Geesh, this is going on forever.
8. Who was your first grade teacher?
Mrs. Cowan, a petite woman with a giant purse. For some reason, I didn’t like her much. Did she yell too much? That would have interupted my daydreaming.
I found school to be very boring, like a long car ride through Iowa. Most of the time I drifted off to a world of my own. That’s where I was when I was supposed to be learning how to tell time. One day it occurred to me that I was really supposed to know this stuff, so that night I asked one of my older brothers to explain it to me. Two minutes later, I got it. Back to Dream World for me.
9. Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?
Columbus to Akron, at age 7 I think.
Before I was born, my parents lived in Akron and became friends with another young couple with children. The dads met at work and golfed together; the moms drank coffee and smoked. We moved to Columbus, but the two families continued to be close. After I was born, their daughter Twink and I became first friends. (See #10 below.)
Once the two of us were old enough, we would each spend a week at the others house during the summer. This necessitated three two-way trips between Akron and Columbus in a two week period, during the pre-turnpike era. One year, someone thought it would be easier if the two of us flew. On a plane. By ourselves.
I don’t remember a lot about that trip, other than Twink got air sick (she was famous for motion sickness) and I had to sit by myself while a stewardess attended to her. I can’t even tell you which city was the destination. It must have been a small plane, though, and I have a vague memory of being met on the tarmac by the appropriate grownups, which seemed magical.
10. Who was your first best friend, and are you still friends with him/her?
See #9 above. And yes, we are still friends, but not the kind to talk on the phone or even email on a regular basis, which is odd because we are both writers. She sends out an xmas letter each year, and when I am in New Jersey or parts nearby, I visit. But when we do get together, it is like we have never been apart.
11. What was your first sport played?
Does street ball count? God, I am dating myself.
In Ohio, the school system did not offer physical education, although occasionally, if we were good and the weather decent, we got to play dodge ball or Red Rover. Those were more torture than sport. After we moved to Illinois, I found myself in a one-piece gym suit several times a week, but I don’t remember what we did in that third grade gym class. Out on the playground, we played kickball.
When did I learn softball and basketball? I have three brothers, so there was always an abundance of sporting equipment, including a basketball hoop on the garage. In third grade, my younger brother and I would play a version of baseball that involved one player per team, so by then I understood the rules. (I always won, which made Joey cry.) We moved again, to a town with a summer rec program, and there I played softball in an organized manner, with an umpire and everything. So we’ll say softball.
12. Where was your first sleepover?
If by “sleepover” you mean sleeping at a friend’s house, see #9 above. I loved the house Twink lived in then. It seemed huge and it had an attic accessible by a steep staircase. When they abandoned that place in favor of a modern split level, I was greatly disappointed.
If by “sleepover” you mean a half dozen giggling girls staying up all night, I think the first one would have been in junior high, at someones house. I can’t remember who or where or much of what, other than I truly tried to stay awake all night and got so tired I started hallucinating right before passing out around dawn.
13. Who was the first person you talked to today?
Person? Do pets count? I yelled at the dog, I yelled at the cat. I did not yell at the rabbit because he is impervious to most noises, even the roar of the vacuum cleaner. Unless someone calls me, the first person I will talk to will be my SO when he comes over for a little afternoon delight. Or my neighbor, as I have been cat-sitting and he plans to stop by sometime today to get the house keys.
14. Whose wedding were you in the first time?
My older brother Bill. I was surprised they asked, and I think they were surprised I accepted. And that is the only wedding I have been in, besides me own. Huh.
15. What was the first thing you did this morning?
Let the dog out of her crate, after unsuccessfully trying to convince her to go back to sleep.
16. What was the first concert you ever went to?
I assume we are talking pop/rock concert. I think the answer is the Animals and Herman’s Hermits. Together! My friends were fans of the former, me the latter. Or did I attend a HH concert earlier? I think so, maybe with a friend and MY DAD. For some reason, I thought we would have to have a chaperon to get in, so my dad, who wore a suit and tie almost everywhere except the golf course, sat through the screamfest. What a guy!
17. What was your first tattoo or piercing?
When I was a teenager, the only way to get pierced was to either have your family doctor do it (the recommended method) or talk a stalwart friend into using a darning needle and an ice cube. I was too embarrassed to do the former, too chicken for the latter. Later, when jewelry stores and hair salons started piercing ears, I marched down to the local jeweler for my piercing, free with the purchase of a pair of earrings. I was twenty-three.
Still no tattoos. I’m waiting for a really vibrant red to be developed.
18. What was the first foreign country you went to?
Canada. In fact, my son and I went there this summer, to Niagara Falls, which got my dad talking about the time we went there as a family. I have next to no memory of this trip, except a vague one about a wax museum. I was 17 and In Love, so all my mental capacity was probably consumed with thoughts of my boy friend. But I also have a vague memory about going there when I was younger, and feeling really uncomfortable about crossing the border into a foreign land, like I was leaving my home turf. Dad doesn’t recall this trip, though. Oh, I also remember crossing back into the US and being asked by the customs guy where I was born. Gee, that was so long ago… Columbus?
Okay, I’m done for now. More later.
