Days 10-13
Jan. 28th, 2008 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironic10. College
Thanksgiving break, freshman year, one or two days after I'd started going out with my boyfriend L. A bunch of us—all guys in that group besides me—were hanging out at a mutual friend from high school's house, in the basement. It smelled thickly of dog. It was so late it was early. I was really tired. I was sitting next to L. on a stool or a wooden chair, and the host's dog came downstairs, a golden retriever or something, and started sniffing around, as dogs do. I was trying to push its nose out of an impolite place when L. reached over to help more firmly and said to the dog, "Hey, stop that. That's my job now." I'm sure I went beet red, but I don't think anyone else heard.
11. Pre-school
One of the few non-school memories I have of that era (age 3-4) is of watching Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments. It took a while, although I didn't mind; we may have watched it over a couple of afternoons. I think my mom once told me we watched it when I was home sick, though, so I'm not sure. I remember bits and pieces of it: dark red sky, smearing the lamb's blood on the doors, finding baby Moses in the reed basket, the whirling storm and parting sea, the chariots and Egyptians drowning, the dirt and loose clothes and sandals and beards and the women's long hair.
12. & 13. Elementary School
My friends E. and K. and I traded religious holidays a few times, like exchange students. They came over once for Hanukkah and maybe for Passover, and I spent a Christmas and an Easter at each. The unevenness of the swaps -- that, looking back now, I feel that I was more condescended to when I visited them, as if there were some element of Educating The Poor Ignorant Minority, and more of an odd curiosity when they visited me, whereas we simply explained and shared -- is a subject for another time.
The Easter I spent with E. was at her aunt and uncle's house somewhere out on the island. I remember:
- When her mom picked me up in the car, E. brought me a small Easter basket (it had a Reese's peanut butter egg) and a candy cane. *squints* I think there was a candy cane. If not, it was at Christmas. But I seem to remember that she explained the significance of the red, green and white stripes of the candy cane in the car on the way.
- E. and her mom telling me the basics of the story of Easter on the ride over: death and miraculous resurrection.
- At the house, there were jelly beans and Jordan almonds and little malted eggs. I loved the malted eggs and kept stealing them from the candy dish. There must have been relatives asking me questions, too, but I don't remember that much.
- There were little playground sets in the backyard, and we played there for the afternoon with E.'s cousins, who I think were younger. There was something unusual that they had, something other than a swing set or slide, but I can't remember what, exactly; not a bouncy castle—that's an SGA story I mixed up with this memory when I read it—but something maybe by Fisher Price.
- We had ham. I'd never had ham before, hadn't even seen a thick cooked ham, only the tissue-thin deli slices my dad would eat with Swiss cheese on his bagels.
What I remember of the Easter at K.'s:
- We went to the midnight Mass at her church (Lutheran). (Was that Easter? Is midnight Mass a Christmas thing I'm mixing up with this?) Before we left, so late at night, we were listening to the radio, some top 40-type station she liked; Desiree's big hit of the day was on.
- We brought Snapples with us; in the car, K. showed me a trick where you hit the bottom of the bottle with the heel of your hand so the cap wouldn't pop when you opened it for the first time and disrupt the service.
- Bits and pieces of the service, all mixed up with when we went at Christmas (if I'm not confusing these two and we didn't go at Easter at all) and when K. was confirmed. Latin, high walls, a choir, a sermon, a collection basket, people going up for communion, being interested and a little uncomfortable but mostly interested, and I wasn't sure whether I should mouth along to the songs and readings or sit/stand and observe.
- In the morning, K.'s mom gave us each an Easter basket. I don't remember what was in it (candy mostly, and K. got some small gifts, maybe a stuffed animal) other than lots and lots of plastic grass, which we kept finding in our basement years later.
Thanksgiving break, freshman year, one or two days after I'd started going out with my boyfriend L. A bunch of us—all guys in that group besides me—were hanging out at a mutual friend from high school's house, in the basement. It smelled thickly of dog. It was so late it was early. I was really tired. I was sitting next to L. on a stool or a wooden chair, and the host's dog came downstairs, a golden retriever or something, and started sniffing around, as dogs do. I was trying to push its nose out of an impolite place when L. reached over to help more firmly and said to the dog, "Hey, stop that. That's my job now." I'm sure I went beet red, but I don't think anyone else heard.
11. Pre-school
One of the few non-school memories I have of that era (age 3-4) is of watching Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments. It took a while, although I didn't mind; we may have watched it over a couple of afternoons. I think my mom once told me we watched it when I was home sick, though, so I'm not sure. I remember bits and pieces of it: dark red sky, smearing the lamb's blood on the doors, finding baby Moses in the reed basket, the whirling storm and parting sea, the chariots and Egyptians drowning, the dirt and loose clothes and sandals and beards and the women's long hair.
