Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Do You Have Any Tattoos and What Are Their Significance? (Mom)
I have 2 tattoos currently on my body. One is a rose located to the right of my belly button and the other is a tramp stamp (meaning on my lower back) of a tribal sun. The rose has no significance to me. I was dating a guy who had many tattoos and convinced me to get one and I agreed. He took me to the tattoo shop where he had gotten all of his tats. He didn’t tell me that it was owned and operated by skin heads. When I walked in I immediately noticed the tattoo artist had many, many tattoos on his head, neck and arms of white supremist things. He was very intimidating to look at. I quickly looked through the tattoo books but really didn’t have anything in mind. The bigger the tat the more money it costs. I had to look at tats that were low in price and that left a small amount to choose from. One of the things that was lower in cost was flowers for girls. I looked at all the roses and picked the one that looked the nicest and was affordable. I chose my stomach because I wanted it to be where I could show it to people only if I wanted to. I have never been a big fan of tattoos on girls on wrists, arms, legs and ankles. The tribal sun was a spur of the moment decision. I was working at a tanning salon at the time and my boss wanted to get a tattoo but she didn’t want to go by herself. She told me that if I went with her she would pay for a tattoo if I wanted one. Tattoos can be addictive for some reason. Once you have one you want more. Anyway, we went to a tattoo shop that I heard was very good at heir trade. We started to look through the books and I found the tribal sun, which is on my back. I loved to lay in warm tanning beds and in the sun so I figured it was appropriate and suited me. My boss saw the tat I chose and ended up getting a more feminine version of what I got. Feminine isn’t me at all so I didn’t mind. Once again I chose a spot, on my back, that if I didn’t want to show you it, you wouldn’t know I had it. The rest is in ink! Contrary to your Mimi’s beliefs I never chose spots where I could hide them from her. I just don’t think that it looks professional for some women to have tats all over their body in certain professions. At that point, I had no idea of where I would end up career wise and I didn’t want to take a chance of looking silly or unprofessional.
Do You Have Any Tattoos and What Are Their Significance? (Mimi)
I don't have any tattoos. But I do have a tattoo story although your mother doesn't remember it this way. Once upon a time, I was at work on a Saturday night and I got a call from your mother who was in tears. She had just gotten home after a really bad experience with a guy she was seeing at the time and needed her mommy. So I went home and she started to tell me about all the terrible things that had happened to her. She went on and on and her heart was breaking at being betrayed by this guy. I was devastated to hear that someone was cruel to my baby girl. She was crying and I was crying and suddenly, out of the blue, she blurted out..."and I have a tattoo!" And that was how I found out about your mother's rose tattoo.
I also found out about her second tattoo accidentally. If I remember that one, she was wearing a short top and it peaked out at me above the waistband of her shorts. I think I just shook my head and wondered what she was thinking since tattoos have never been attractive to me. Oh well, it was her body and she was a big girl at the time.
I never knew the stories behind your mom's tattoos until she wrote this Memory Jar entry for you. She said that I never asked and so she never told me before and she is probably right.
I also found out about her second tattoo accidentally. If I remember that one, she was wearing a short top and it peaked out at me above the waistband of her shorts. I think I just shook my head and wondered what she was thinking since tattoos have never been attractive to me. Oh well, it was her body and she was a big girl at the time.
I never knew the stories behind your mom's tattoos until she wrote this Memory Jar entry for you. She said that I never asked and so she never told me before and she is probably right.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Describe a favorite childhood friend and something you did with her or him. (Mom)
Favorite childhood friend; Eric Milton Carter
Eric lived near me for a while in the Oaks. Our neighborhood didn’t have many kids at all. The other kids were older than us so we mainly played together a lot.
