childhood's what makes ya
yes, this story made an appearance before, but i swear to beelzebub i just haven't had time to upload other childhood birthday pics this week. i'm pretty sure it's not eating you up.
let me introduce my neighborhood friends. starting with the back row, left side: that's jamie crane with bigger sister jenny; me in the middle (quite obviously) with very little hair on my head; next to me, is melissa berglund, followed by sandy duffy. in the front row, left: nicole and courtney getch.
why am i including their last names? i'm not sure and i'm not terribly worried that someone's gonna stalk some 20somethings based on their kiddy pictures.
it's interesting that jenny & jamie crane ended up coming to my party at all. my memories of hanging out with them are few and far between. i so vaguely recall walking down the alley to their house which was on the next block over. sometimes we'd play in their living room, but overall, i didn't spend much time with them. jenny was in andy's class, and jamie was several years younger. they went to st. paul's with us. i think we officially stopped being friends when my brother andy tripped jenny as she was walking into the bathroom and she fell and knocked her two front teeth out on the toilet base. she swallowed them, too. man, that horrible. we were "bad seed" after that event.
courtney & nicole getch were public school girls (and if i may say so, on the trashy side). they lived right up the street from me near vandeveer park. their parents would end up getting divorced a year or two after this picture was taken. their house was always dirty and gross. i have weird memories from there. at least, from my child's eye point of view. like the fact that courtney always slept in her dad's bed with him. like the fact that nicole never seemed to have sheets on her bed of any sort. (that just wouldn't fly in my house.) like the fact that sometimes i'd come over and find her dad in the la-z-boy, watching the playboy channel. when you're 6 to 8 years old, that's really fucking twisted to witness. courtney peed the bed a lot, so if they had a sleepover, we'd sleep out in the living room on the floor in sleeping bags, and she always had a big black sex bag beneath her. (watch me air the getches dirty laundry.) courtney was a year younger than me, while nicole was in andy's grade. nicole totally had a crush on andy and would try to hang out with him whenever they came over to play. i don't think my mom must have liked them because i was never allowed to have either (or both) of them stay the night. i vaguely recall one time playing a game with them in my room where nicole was the mom and we were the daughters. nicole made me suckle her non-existent breast like a baby - in the closet! why do i remember this shit. nicole also could never look you in the eye. she was one of those people who always looked up when she talked to you. very disconcerting.
melissa berglund is by far the friend i hung out with the most. she was a year younger than me and attended a private squirting school in a nearby suburb. her mom's family was a very famous, rich family in town, yet her mom looked like a man and married a firefighter/logger - which my mom always claimed was scandalous considering her roots. i can't think of all that much timber in iowa, but i know he cut it as a part-time job somewhere when he was off-duty from firefighting. melissa and her little brother chris always called their dad by his first name - gary - which was so strange to me. i spent many, MANY hours in their house. one time, we were jumping around on her parents' waterbed and busted a hole in it. i was banished from the house by gary for a good month or so before he forgot about it. i have a strange memory of remembering that television sets used to not have remotes. um, that came out wrong. what i mean is, i associate walking up to the tv to turn the knob with a memory from melissa's den where we watched tv a lot. i don't really think of my OWN family's tv and the walk-up system. it's weird how associations work like that.
melissa was a major nosepicker, and then booger eater. she couldn't seem to help herself. you'd catch her in the act all the time. i'm sure she's overcome this handicap as an adult now.
sandy lived across the street from melissa and was, i think, two years younger than me. she went to st. paul's, too, and her brothers kevin & mike were friends with my brothers. her family was very ugly. except for sandy. in fact, i wonder if she was adopted because it was all boys and then her and she's the only blonde in the entire family. my mom & dad went to catholic high school with her dad and my parents say he was the biggest geek in the school and was constantly picked on. even my DAD picked on him, and my dad was a scrawny 140-lb twig. her mom was actually uglier than her dad, if that's possible. she never let me in their house, either. in fact, melissa could go in as she pleased, but i believe the duffys hated my parents and thus punished us kids for it. sure, i invited sandy to my birthday party because we were friends, after all, but i clearly remember NOT being invited to hers and, in fact, showing up when the party was going on inside her house and having her mom ask me to go home. that is so sad. mean bitch. i hate you, mrs. duffy! and your little mustache, too. mean, old shrew. just because your husband was a loser is no reason to take it out on a kid.
we would move out of my childhood home by age eight, across town. melissa came to hang out with me once or twice. she still picked her nose and ate her boogers in front of me.
when we were back in iowa for my grandma's funeral last november, i got to take pictures of every place i'd ever had a decent memory of spending time at. i took a picture of melissa berglund's house. i'm pretty sure her parents don't live there anymore. in fact, i think they divorced a few years after we moved away. the house is painted a bright kelly green. so ugly. sometimes i've wished to locate melissa's mom so i could write her a letter and tell her what a cool lady i thought she was, and how sorry i was for always getting into trouble. that woman practically raised me, i spent so much time there. sure, she was manly, but she was so down-to-earth and cool. not like stuffy mrs. duffy, the bitch. i'd like to write her a letter, too, but i don't think she'd appreciate hearing from me.