12. & 13. Elementary School
My friends E. and K. and I traded religious holidays a few times, like exchange students. They came over once for Hanukkah and maybe for Passover, and I spent a Christmas and an Easter at each. The unevenness of the swaps -- that, looking back now, I feel that I was more condescended to when I visited them, as if there were some element of Educating The Poor Ignorant Minority, and more of an odd curiosity when they visited me, whereas we simply explained and shared -- is a subject for another time.
The Easter I spent with E. was at her aunt and uncle's house somewhere out on the island. I remember:
- When her mom picked me up in the car, E. brought me a small Easter basket (it had a Reese's peanut butter egg) and a candy cane. *squints* I think there was a candy cane. If not, it was at Christmas. But I seem to remember that she explained the significance of the red, green and white stripes of the candy cane in the car on the way.
- E. and her mom telling me the basics of the story of Easter on the ride over: death and miraculous resurrection.
- At the house, there were jelly beans and Jordan almonds and little malted eggs. I loved the malted eggs and kept stealing them from the candy dish. There must have been relatives asking me questions, too, but I don't remember that much.
- There were little playground sets in the backyard, and we played there for the afternoon with E.'s cousins, who I think were younger. There was something unusual that they had, something other than a swing set or slide, but I can't remember what, exactly; not a bouncy castle—that's an SGA story I mixed up with this memory when I read it—but something maybe by Fisher Price.
- We had ham. I'd never had ham before, hadn't even seen a thick cooked ham, only the tissue-thin deli slices my dad would eat with Swiss cheese on his bagels.
What I remember of the Easter at K.'s:
- We went to the midnight Mass at her church (Lutheran). (Was that Easter? Is midnight Mass a Christmas thing I'm mixing up with this?) Before we left, so late at night, we were listening to the radio, some top 40-type station she liked; Desiree's big hit of the day was on.
- We brought Snapples with us; in the car, K. showed me a trick where you hit the bottom of the bottle with the heel of your hand so the cap wouldn't pop when you opened it for the first time and disrupt the service.
- Bits and pieces of the service, all mixed up with when we went at Christmas (if I'm not confusing these two and we didn't go at Easter at all) and when K. was confirmed. Latin, high walls, a choir, a sermon, a collection basket, people going up for communion, being interested and a little uncomfortable but mostly interested, and I wasn't sure whether I should mouth along to the songs and readings or sit/stand and observe.
- In the morning, K.'s mom gave us each an Easter basket. I don't remember what was in it (candy mostly, and K. got some small gifts, maybe a stuffed animal) other than lots and lots of plastic grass, which we kept finding in our basement years later.
11, 12, 13!
Date: Jan. 29th, 2008 07:19 am (UTC)Does anyone else remember The Wuzzles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wuzzles)? I can't possibly remember it from its original run... I was only a year and a half old. But I do remember watching it all the time when I was little. Maybe we had it taped? I have no idea. And I know I had a bunch of the books because I remember all the extra characters listed in the Wikipedia entry. Anyway, yes. Wuzzles. I remember watching and being delighted by the fact that they were two things at once. They fascinated me just like werewolves and griffins and centaurs and all that cool two-in-one stuff.
12 - Easter
The longest grudge I ever held was against my first dog, Buddha. I couldn't have been more than five or so on the Easter in question. When we went to my grandparents' house for dinner, I left my Easter basket on the floor in the living room. It should have been just fine there but Buddha, despite being a miniature dachshund, managed to get past the gate in the living room/kitchen doorway. When we got home from dinner all of my Cadbury creme eggs were gone. I was devastated, as they were my favorite and I wasn't usually allowed to have them. I ignored the dog for probably two weeks. She lived for about another ten years and I never totally forgave her. As a matter of fact, I still feel a little bitter just thinking about it now. XDDD
13 - holiday church services
My cousin and I, both religious in our own ways which do not include congregating like sheep and monotonously intoning responses and prayers with a bunch of other robots, always really resented being dragged away from our computers to attend midnight mass at Christmas. Instead of sitting there and scowling, though, we'd find ways to entertain ourselves. He was especially good at hunting down bits of scripture that were hilariously lewd when taken out of context (lulz and some that were rather lewd even in context). My favorite was the first year after we heard Cartman's version of O Holy Night on South Park, though. We sang those lyrics (http://www.lyrics007.com/South%20Park%20Lyrics/O%20Holy%20Night%20Lyrics.html) instead of the real ones. "Jesus was born and so I get presents. Thank you, Jesus, for being born."
Re: 11, 12, 13!
Date: Jan. 30th, 2008 01:24 am (UTC)12. Tragedy! Cadbury Eggs are precious treasure! Bad dog.
13. *facepalm* At least you weren't singing about Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.
Re: 11, 12, 13!
Date: Jan. 30th, 2008 01:26 am (UTC)