My home sat in a quiet neighborhood. On one side of the house were woods that I used to play in and make forts with all the leaves, branches and trees. On the other side was a neighbor’s house but there was a good distance between our yards. Behind my home was a cornfield. Eric and I used to love to run and hide in the cornfield for hours. It was a wonder we never got lost and couldn’t find our way back to my yard. There was a path that we could walk along that separated the homes from the cornfield that was always, during season, full of wild red and black berries that we loved to pick and eat. At one end of the path there was a hill that during the winter after it snowed we loved to take our sleds and sled for hours until we were frozen and had to go home.
Below our neighborhood were more cornfields too. There was a very small stream that flowed half way to the neighboring farm. We used to go and walk barefoot through the stream, throw rocks and build small dams to divert the water. Most of my memories were of us playing in the woods and cornfields or each other’s homes as much as we possibly could.
Every once and a while the older kids would get together with us and play a version of war. We would pick teams; one team would run and hide in trees, under leaves, in outside sheds or buildings. Basically anywhere we could be hidden. The other team would be responsible for finding us and capturing us until all the other kids were found. That was always fun since we had so many places we could run and hide for hours.
Unfortunately, when I was in 8th or 9th grade, Eric’s Dad got a job promotion and they moved out of state and I never heard from him again.
During that time, Eric was a good friend, but there were also 2 other good friends of mine. One was named Muffit and after Muffit came Tuffy. Yep, you probably already know, I love cats. These two cats were my buddies all of the time. I don’t remember stories of Muffit except her being around and following me to the bus stop in the mornings and finding me when I was walking home in the evenings. I just remember really loving her. Tuffy came after she died.
After Muffit died my Mother told me I could get another cat. One of my friends had 2 female cats that were having kittens and they told me that I could have one of the kittens when they were ready to leave their Mothers. One cat delivered her kittens a while before the second. We went to go see the kittens but there was only 1 kitten left. Our friends told us that he was a mean kitten and nobody wanted him because he was mean to the other kittens and very rough. Unfortunately, the other female cat had delivered her kittens but they had a few weeks until they could leave their Mother. I couldn’t wait for a kitten so I took the rough little cat. For weeks I kept trying to hold and love the cat. He would scratch me whenever I got him in my arms and I paid the price. I had scratches all over my body on a daily basis but I was determined that he was going to be my cuddly cat. After a few months of this, I think he resigned himself and gave up the battle. He became the most loving cat and let me do anything I wanted to him. I remember dressing him up in my Cabbage Patch doll clothes, hanging him from a back pack off the laundry line and spending hours with him also running through the corn field. When I put him in the back pack and hung him off the laundry line he would stay in there for hours until I rescued him and let him out. I really do think he liked it and he made me very happy throughout our time together.
These friends are my best childhood friends and memories.
Eric lived near me for a while in the Oaks. Our neighborhood didn’t have many kids at all. The other kids were older than us so we mainly played together a lot.
My home sat in a quiet neighborhood. On one side of the house were woods that I used to play in and make forts with all the leaves, branches and trees. On the other side was a neighbor’s house but there was a good distance between our yards. Behind my home was a cornfield. Eric and I used to love to run and hide in the cornfield for hours. It was a wonder we never got lost and couldn’t find our way back to my yard. There was a path that we could walk along that separated the homes from the cornfield that was always, during season, full of wild red and black berries that we loved to pick and eat. At one end of the path there was a hill that during the winter after it snowed we loved to take our sleds and sled for hours until we were frozen and had to go home.
Below our neighborhood were more cornfields too. There was a very small stream that flowed half way to the neighboring farm. We used to go and walk barefoot through the stream, throw rocks and build small dams to divert the water. Most of my memories were of us playing in the woods and cornfields or each other’s homes as much as we possibly could.
Every once and a while the older kids would get together with us and play a version of war. We would pick teams; one team would run and hide in trees, under leaves, in outside sheds or buildings. Basically anywhere we could be hidden. The other team would be responsible for finding us and capturing us until all the other kids were found. That was always fun since we had so many places we could run and hide for hours.
Unfortunately, when I was in 8th or 9th grade, Eric’s Dad got a job promotion and they moved out of state and I never heard from him again.
