Journal Jar #5

Question 5 - scouts anyone? Did you belong to girl/boy scouts? Tell something about that.

I was in Girl Scouts for a good chunk of my childhood. In second grade when I lived in Lauder Hill, my mom was the cookie mom. We had cookie boxes piled up sooo high. Our cathedral ceiling made that so much more impressive.

When we moved to Marlton, I met a lot of my friends through scouting. Of course, most of the girls from my early GS memories became teen mothers, alcoholics, pathological liars, smokers, drop-outs...but we sure had fun roasting marshmallows and singing camp songs.

Oh I don't wanna go to Girl Scout Camp
Gee mom I wanna go...
But they won't let me go...
Please mom I wanna go home!

Journal Jar #4

Question 4 - Between the age of 5 & 10, what was your favorite activity?

When we lived in Marlton, we used to take afternoon/evening walks with Lynne and her mom and sister Katie to the playground. There was the close playground with one of those squeaky carousel things, and the far playground, which was all the way up Carlton Ave, which had newer equipment, including a tire swing.

It seemed to take forever to walk there and back, but we loved the swings and the slides. When Lynne and I were allowed to ride our bikes around without adults during the summer, we would go to the close park and stay there for ages, riding our bikes along the bumpy dirt trail that ran the length of the field. We really thought we were world class dirt bikers, out there on our pink and purple bikes!

Journal Jar #3

Question 3 - flowers - If you could be a flower, what would you be and why?

Gee...I'd probably be a marigold or a dandelion -- something hearty and useful yet unappreciated. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying I'm unappreciated. But I'm certainly not some delicate froo froo flower that people go ga ga over.

Journal Jar #2

Question 2 - Games children play - What games did you play in your house or neighborhood?

Gee...I don't really know. I remember playing wedding a lot, which sometimes morphed into house. Mom taught me almost every board game under the sun when I was little. Really - Risk? Come on! We'd get together with Lynne's family and play Michigan Rummy, which is one of my fondest card game memories. I wish I could get my hands on a board and teach Scott to play...for pennies...just like we did then.

Of course, I probably also played the games that Hunter and Conner used to force me to play when I was babysitting - hide 'n seek, make a stack of anything and then knock it over, torture the babysitter, etc. :o)

Of course, now that I'm a big kid, Scott and I play rummy or gin, and sometimes get together with our friends for a few games of Texas Hold 'Em.

Journal Jar #1

Journal Jar #1: Describe your first job. What did it pay? What were your duties? What was your boss like?

I was just thinking about this the other day. My first job was when I was a junior in high school. My mom was working in a Securities office and one of the guys in there needed a little help. I was calling people who had signed up for more information from a retirement seminar, typing, copying, and so on. It was all under the table, and I seem to remember working some full days before school went back, and going over occasionally for a couple hours after school. I have no idea what they paid me, but I think it was like $6/hour or something. At the time it seemed like a LOT of money.

The most fun memory I have of this job though is that my boss Michael looked really young (and was hot), and drove a very expensive-looking red sports car. And whenever he'd come and pick me up from schoool I'd get all sorts of crazy looks from the other kids outside the school.