Nostalgia in Eight

Originally posted by Rebecca on Lady Crow's myspace.

Don Hall tagged me on the "Name Eight Things About Yourself that No One Knows" blogger meme, so here I am a-playin'. I've done this before but the narcissist in me insists I play again and name eight more things. Mirror, mirror on the wall ... you can go back through some of my older blogs to find the original where I discuss Blow Pops and farms. I think this one's going to be about creativity and my childhood ...

The rules are as follows:

(I ended up breaking the rules because I posted 10 random facts about myself. My self-absorption knows no bounds, Billy!!!!!)

Bloggers must post these rules and provide eight random facts about themselves. In the post, the tagged blogger tags eight other bloggers and notify them that they have been tagged.

1. Sometimes, when I secretly think about GreyZelda, I imagine myself as a warrior who has carried a flag through the deserts, streams and prairies, all in the name of my queen, GreyZelda. Which is maybe why Chris and I picked the names "Lady Crow" and "Sir Mulch". I feel I've carried this flag - call it "creativity" if you will - for years and I refuse to set it down. If I set it down, all will be lost. I like imagining I'm an epic heroine on a quest as I travel through the mundane trials of day to day existence. I'm Roland, Atreyu and Alice rolled into one with a splash of Valkyrie in my own mind. Or certifiable ... take your pick.

2. My stepdad's a farmer, as well as a retired educator. When I was little, he used to find creatures to bring home to me while he was plowing and combining ... I had pet salamanders, luna moths, field mice and a shot woodchuck to keep me company every so often. If we could, we would let them go, but sometimes they would die ... like those moths and shot woodchucks. My grandpa would also bring home cut-off squirrel tails which I liked to stick in my pants and pretend that they were my tails. (I didn't really roam around with that shot woodchuck but I looked at it a lot and felt really bad that it had been killed.)

3. I really love bugs. I collected them when as a kid ... I would roam around, collecting butterflies, stink bugs and praying mantises and stick them in left over baby food jars ... again, they all died because I had no idea how to sustain them being that I was six (I poked holes in the lid, but that was about it. Bugs are super cool. Roaches really freak me out, though.

4. I used to create plays to put on in our backyard after the family would get together for summer holidays and birthdays ... the most popular one and most requested by the family (aka my parents and grandparents) was entitled "Cowboy Joe" which starred my 7 year old brother, Andrew, as the title character. I was the narrator - around 12 - a beautiful Western belle with a parasol and bonnet. My sister, who was around two, would be the villain with a ridiculously long black cape. She often started crying during the performances, but Andrew and I continued on. Very monologue based, "Cowboy Joe" was. Good stuff. Quality theatre. We used our swingset as the primary backdrop, so when Alex, the two year old villain, would make her entrance, I had her come down the slide. We were also known for our rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" where I played Christine and Andrew was the Phantom. Alex didn't really enjoy acting in our rendition and as soon as she heard the opening theme she would run - crying, as per usual -away in terror. This one was done in the living room because we used pillows as our primary stage accessories.

5. I once made my Barbies have a Boob size competition where Ken had to pick the Barbie with the best breasts. Thank you, media, for warping my young mind. My Strawberry Shortcake dolls were often considered slaves of Barbie because they were short with bulbous heads and colored legs. I also always hated it when other girls weren't nice to their Barbie dolls and never brushed their hair or colored on them with markers and who often just played with them naked without their clothes on. I tried not to let them play with my Barbies if I could help it. My Barbies often would get naked based on the situation and the soaps I watched that day with my mom but I didn't make them naked all the time. Yes, I also made them "hump". Heh heh.

6. I briefly was able to listen to Poison's "Look What the Cat Dragged In" when I was in fourth grade, but my real dad made the tape disappear because he thought it was offensive. I kind of think that maybe he thought Poison was a girl band, initially, based on the tape cover and when he actually heard the songs, he was most offended. We also almost walked out of "Back to the Future" when it was first in movie theatres because he thought there was too much swearing. Thank God, they went back in time to the fifties. Sheesh.

7. I was nuts about Archie comicbooks and often came up with puppet shows based upon the story lines. It truly is a Betty vs. Veronica world.

8. I'll always take the villains over the good guys any day. Unless you're an anti-hero, like Roland. I often stalked around my backyard imagining I was a Disney villainess. They always had great makeup and outfits. Melificent from Sleeping Beauty? Kick ass.

9. I liked it when my dads (I had two) would hit flyballs to me. I loved playing catch. I had a great arm. Maybe I still do, but I don't really play baseball or softball any more. There's nothing like the smell of a leather baseball glove. I liked kicking up dirt on a diamond on a summer day and sitting in dugouts with the team.

10. If I could go back in time to any one day and place, I would always pick my farmhouse in Hudson, around 10 years old maybe, on a summer day, playing catch with Andrew, writing a play to perform after dinner of barbecue chicken with pink lemonade and biscuits with my family and grandparents (who are no longer alive), playing with my black cat, Amos, feeding the bunnies, and helping in the garden. No question.

I'm now going to choose eight folks to play this fun game ... if you've done it before, go on and do it again.

Ladyflash *M*, The Olde Gentleman, Von, Crow's Feet, Red Dragon, Ed French, Lizarinny and Pryce.