Happy are we!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Not so Ancient History II

I am doing great on my New Year's Resolution to start my personal history. Here it is already week 2 and I am still going strong!

The topic for this week is...

Your first car! How did you get it? What make and model was it? Any fun stories?

My first car was a truck. I think my dad arranged that on purpose. He knew I was going to need something big and beefy to survive. It is truly sad but I have no earthly idea what the make and model were. I wish my dad was alive so I could fill in that little bit of info. I do know it was a lovely shade of burgundy. I drove a burgundy truck.

One of the results of having a truck was that during my senior year I was the designated riser driver for our Madrigal group. The very first time the boys loaded them into the back they just stacked them straight up and therefore the last few risers were hanging over edge of the tailgate. I didn't realize this until I was driving home with Wendy B. I turned the corner and she started screaming that the risers were falling out! I turned to look back at them and apparently I turned the steering wheel as well. I turned back just in time to drive over the curb and ram my right headlight into a big tree!

I distinctly remember watching Wendy bounce up and hit her head on the roof of the truck. I think it broke her clip that she was wearing in her hair. I dropped her off and started to head for home. I had 2 thoughts. The first was I had avoided the wrath of Miss M. (the choir teacher) by not losing the risers out of the back of my truck. Well done on my part! The second thought was it wouldn't do me any good because my dad was going to KILL me.

I got home and as luck would have it Dad was in the garage AND he was holding a hammer. I remember getting out of that burgundy truck and just walking up to him and blurting out. "I hit a tree." He started waving the hammer around and yelling all kinds of questions and I fled into the safety of the house and had a good cry! I did go back later to get some tree pieces for my scrapbook which I have yet to put together.

One year later Dennis was driving my truck home from school at the U and a cute little old man who had no business driving pulled into our lane going about 10 miles an hour. We ran into the back of him going 50. I thought we had killed them! Dennis got out and checked on them to make sure they were ok while I sat in the truck and commenced with the freaking out! After he reported that they were fine I started to face the reality that I was going to have to tell my dad! I think Dennis was thinking about the same thing because we both start pacing up and down the median waiting for the police.

It actually worked out great for me because Dennis dropped me off at work and then went to my house to break the news to my dad. I don't think Dad yelled at him. Dad called me later at work and told me that he was glad that we weren't hurt and that we were much more important than any car or any burgundy truck for that matter. I think I liked that second accident better.

It was a good truck. But obviously not good enought to take a bunch of pictures of to share with you!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Not so Ancient History!

Who was the First Love of your Life?

Our eyes met across a crowded bench and it was love at first sight. He was the blonde on the end of the bench. See our eyes meeting! Our families were old friends (well we had known each other for about 5 years!). We all lived in Memphis Tennessee and the year was about 1974. His name was Kenny although I hear he goes by Ken now, go figure. Kenny was very handsome as you can tell by this photo. We were the best of friends and spent a lot of time together. When my family was getting ready to move to Houston I can remember crying so hard at the thought of leaving Kenny. I climbed a tree and hid from my parents so that I wouldn't have to leave. Of course being only 6 I didn't have a lot of options. I remember that as we were leaving Kenny and I went around the side of the house and kissed me! So sweet.

His family would come out to Utah every year of so for vacation and I would always be giddy and giggly and we would always share a goodbye kiss! This romance would continue right up until we were about 11 and it would actually start to count as a real kiss! We lost contact for a few years. In high school we became pen pals and I learned that he loved gymnastics and he eventually got a scholarship to the Y in gymnastics. We actually went on 1 real date in college when I asked him to come to a sorority party. The next memory I have of him was going to his wedding reception and when he caught my eye as I was waiting in line he got that familiar grin on his face as he loudly announced to his bride and all around us "This is Kelli! The first girl I ever kissed!" I still look forward to his family Christmas card every year to hear how he is doing and see his latest cute picture!

Aahh. Kenny.

Project for the New Year!

First of all I think it is funny I am just now starting to think of what I want to do this year! Maybe stop procrastinating should be my project! Actually I think I have that one every single year. Anyway back to the actual topic of this post....

Do you know what your grandfather did for a living? How did your great-grandmother meet your great-grandfather? Do you know what your parents did on their first date? What is your mothers most embarrassing moment? Do you know the answers to these important questions? I know some of them but only because my relative wrote a personal history.

I have been thinking a lot about personal histories and how grateful that I am that my relatives took the time to sit down and remember and then put pen to paper or fingertips to old typewriters! They wrote stuff down! A few years ago my dad started writing his and I remember thinking that he was getting a great head start on getting his history done. He would send it to me and ask me for suggestions and I would send it back with questions I wanted answered. I can not tell you how much that history means to my family. I only wish I had written 1000 or so more questions for him to answer.

Clifford and Irv playing.

I have been encouraging my grandparents to write their histories! (Hi Grandma and Grandpa!! Love you!) Grandma has compiled several histories of other generations that I read, use and enjoy immensely but now I want theirs! Grandma has made the comment that she can't remember anymore and that got me thinking about how I can't remember anymore either so I am in real trouble in 40 years.

That leads to my topic. (Wow that was a huge intro!) I am going to start on my history!! I am not a good journal writer (this blog is pretty much the only writing I do!) so I really need to have a history of some sort. I am going to incorporate the blog though! Every Wednesday I am going to post the question of the week and I may or may not actually write my answer on the blog but I will answer it somewhere that day!

Join me if you like. Answer the questions on your blog or in your history or in your journal but answer it. It will be fun. I hope.

I will be stealing some of my questions from my good friend Anita's book that she wrote called "Self Preservation". Thanks Anita!

The topic for this week is: Who would you say is your first love?

I will answer my own question later today. I hope. Man if I don't I will be so sad that I can't even complete the first one. Somebody call me if I don't post by 11 pm! I need serious help!