During that time, Eric was a good friend, but there were also 2 other good friends of mine. One was named Muffit and after Muffit came Tuffy. Yep, you probably already know, I love cats. These two cats were my buddies all of the time. I don’t remember stories of Muffit except her being around and following me to the bus stop in the mornings and finding me when I was walking home in the evenings. I just remember really loving her. Tuffy came after she died.
After Muffit died my Mother told me I could get another cat. One of my friends had 2 female cats that were having kittens and they told me that I could have one of the kittens when they were ready to leave their Mothers. One cat delivered her kittens a while before the second. We went to go see the kittens but there was only 1 kitten left. Our friends told us that he was a mean kitten and nobody wanted him because he was mean to the other kittens and very rough. Unfortunately, the other female cat had delivered her kittens but they had a few weeks until they could leave their Mother. I couldn’t wait for a kitten so I took the rough little cat. For weeks I kept trying to hold and love the cat. He would scratch me whenever I got him in my arms and I paid the price. I had scratches all over my body on a daily basis but I was determined that he was going to be my cuddly cat. After a few months of this, I think he resigned himself and gave up the battle. He became the most loving cat and let me do anything I wanted to him. I remember dressing him up in my Cabbage Patch doll clothes, hanging him from a back pack off the laundry line and spending hours with him also running through the corn field. When I put him in the back pack and hung him off the laundry line he would stay in there for hours until I rescued him and let him out. I really do think he liked it and he made me very happy throughout our time together.
These friends are my best childhood friends and memories.
Describe a favorite childhood friend and something you did with her or him. (Mimi)
I don't remember having a lot of childhood friends. I was the oldest of five children and I remember playing mostly with my sisters when we were little. One of our favorite games was playing school with Karen and I fighting over who would be the teacher and Teri NEVER getting to be the teacher. We also played store with empty boxes provided by Nana. We also used to "hike" to the Shoe House and to Matthews Stables which was owned by your Grandpa Art's family.
We went to Catholic school and our parents were a bit snobbish about it and felt that we shouldn't associate with the neighbor kids since they weren't Catholic. Every now and then I was allowed to play with Cheri who lived down the street. Her family was from Buffalo and she was nuts about horses and the most memorable thing that I can remember about her was her obnoxious laugh. We also occasionally were allowed to play with Eileen and Carol who lived next door to us. They were the oldest two children in a large rather rough family. My mom was very hesitant to allow them in the yard for fear that their bad qualities would rub off on us kids.
During the school years, I remember having a different best friend each year. My childhood was rather controlled by my mother and we didn't do the things that other kids did so it was hard to have anything in common with my schoolmates. They would go to parties and to outside activities such as bowling or roller skating and I was not able to join them in any of these things. There were sleepovers that I was never allowed to participate in. My mother didn't drive and my father worked second shift most of my school years so we basically went to school and came home. I think that might be part of the reason that I developed into a book worm as a kid. I was the loner who was content to sit in the corner with my book and the one place that I did visit regularly were libraries.
We went to Catholic school and our parents were a bit snobbish about it and felt that we shouldn't associate with the neighbor kids since they weren't Catholic. Every now and then I was allowed to play with Cheri who lived down the street. Her family was from Buffalo and she was nuts about horses and the most memorable thing that I can remember about her was her obnoxious laugh. We also occasionally were allowed to play with Eileen and Carol who lived next door to us. They were the oldest two children in a large rather rough family. My mom was very hesitant to allow them in the yard for fear that their bad qualities would rub off on us kids.
During the school years, I remember having a different best friend each year. My childhood was rather controlled by my mother and we didn't do the things that other kids did so it was hard to have anything in common with my schoolmates. They would go to parties and to outside activities such as bowling or roller skating and I was not able to join them in any of these things. There were sleepovers that I was never allowed to participate in. My mother didn't drive and my father worked second shift most of my school years so we basically went to school and came home. I think that might be part of the reason that I developed into a book worm as a kid. I was the loner who was content to sit in the corner with my book and the one place that I did visit regularly were libraries.
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