Thursday, October 9, 2008

"The kids" back then...

...and "the kids" today.

I don't think we look any different. We're still the same people we were when we were little. It's more than 40 years later and we still look like kids, albeit old kids... but definitely not a group of grown-ups (even though two of us are now in our fifties).

I remember one summer we were all sitting on my dad's deck drinking wine. Someone had found my mother's diary from 1965 and starting reading it out loud. Oh, that diary was funny. Parenting in the sixties was a lot different than how it's done now. When my mom needed some privacy to read during the day, she used to lock the doors so we couldn't get inside. True. It's in the diary. At some point the person reading the diary read about "the baby" and how good he was (the baby being Eddie). The baby's favorite thing was to lie in his stroller and watch the trees up above. After that was read, Eddie started to laugh because that was exactly what he was doing, lying on his back watching the trees.

I must have been aware of design at a very young age because my first conscious memory was getting some sort of bath in the kitchen (I think chicken pox was the reason) and staring at the Argo cornstarch lady on the box next to me. I thought she was a very unusual looking person what with that exposed ear of corn body. She made a lasting impression on 2 or 3 year old me.

It's funny. You're born who you are and you stay who you are. But I also wonder at what point you transition into a "grown-up" because some people do.

In the 80s, I used to work in a publishing company in San Francisco. One of the women in the office told me that I was too old to have long hair and that I should get it bobbed (I was 23 at the time). I was a little put out by this and went to talk to my best friend Bonnie. I have no idea how old Bonnie was at that time but she had to have been comfortably into her 60s. Bonnie told me this story (this was something we liked to do, tell stories to each other, as well as buy sheets on sale at The Emporium). Anyway, every night before Bonnie went to bed, she would say to herself,  "Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I will be all grown up." But then she told me it hadn't happened yet. Every morning when she woke up she was still the same person.

And I guess, the same goes for me........................but tomorrow morning, who knows? :-)

3 comments:

Q said...

I was grown up at 10.
By 30 I was starting to grown down.
At 50 I finally made it.
Perhaps at some point I just accepted who I was.
I love the yesterday and today pictures of you and your sibs.
Sherry

Country Girl said...

I have a friend named Bonnie, too. And really, I don't feel like I've grown up yet. Someday it will happen. And I hope I'm not sad when it does . . .

Maria said...

Sherry, I think maybe I might be growing down too....I forgot that my mother used to tell me to act my age when I was a teenager because I was always acting too serious and old. Ha ha ha.

Kate, that's a nice thought. :-) I have a feeling this becoming a grown-up business is just not going to happen with us. It never happened with my friend Bonnie. She was a little kid to the end. I really miss her. She was so much fun to get in trouble with. Her daughter too. When her daughter Paula was getting married, Paula got the giggles, which made Bonnie get the giggles, which made Paula get the giggles even worse. The justice of the peace had to interrupt and reprimand both of them and tell them that marriage was a serious business and that it was not a laughing matter. That made them really bust up. I'm not sure how long that marriage lasted. :-)