+ I remember/when

-97 A dog ran down the street and bit me at the bus stop, leaving a circle of little white scars.

-96 I devoted afternoons to learning how to climb sign posts.

-95 My friend Paul Mastroscuza’s older brother Jackie hit me in the head with a brick while squirrel hunting in my backyard.

-94 My brother tried to make me eat pine needles, or he wouldn’t cook me dinner.

-93 Pinecone battles in the backyard; getting sticky with sap.

-06 I made out with a pillow.

-03 Lou Trotta letting me in for cookies when I’d forgotten my keys.

-01 Scaling the Bahai’ temple in my backyard.

.01 Worrying that my hand would get crushed along with the cranberries in the antique grinder.

.02 Sliding down the carpeted stairs for hours and hours AND hours.

.03 Doing math problems on the roof and not wanting to go back inside.

.04 Trees falling on the roof and being glad I was inside.

.05 I saw my g-ma’s sunken mouth and learned that her pretty white teeth were fakes!

.06 Families of baby spiders occupied the ceiling above my bunk bed and I cried.

.07 I learned how to kill spiders.

.08 I learned to stop killing spiders.

0. I got sent home with lice. Again.

1. My boyfriend in first grade had the first name as me.

3. My dad and I held hands and ran off the roof of a houseboat in to the icy St. Lawrence, where the snakes swim too.

4. My whole family got in to wrestling matches in the hallway.

5. No one knew to look for me in the top shelf of the linen closet, which smelled better than the bottom of the laundry hamper.

6. I sat for hours on end with my little mouth gaping open in the student dental clinic at FDU.

8. I had a crush on my orthodontist.

11. My best friend and I got in to fights and then made lists of things to do, to overcome our boredome.

13. David yanked his dick out at me in science class and I was amused.

14. Being sent off for milk in a grocery store made me certain that I was being left behind.

16. I did things because I wanted to be just like Rob; I even limped when he hurt his knee.

18. The kids made me marry David Fitterman with a gumball ring and I cried I was so mad at his relentless crush.

21. I memorized the cracks and bumps in the sidewalk, learning to catch air on my dirtbike.

22. I wanted to be left alone in the woods to find the magical creatures that made it feel so comfortable and safe there.

23. My friend invented the fruit-rollup + pretzel combination.

31. Gummy worms and salted pretzels occupied my attention in the bleachers of the little league games.

38. Assuming that some day, people wouldn’t try to tell me to go in to a different bathroom.

49. Feeling super helpful when I stacked the wood in to piles outside the backdoor.

50. Pretending that the Barbies were always in trouble and always on the run.

55. Building spaceships out of Lego.

56. Chasing after the ice cream truck and buying fake cigarette gum.

58. Kevin Williams teaching me how to breakdance in his basement.

59. Walking home with Vicky, trying to catch the falling leaves in my hands, then playing with her nieces, the smell of frying food filling my nose.

65. Thinking that I didn’t have to practice the clarinet, cuz I was already good and then getting replaced by Caren in band.

68. Being too small to make the trampoline bounce.

69. Ripped callouses and chalky skin.

74. Learning the toothless jingle from the guys in my dad’s orchestra pit.

78. Teaching everyone how to make paper airplanes.

79. Wearing elastic tags around our ankles in the park pool to show we’d paid.

91. Steering the wooden sled wtih my hands and ripping freezy freakies on the the mix of asphalt and fresh snow.

94. Walking around town with my chest bare - shirt yanked above my head like the big boys.

99. Rifling through the supply closet at my mom’s theater and dodging cockroaches.



(M.Rose thanks for sharing. It's interesting what comes up with alittle gentle digging.)