My Early Years

I have become a FACEBOOK addict.  It is so fun.  I have found a lot of people I should never have lost track of.  It has been great to become acquainted with friends from the past.  One of my oldest friends I have found now.  Her name is Julie Watson.  She was in my Kindergarten class and we were friends through elementary school.  I have also found 3 of my other good friends from Namaqua Elementary --Barb Elo, Laurie Reynolds and Kristin Wagor.  We are still finding more of our group!!  Julie sent me these pictures and I wanted to keep them forever in my blog.

This is me in Kindergarten at Namaqua elementary in Loveland, Colorado.  I'm 3rd down of the left side.  I loved my hair that day.  My mom was never very consistent with my hair being done.  I lived with 3 brothers.  Many days my hair was straight and flat.  In my class picture this same year I looked totally different like a different girl.  It's all in the hair. 

  

My teacher was the best.  She had taught there for a couple of years and all the kids loved her.  We did however call her Mrs. Hippopotamus because she was large in stature.  She was very kind and gave great hugs.  I also remember taking a nap on my towel (no one takes naps in Kindergarten anymore) and having milk and crackers afterwards.  I also remember using the big crayola crayons and an over-sized pencil.  They thought it was good for kindergartners to use big things I guess.  I also remember doing the calendar and weather everyday. 

 

 What great memories.  My best friends were Julie Watson ( first on the left) and Bernice Jane Simpson (2 down from me) and Shannon Sennett (girl above teacher).  Jason Perry (diagonal up from me) lives here in Eagle, Idaho with his wife and family now.  

This is my second grade class picture.  I was wearing my favorite dress my mom made.  She also made one for her.  We matched at church.  I am second row from bottom in the middle.

 My memories of second grade were mainly of an accident that I had in Oct of that year.  I as riding my horse one Sunday with my father when a big dog jumped out from some bushes by a canal.  Our horses were very spooked and ran through an orchard and across a field running as fast as they could run.  My horse even jumped some downed logs.  I had no control of the reins and knew I was in serious trouble.  I only remember feeling like I needed to get off the horse but could not move.  I know something or one helped me off the horse however I still ended up with a broken femur bone as I landed in a pile of leaves just inches from rock.

   I was in the hospital for 5 weeks in traction laying flat on my back.  In the 70's, there were only BW tv's with limited children's programing and no remote controls.  I kept the hospital staff hopping as I continuously called them to get me something new to do or change the channel on the TV.  I also remember eating 10 pieces of bacon every morning and not washing my hair for the 5 wks (I think we had to cut it).  I only was able to have a towel bath due to the fact that my leg was hanging by a pin through it from the top of my bed rail.  I also remember my brother Chad fainting every time he came to visit because my leg grossed him out. 

 

One of the greatest experience was having my Grandma Decker help me learn to use relaxation skills to keep my leg from throbbing.  She had me image I was on a cloud and I could seriously remember being on a cloud.  That's mind power. 

The saddest thing was missing Halloween and trick or treating.  My class mates made me some spooky decorations to hand on my hospital bed and my brothers went trick or treating for me.  I got the biggest bag of candy that year because they told everyone I was in the hospital.  That was the good part.  Image a 8 year old child who can not move in a bed on sugar high.  The poor nurses!!!!

After 5 weeks, I was released from the hospital with a full body cast.  A really big man helped get me in the car at the hospital so when we got home I cried because I wanted that man to carry me everywhere.  I had to use a lot of faith when I let my mom pick me up for the first time.  She became very strong.  My parents moved  one of my brothers beds down in the family room so I wouldn't have to go up or down stairs.  I learned a lot those months and I got very strong using my arms to move myself around the house.  I could even beat my brothers at arm wrestling.  I had to be transported around town in our motor home because I could not sit in a car.  I also had a lounge chair that I sat in at church.  I learned quickly to use my crutches also.  

I began going back to school shortly after my return home.  The six grade boys would lift me on and off the bus.  That was pretty cool. I think I laid across the bench seat.  Because of my full body cast, I could not use the restroom at school.  I learned to hold it all day.  I am still like a camel today!!!

One thing I remember about Ms. Simmons class was that one day I lost my balance when I was moving around the room and I feel backwards with a very loud BOOM as my cast hit the floor.  Everyone went dead quiet and I started laughing.  It was crazy!!  I was totally fine those cast were like steel.  

Even though my leg did not heal as well as the doctors would have liked, I went on to win many field day running events and participated in Track all through Junior High and High school.  I feel very fortunate.  The accident could have been much worse.

In fifth grade I had almost all of my close friends in my class. This was a big mistake for the teacher.  I remember getting in trouble often for note passing.  I still have the notes from my 5th grade year.  Julie and I are still together in the picture (2nd row from top on the right).  
  This year was our greatest year.  I even had more friends in this class but we had the coolest teacher Mr. Fehl.  He had lost several fingers in an accident but he could write really well still.  

We had the greatest group of friends.  We had matching shirts also that we would wear skating at Skate Castle.  Laurie wrote me to tell me what one of them said  Don't underestimate the power of a kid. Not really sure why we picked this for our shirts but that we did!!  We spent a lot of sixth and seventh grade at each others houses.  We loved the early 80's music, dancing, skating, rainbows, movies and BOYS!!  Life was good!!

Top in blue shirt:  Barb Rogers, Kristin Wagor   bottom row left to right:  Shannon Sennett, Julie Watson, ME!!, Barb Elo, Laurie Reynolds and Mallory Kemps.  

We all had a rainbow shirt like Becky has at the top.  If you didn't have one you were so uncool!!!  I even had a rainbow sweater that was great!!  We all had crystal hanging in our windows of our bedrooms that made rainbows, and we had rainbow shoe laces on our Adida shoes.  Rainbow earrings, necklaces, everything rainbow!!

This is our basketball team.  All the girls in blue were our friends that we hung around with all the time.  Barb Elo, Laurie Reynolds and I lived near each other so we did hang more often.  Mallory Kemps and Shannon lived in Namaqua Hills a few miles away.   

 

Mallory lived in a crazy house that looked like a flying saucer.  Her dad was a builder and built unique homes.  She had the coolest house.  It had a water fall in it long before most people did.  I had the most animals and brothers, and Barb Elo had the greatest mom (next to mine of course). 

  Barb  had a rainbow room that any girl would die for.  Her dad was a heart doctor in town.  I guess I kind of lived through her because she had everything any girl would want.  Barbs mom always had food for us and she would take us to the movies often (where we met boys, shhhhhh!!! No one knows but us).  I think Barb's mom died of cancer sometime ago.  It makes me sad.  

Laurie had a cool desk her dad made and we all loved it.  She also had a older sister Jenny that we thought was so cool.  Laurie and Barb had hot tubs that we enjoyed a lot!!  Kristin Wagor rode horses in the fair.  She was really good and me thought she was cool!!

This is at one of our games.  I bet we won!!!  Laurie is wearing our groups green shirt and Barb Rogers and I have our rainbow skate shirts on.  Our names were on the back!!  What memories!!!  It fun to see pictures that you haven't seen forever.  I wish we would have had digital photo's back then.  There are only a few pictures we have of us as friends.  I cherish these photos.