This is a place to write about memories of events - some important, many not so much - in my life. Some of these I may someday turn into memoires, or add photos as I come across them in my piles of pictures. I hope to document times in my life as a girl, a young single woman, a married woman and a mother. I feel like a lot of things I should remember have been forgotten. I am hoping this exercise will help me remember more times. Here goes!
Earliest memories:
Spelling my first word (cat); sitting behind the wing chair in our house on Barth avenue and reading - my favorite books to read were Nancy Drew mysteries and Golden Book encyclopedias; rolling poker chips down an improvised ramp made up of game boards; Smokey Burgess, our gray cat (named after the Pittsburgh Pirates catcher) and the day I found out he had died (I came home for lunch and was eating a hot dog when Mom told me); keeping our Halloween candy in the front coat closet because it was always cool in there - my candy lasted months because we only ate one piece a day; sharing a bedroom with my sister Debbie. We had twin beds and sometimes I'd build a tunnel by covering the space between the beds with blankets; all the stuffed animals that I liked to sleep with (6 or 7 in each arm); playing with the neighbor kids - Red Rover, Freeze Tag, and other group games, or playing board games like Monopoly or Go for Broke with a couple friends on the front porch in the summer; Barbie dolls - I also had extra interchangeable heads and another doll named Mary Makeup, with her own .... makeup!; Chip telling me that he "was going to see a man about a horse" when he was just going out with friends - I always asked "what color?" and meant it!
Eating meals in the room Dad added onto the house which was a couple stories above the backyard; the way Debbie hiccupped; the little red chair I stood on when helping at the counter or that Smokey sat on; sledding down the backyard hill into the alley; riding my bike in the alley and wiping out because of wet leaves; riding my bike and wiping out because I had those paper sunglasses on after getting my eyes checked - maybe this happened in 5th grade - while I was riding to my friend house; riding my bike no-handed down the hilly streets in our neighborhood (I had coaster brakes!); walking through the cemetery to collect buckeyes;
Washington school:
Kindergarten with Miss Glunt, the jungle gym in the room and taking naps on our mats; first grade - I don't remember the teacher's name, but I remember her coming into our room, lowering the window shades and telling us through her tears that President Kennedy had been shot - we went home early that day; second or third grade was the year I constantly had a stomach ache - eventually I had an upper GI test to see if there was anything wrong. Deb and Chip told me that I'd drink a vanilla shake and it would taste really good, but it was chalky and tasted horrible! There was nothing wrong with my stomach, it was all in my head!; fourth grade with Miss Armstrong, who was hard of hearing - I also got glasses that year; I don't remember anything special about fifth grade; sixth grade was Mr. ??? who kept a bull whip in his filing cabinet - he was dreamy, yet I can't come up with his name! [Now I remember: Mr. Daniels!] I was also a crossing guard that year; walking home for lunch; the few times that I stayed at school for lunch and bought lunch; getting calluses on my hands from the monkeybars on the playground.
Church:
We went to the United Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon, which had twin towers and lots of stone. The inside of the sanctuary was very echo-y because the floors were tile and the pews were hard. The organist sat right in the middle of the choir loft and directed the choir. Myles MacDonald was the minister there. Mom and Dad belonged to the 79er's (because you could belong to it until your combined ages went over 79); every Wednesday after school was Youth Club - I would walk there from school, through downtown Mt. Lebanon. We had choir rehearsal first, then Bible study, then dinner, and crafts afterward. Youth Club was one of my all-time favorite activities! Choir there was where I first learned I had a good singing voice.
PITTSBURGH
Earliest memories:Spelling my first word (cat); sitting behind the wing chair in our house on Barth avenue and reading - my favorite books to read were Nancy Drew mysteries and Golden Book encyclopedias; rolling poker chips down an improvised ramp made up of game boards; Smokey Burgess, our gray cat (named after the Pittsburgh Pirates catcher) and the day I found out he had died (I came home for lunch and was eating a hot dog when Mom told me); keeping our Halloween candy in the front coat closet because it was always cool in there - my candy lasted months because we only ate one piece a day; sharing a bedroom with my sister Debbie. We had twin beds and sometimes I'd build a tunnel by covering the space between the beds with blankets; all the stuffed animals that I liked to sleep with (6 or 7 in each arm); playing with the neighbor kids - Red Rover, Freeze Tag, and other group games, or playing board games like Monopoly or Go for Broke with a couple friends on the front porch in the summer; Barbie dolls - I also had extra interchangeable heads and another doll named Mary Makeup, with her own .... makeup!; Chip telling me that he "was going to see a man about a horse" when he was just going out with friends - I always asked "what color?" and meant it!
Eating meals in the room Dad added onto the house which was a couple stories above the backyard; the way Debbie hiccupped; the little red chair I stood on when helping at the counter or that Smokey sat on; sledding down the backyard hill into the alley; riding my bike in the alley and wiping out because of wet leaves; riding my bike and wiping out because I had those paper sunglasses on after getting my eyes checked - maybe this happened in 5th grade - while I was riding to my friend house; riding my bike no-handed down the hilly streets in our neighborhood (I had coaster brakes!); walking through the cemetery to collect buckeyes;
Washington school:
Kindergarten with Miss Glunt, the jungle gym in the room and taking naps on our mats; first grade - I don't remember the teacher's name, but I remember her coming into our room, lowering the window shades and telling us through her tears that President Kennedy had been shot - we went home early that day; second or third grade was the year I constantly had a stomach ache - eventually I had an upper GI test to see if there was anything wrong. Deb and Chip told me that I'd drink a vanilla shake and it would taste really good, but it was chalky and tasted horrible! There was nothing wrong with my stomach, it was all in my head!; fourth grade with Miss Armstrong, who was hard of hearing - I also got glasses that year; I don't remember anything special about fifth grade; sixth grade was Mr. ??? who kept a bull whip in his filing cabinet - he was dreamy, yet I can't come up with his name! [Now I remember: Mr. Daniels!] I was also a crossing guard that year; walking home for lunch; the few times that I stayed at school for lunch and bought lunch; getting calluses on my hands from the monkeybars on the playground.
Church:
We went to the United Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon, which had twin towers and lots of stone. The inside of the sanctuary was very echo-y because the floors were tile and the pews were hard. The organist sat right in the middle of the choir loft and directed the choir. Myles MacDonald was the minister there. Mom and Dad belonged to the 79er's (because you could belong to it until your combined ages went over 79); every Wednesday after school was Youth Club - I would walk there from school, through downtown Mt. Lebanon. We had choir rehearsal first, then Bible study, then dinner, and crafts afterward. Youth Club was one of my all-time favorite activities! Choir there was where I first learned I had a good singing voice.
