What to speak of today? I remember.. when I was young I must have been about 5-6 I was climbing our maple tree in the back yard. My brothers were climbing too and they climbed to the top of the tree where they would sway in the wind. I couldn't make it that far but I have always wanted to try. They told me.. When you are 7 you for sure can go up there. I believe one bro was 9 and the other 11 and I craved to climb I tried but I was just too scared and my little legs couldn't stretch far enough to push my way up the branches. So I found these two branches that grew very close together enough to sit on or lay down on. I would sometimes bring paper and a pencil with me and draw flowers or the tree or what ever. It was my safe haven and I loved it. I tried again when i was 7 ..couldn't do it and tried again at 9 still couldn't reach with confidence. Then again at 11 then 12 I believe the last time that I've tried to climb that tree I must have been 17 years old. And you would think that I could go farther.. I did.. about 5 ft higher and that was it. I just couldn't do it. It was too scary for me and I've always regretted not getting to the swaying tree limbs. Still I loved that tree. It knew just what I needed, those two branches just for me.
I remember when I was around 5 I found this cat. He was black and White. Mostly his paws were white and the unique thing about him was that he had 8 toes on each front paw so his feet were huge!!! We named him mittens. Just looked like he was always wearing mittens. He was beautiful. One day I saw him across the street. I called for him and called for him. Then he saw me and started to run towards me. I quickly went from the feeling of joy and happiness to utter pain and sickness. I saw a HUGE mack truck coming up my road.. it's not a main street so that sort of thing didn't just happen a lot. I saw that my cat was running now towards me. I screamed NO!!! STOP!! He didn't notice..he just wanted to come to me. I was so sick because as he ran into the road the truck had gone directly over him. Then he pulled his crushed little body across the road and tried to hide under my neighbors porch. I cried to him and called him to come out. He wouldn't he didn't want me to see him dying. It hurt so bad. His entire backside was crushed completely. I felt sick. It was all my fault. If I had only not called him then. He would have stayed a live. We eventually got him out from under the porch and his complete front paws were fine. We put him in a blanket lined box and I held his little paws all the way to the Vet. He was still a live. I cried and cried and said I was sorry. It hurt so bad to know that he had to be put to sleep. I didn't know what to do I felt so sick. What a good cat he was. I still feel sadness for my kitty to this day. I believe I always will.
I remember a small little memory. I must have been 1 or closer to 2 I was in a tree swing made of wood and metal. I believe I was left in there to keep my happy and calm while my mom did some house work.. and I remember it stopped swinging. I didn't mind though, I was an observer. I listened to everything. I saw the trees move with the wind and at this particular time I remember that the swing broke. I don't remember being scared but who really knows I just remember that I wasn't crying. I was dangling from the swing. My left side was still holding and the right side had fallen. It's interesting the thought process of a child as opposed to as an adult. My reactions were very minimal. I just waited till someone found me.
I was 3 years old. We had this round kiddie pool in Tennessee that we would of course play in.. you know the type.. Blue about 4 feet across by 1 foot high. Well I remember it was late... or dark out at least and my brother and sister maybe it was more of us and I were jumping and hiding inside this little pool every time a car would pass. We'd pretend to dive in and try not to be seen. It was so much fun for me and I felt so important and so grown up when I got to do things like that with my brother's and sister's.
How do I start this story...? I believe I was around 5 at this point and I guess I would say that my sister Sarah used to love to come home from school and come up with Ditto sheets and an after school program for us the little brothers and sister to follow. It was so exciting. There would be so many fun activities planned. We would ride our bikes.. well not me because I didn't have a bike so I would ride with my sister on her bike to a donut shop all the way down Foxhall Ave. We would donate our 10 cents or 25 cents to to get a couple of donuts (jelly filled is my favorite) and we would split them one bite at a time. Then we would go to our elementary school and explore the HUGE (25 meter diameter) forest. I always thought that I wouldn't find my way out. I would imagine that we were out in the country somewhere and that we had to find the treasure. We would make maps and burn the edges crinkle them up and pretend that lined paper was a real map. My imagination grew so much with my sisters help. I would love to learn things from her because to me she knew everything.
I found a cat after my mittens cat was put to sleep. This kitty cat was beautiful She had every color in her hair. I names her sissy. She had walked under our back fence and I knew that I would keep her. She stayed. She loved us and basically adopted us as a family. I loved this cat but unfortunately I don't believe that I had ever gotten a picture of her. What a shame. Eventually Sissy got sick. Really sick I don't know from what my mom thinks that she cleaned out the litter once and sprayed Lysol and she feels it was her fault for getting Sissy sick. I just remember feeling.. I just can't go this time. I have to stay home. And I said good bye to her. It's always hard for me to say good bye to my cats after the way mittens had to die.
So when my father came home he was beaming. I didn't understand.. he had his hand in his coat upon his chest. And I was crying of course and he said.. my name I looked up at him and he pulled out his hand from his coat with the tiniest littlest Siamese kitten that I've ever seen. She was just a baby. The moment I saw her I thought that she looked just like Barbara Streisand whom I loved at the time and had just watched her show funny girl so I named my kitty Fanny after her character Fanny Brice. She was lovely, elegant and beautiful. I needed her so bad and all of my sadness went away. I was so happy!
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