Thursday Thirteen #28

Thirteen Childhood Memories!

1. Hearing my dad say, "See you at cookie time". My parents would come into our rooms to tuck us in, say our bedtime prayer, and say good night. As my dad closed the door, he dad would say to me "See you at cookie time". Cookie time was actually his breakfast. He would have two cookies with is cup of coffee. His "breakfast" cookies were always Nabisco Sugar Wafers.

2. Taking the last sip of coffee from dad's coffee cup after he was gone to work.

3. Going to the drive-in theater in pjs to see Benji, Lassie, Lady & the Tramp, etc with my family.

4. Sneaking change from my parents coin jar, riding my bike with my brother to the Penny Candy store, giving the owner our money and filling a bag with candy as she tells us how much we have left to spend. My favorites were the wax bottles, candy cigarettes, and candy buttons.

5. Cutting cattails from the ditch and setting up a stand to try to sell them. Five cents for a plain one ten cents with a cute curly ribbon attached. We didn't care there were thousands of cattails the people driving by could cut themselves for FREE...lol! By the way, we never sold one!

6. Swimming for hours with my brothers in our pool. My brother, Josh, would be full of goosebumps, shivering and have purple lips, but would insist he wasn't cold. LOL! He was probably 4 or 5 at the time and just wanted to be by his big brother & sister.

7. Spending the night in the "chicken coop". As I said before, I grew up in a 100+ year old farm house. It was not a working farm, but had all the buildings of one. In it's previous life our playhouse was a chicken coop. There were quite a few hot summer nights my brothers, step-sister & I would spend the night out there. I think Josh usually got spooked and had to go in the house...lol!

8. Ice skating with my brother on the frozen "ponds" and ditches all around us with my brother. There were times we could skate in the ditch for a mile! Of course, there were also the times the ice on the ditch cracked and we got soakers...lol!

9. Riding bikes up and down the LONG driveway for hours. Sometimes my brother & I would play "ET". That is where we took turns giving each other rides on the handle bars. Should I mention the time we fell and laughed so hard my step-sister & I wet our pants? LOL!

10. Playing games! Kickball and baseball on our little front yard diamond. Football in about only area in the front yard clear of trees. Dodge ball with the rotten apples that had fallen off the tree. (Mom didn't like that game...lol!)

11. Snowmobiling in our yard and the fields around us. My parents let us drive the snowmobiles by ourselves when I was 8 and my brother 6. (I can't imagine letting Olivia drive a snowmobile at six -- YIKES!!) One time my brother went up a steep snowbank and dumped me off the back of the snowmobile. I have a sneaking suspicion he did it intentionally.

12. Sledding down the hill in front of the house on those roll up sleds that wouldn't stay under you and the metal saucer thing. I think it was called the Super Saucer or something like that.

13. Going up to Eagle River, WI to spend time with our grandparents. This one sparks a whole new TT list of memories. What good times we had up there!!

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Heirloom Christmas Gifts

A gift I received for Christmas this year is probably by far the best gift I have ever received. Last Christmas we decided the adults would not exchange gifts. (Actually, my brother and I only exchanged one year. We decided to just put that extra money toward a gift for our parents. We were both young and still living at home rent free so why not give our great mom & step-dad a little something extra for putting up with us...lol!) Anyway back to my story, that rule only lasted one year. My mom is giving gifts again. I guess old habits die hard...lol!!

My brother and I are each handed a gift bag. In his was my grandpa's (dad's dad) old Miller Brewery Zippo lighter. He was a pipe smoker, but even when he wasn't lighting a pipe he would be sitting in his chair with that lighter in his hand. Along with the lighter were two of grandpa's badges from his days as head of security for Miller Brewery.

You won't believe what was in mine! It was her wedding ring!! My parents divorced when my brother & I were VERY young. I was 7 when the divorce was final, but they seperated when I was 5 & my brother 3. I have always loved that ring. It isn't a big beautiful stone, but I love it because it was mom's. Even though I haven't seen it on her hand for about 30 years I can still picture it. Strange the things that are etched in our memories.

My mom decided each Christmas she is going to pass along to us things she would want us to have after she is gone. Some of them may be things we wouldn't know the story of if she didn't pass them along. The things from this year were very obvious! :)

Thank you, Mom! I love the ring and know Scott loves Grandpa Brewer's things.

First picture is Grandpa Brewer sitting in his chair. He is holding something, but I don't think it is the Zippo here...lol!!

Second picture is my mom and dad on their wedding day May 6, 1967.

Holly Hobbie

Did you know Holly Hobbie had a makeover?

I had no clue until this morning while out shopping for my niece, Caitlyn. Won't she just love this little girlie? I sure hope so!

Holly sure has come a LONG way from when I had a Holly Hobbie bedroom, dish set, lunch box, etc! It's fun to see the popular dolls from when I was growing up making a comeback!

As you can probably see, I got a tiny start on my Christmas shopping. Three people down. I think that leaves about ten or twelve -- yikes. I better make my usual tracking list so I don't skip anyone! At least only 5 need to be done for this weekend!