as i’ve mentioned, my partner and i are long-distance right now while i live in cincinnati and Dreamboat lives in Baltimore. Dreamboat is a romantic and works hard to be really creative about the ways we stay connected in the times we are apart, and this time, i’m getting an email once a day with a random question in it. Dreamboat answers the question, and then it’s optional for me to send back a reply. i think they’re good blog post topics, so i thought i’d share the one from today.
What is your best childhood memory?
the thing that is weird about childhood memories is that i don’t know what i really remember, and what i think i recall because i’ve seen photos, video, or heard the story many times from my mom or dad.
i don’t mean to be a downer, but there are just so many intense things that i remember better than good things.
i remember strongly the illness & funeral of my grandma Tootie, my mom’s step-mom. i remember other family funerals–my dad’s aunts & uncles mostly, and my mom’s father and uncle in 1991.
when i was about 8 or 9, we were boating at brookville lake with my parents’ friends and their kids. my dad was in the inner tube being pulled behind the boat, and in the wake, he got flipped, and caught up in the rope and was under the tube– drowning. my mom dove in to try to help him, and she wasn’t able to– she seemed to be drowning too. and i stood there watching the whole thing unfold–my long, sunstreaked hair wet down my back, little sunglasses on my face, and i was certain that i was going to watch my parents drown right there, and i’d be sent to live with my dad’s brother and his wife, and it was an eternity. Pete dove in, saved them both, and normalcy restored–but for that quick second, i pictured this whole life where people whispered behind my back about having dead parents, and in hindsight, i think that i had such a wild imagination from reading so much.
i started reading when i was 2.5. my mom sent me to school because she didn’t know what to do with a toddler who had taught herself to read; and thus I was in school for 20 years by the time I graduated college.
When i think about super happy childhood memories, it depends on what counts as childhood. on a cold january day in 1991, i got a phone call offering me a scholarship to high school–the high school my grandpa & uncle had both been kicked out of. 
it was one of the proudest moments of my life, running out to meet my mom’s car when she got home from work.
it was one of the proudest moments of my life, running out to meet my mom’s car when she got home from work.i won the geography bee in 7th grade; won a few spelling bees. happiness for me can mostly be boiled down into achievement, earning a prize, being chosen to go to the gifted & talented enrichment program, etc.
i have lots of slivers of moments when i felt great– moments on the beach on vacation, or a trip to the art museum that stands out in my mind– or winning races in track or swim team. i also remember playing pictionary with my parents and our neighbors–me and four adults. i was in the 4th grade & i got the word “ricochet” which baffled everyone–how did i know that word, what it meant– and i had no explanation for how i knew it–i just knew it.
i know that i had a happy childhood, i just don’t remember the pinnacle moment of it.
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