumped because it didn’t fell the way I thought it would feel. I expected an explosion, not a whisper.
This month I am reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I am struck by her determination to do things. I love the story about how she fought with her great aunt over piano lessons. Be so fired up for your cause that you are at the recital sitting on the piano bench in front of the audience before you realize you don’t know where middle C is.
When I packed my apartment the last time I moved, I knew there would be things I would not need where I was going. Things like a sofa, TV, a bed frame were just going to be things I would need to store, so I decided they needed a new home.
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