Thursday, December 19, 2013

Kickin' It Day 20-More Firsts...

Day 20 of the Kickin' It Old Skool Blog-A-Thon! Today we are sharing MORE FIRSTS 
("in a meme-a-licious kind of way"...whatever THAT may mean! I better Google it... so I am in the virtual know!)

FIRST JOB: As a ride attendant on the "River King Mine Train" roller coaster at 6 Flags Over Mid-America amusement park in Eureka, Missouri (west of St.Louis). I had had a season pass to the park for 3 years prior (the place was a bit of an obsession for me & my best friend!), and at age 16, I was one of the youngest employees working that ride that summer (most were college kids). It was a really fun first job...except for the day I was talked into covering for an employee who called out sick, on another ride which was a boat journey through "dangerous territory" and a involved long dramatic & humorous spiel by the "captain" (me!)... I still feel sorry for the boatloads of people who got stuck with me that day as I had NO IDEA what all I was supposed to say and pretty much just faked it with stuttering "OH MY GOSH LOOK AT THAT!" exclamations all day long! My only required spiel on the Mine Train was "please watch your hands and knees" and "please exit to your left and have a great day!" (which I still say in my sleep sometimes, I think!)

(not my photo)
FIRST THING TO MY LEFT: A glass of quite yummy Purple Star Cab Sauv wine!

although I don't even think specific "school glue" had yet been invented when I was in first grade...                
 it was likely some much more toxic version I played with back then!
*SOMETHING YOU REMEMBER ABOUT FIRST GRADE: Smearing Elmer's white glue onto the palm of my hand and letting this boy David peel it off after it dried. Oh yeah and then him kissing me one time afterwards, while we were (supposed to be) watching a "film strip" (about who knows what!) (*AKA: MY FIRST KISS!)

and of course, I eventually read the whole series!

THE FIRST BOOK YOU EVER READ: Well, I'm sure it is not actually the VERY first one I ever read...but my memory of my childhood is truthfully not all that deeply detailed...so the one I first remember reading and loving so very much would have to be "Little House On The Prairie". And can you believe that I lived in St.Louis, Missouri for 47 years and never visited Laura Ingalls Wilder's house in Mansfield, Mo., a mere 200 miles away?! Maybe on one of my future visits "home" I will have to do that!


THE FIRST THING YOU DO IN THE MORNING: Open my eyes! (haha,smart a**!) The next first thing is usually let one of our dogs outside to potty...after putting on my robe & slippers, of course!


THE FIRST FOOD YOU KNEW YOU DIDN'T LIKE: Hmmmm. this is a tough one since I was such a "picky eater" (I HATE THAT TERM!) when I was a kid until about 10 years ago! There were a lot of things I insisted that I did not like back then that I had not even actually TRIED, and many of those have become "normal" for me to eat now, lol! But one thing I recall that I HATED then and STILL DO are mushrooms! Pretty sucky for a vegetarian who lives in the Pacific Northwest!

they were so yummy I'd probably eat another bottle today if I knew it wouldn't hurt me, lol!
YOUR FIRST MEMORY: This is a weird one for me...I was around 3 years old and staying with my grandparents. I somehow got a hold of a bottle of those orange flavored Johnson's Baby Aspirin and hid behind a door, sitting there chomping away on those yummy little things that tasted just like candy! When my grandma found me, I was rushed to the ER where I had my stomach pumped. The weird part is that my grandparents never told my parents about this incident...my dad was extremely protective of me- his only child/baby girl (and had little trust in anyone else caring for me...I am actually shocked that he "allowed" me to have been "alone"  in their care!). I started having these memories of this experience resurface about 10 years later, and as I was very confused and unsettled by what I was remembering and "envisioning", I asked my parents about it...which, as you can imagine, started a huge sh*t-storm between my dad & my grandparents. I still think it is just so odd and "eerie" how out of nowhere I started having these "flashbacks" about the incident so many years later (around age 13). I guess adolescence does weird things to your body and mind!


So that was a fun trip down memory (or is it meme-ory?!) lane!
Thanks for reading!
Happy Me, Laurie.

6 comments:

  1. Great firsts, I got caught with those aspirins too but I didn't eat enough for a hospital trip,lucky me.

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  2. I love how you included a lot of pictures with your firsts. I've been a bit lazy in that regards. Also, totally agree with the food thing. I used to have a long list of foods I "didn't like", but truth be told, I had never tried many of them. So, I have indeed come around in that regards and now eat many foods that I once would have never tried.

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  3. I loved reading about your aspirin memory. That is so amazing how your memory resurfaced in adolescence. Thanks for sharing these firsts!

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  4. What a fun list. And great first kiss report. I'm not sure I've ever heard one involving glue before. ;-)

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  5. I'm with you on mushrooms! I've never liked them, and as an adult I developed an allergy to all things fungi, so it's good I've never liked them in the first place!

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  6. I love your post, Laurie! Great first job! Sorry to hear about the mushrooms... they are one of my faves; my mom and I harvest wild ones around here. Very interesting story about the aspirins. I got taken to the hospital once and given an emetic after my older sister implied that I had been eating poison berries. I hadn't been, but I was too young to talk. Also too young to remember that, fortunately :-)

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