let me introduce my neighborhood friends. starting with the back row, left side: that's jamie crane with bigger sister jenny; me in the middle (quite obviously) with very little hair on my head; next to me, is melissa berglund, followed by sandy duffy. in the front row, left: nicole and courtney getch.
why am i including their last names? i'm not sure and i'm not terribly worried that someone's gonna stalk some 20somethings based on their kiddy pictures.
it's interesting that jenny & jamie crane ended up coming to my party at all. my memories of hanging out with them are few and far between. i so vaguely recall walking down the alley to their house which was on the next block over. sometimes we'd play in their living room, but overall, i didn't spend much time with them. jenny was in andy's class, and jamie was several years younger. they went to st. paul's with us. i think we officially stopped being friends when my brother andy tripped jenny as she was walking into the bathroom and she fell and knocked her two front teeth out on the toilet base. she swallowed them, too. man, that horrible. we were "bad seed" after that event.
courtney & nicole getch were public school girls (and if i may say so, on the trashy side). they lived right up the street from me near vandeveer park. their parents would end up getting divorced a year or two after this picture was taken. their house was always dirty and gross. i have weird memories from there. at least, from my child's eye point of view. like the fact that courtney always slept in her dad's bed with him. like the fact that nicole never seemed to have sheets on her bed of any sort. (that just wouldn't fly in my house.) like the fact that sometimes i'd come over and find her dad in the la-z-boy, watching the playboy channel. when you're 6 to 8 years old, that's really fucking twisted to witness. courtney peed the bed a lot, so if they had a sleepover, we'd sleep out in the living room on the floor in sleeping bags, and she always had a big black sex bag beneath her. (watch me air the getches dirty laundry.) courtney was a year younger than me, while nicole was in andy's grade. nicole totally had a crush on andy and would try to hang out with him whenever they came over to play. i don't think my mom must have liked them because i was never allowed to have either (or both) of them stay the night. i vaguely recall one time playing a game with them in my room where nicole was the mom and we were the daughters. nicole made me suckle her non-existent breast like a baby - in the closet! why do i remember this shit. nicole also could never look you in the eye. she was one of those people who always looked up when she talked to you. very disconcerting.
melissa berglund is by far the friend i hung out with the most. she was a year younger than me and attended a private squirting school in a nearby suburb. her mom's family was a very famous, rich family in town, yet her mom looked like a man and married a firefighter/logger - which my mom always claimed was scandalous considering her roots. i can't think of all that much timber in iowa, but i know he cut it as a part-time job somewhere when he was off-duty from firefighting. melissa and her little brother chris always called their dad by his first name - gary - which was so strange to me. i spent many, MANY hours in their house. one time, we were jumping around on her parents' waterbed and busted a hole in it. i was banished from the house by gary for a good month or so before he forgot about it. i have a strange memory of remembering that television sets used to not have remotes. um, that came out wrong. what i mean is, i associate walking up to the tv to turn the knob with a memory from melissa's den where we watched tv a lot. i don't really think of my OWN family's tv and the walk-up system. it's weird how associations work like that.
melissa was a major nosepicker, and then booger eater. she couldn't seem to help herself. you'd catch her in the act all the time. i'm sure she's overcome this handicap as an adult now.
sandy lived across the street from melissa and was, i think, two years younger than me. she went to st. paul's, too, and her brothers kevin & mike were friends with my brothers. her family was very ugly. except for sandy. in fact, i wonder if she was adopted because it was all boys and then her and she's the only blonde in the entire family. my mom & dad went to catholic high school with her dad and my parents say he was the biggest geek in the school and was constantly picked on. even my DAD picked on him, and my dad was a scrawny 140-lb twig. her mom was actually uglier than her dad, if that's possible. she never let me in their house, either. in fact, melissa could go in as she pleased, but i believe the duffys hated my parents and thus punished us kids for it. sure, i invited sandy to my birthday party because we were friends, after all, but i clearly remember NOT being invited to hers and, in fact, showing up when the party was going on inside her house and having her mom ask me to go home. that is so sad. mean bitch. i hate you, mrs. duffy! and your little mustache, too. mean, old shrew. just because your husband was a loser is no reason to take it out on a kid.
we would move out of my childhood home by age eight, across town. melissa came to hang out with me once or twice. she still picked her nose and ate her boogers in front of me.
when we were back in iowa for my grandma's funeral last november, i got to take pictures of every place i'd ever had a decent memory of spending time at. i took a picture of melissa berglund's house. i'm pretty sure her parents don't live there anymore. in fact, i think they divorced a few years after we moved away. the house is painted a bright kelly green. so ugly. sometimes i've wished to locate melissa's mom so i could write her a letter and tell her what a cool lady i thought she was, and how sorry i was for always getting into trouble. that woman practically raised me, i spent so much time there. sure, she was manly, but she was so down-to-earth and cool. not like stuffy mrs. duffy, the bitch. i'd like to write her a letter, too, but i don't think she'd appreciate hearing from me.
posted by ghyter at
12:15 AM
