Wednesday, July 22, 2009

"Buried Treasure" - a blast from the past.....

Seth, of The Altered Page, recently challenged bloggers to post a "Buried Treasure"..that is, a favorite post(s) unearthed from the past. You can visit his site on July 23rd to see a list with links to all of the bloggers who are participating in the challenge. I am posting today, because of the time zone differences......
So here is mine, it is from January, 08 and at the time I was posting about things I was grateful for, each day.....

Thursday, January 10, 2008
Gratitude Day 3

I woke up this morning while it was still dark and immediately my thoughts went to gratitude. yeah! Maybe it will become a habit. I started coming up with all kinds of things...but I'll just list one for today...
Today i am very very grateful for ....my childhood.
I truly had an idyllic, blissful childhood. Some of my sisters would disagree (for themselves), but for me it was a childhood made in heaven. I was allowed to be a child for a long long time - I still played with babydolls until I was 13 and I never had a barbie - just not my thing. I've written about this topic before, so this time I thought I'd post part of a round robin book I worked in ages ago. The theme was "childhood" and I wrote and illustrated about my own....
"The House on Bird Avenue"

The closed pages. Each word opens a window with a photograph and explanation...

The pages opened....This is what it says:
I GREW UP IN A RAMBLING 2 STORY 5,000 SQ FT SPANISH STUCCO HOUSE ON 2 ACRES. The house was located in the heart of san jose, calif at the base of the curve in the road. The house itself was set back 50 feet from the street, with a 3 ft high white 2 foot thick concrete white fence that protected the house from the street traffic. (many a night we would hear the screech of tires and the crash of glass as someone once again was driving too fast and missed the curve in the road….but they never could penetrate that fence!)
My sisters and I and our friends would spend hours on that fence playing statues...like the local traffic didn’t think we were really kids standing in awkward positions on the fence as they went by!
The front yard was lined with 100 foot redwood and pine trees. Many a Halloween my mom would string flying witches and ghosts from those trees. My brother built treehouses, 40 feet up in the pines… we also had many water balloon fights from those huge, strong trees. Mama had an extensive garden with giant colorful peonies, snowball trees, calla lilies, elephant ears and snap dragons. There were 3 other homes in the neighborhood that grew champion irises, so of course our yard had gorgeous hybrid irises of every color everywhere, compliments of our neighbors!
The front yard also had a fish pond with tadpoles and fish and lily pads…..and the front door was placed deep on a brick terrace.
This house was a child’s dream! There was always something to do! In the main backyard we had more huge pine trees for climbing and a swing set. ..and there was a great mulberry tree full of fruit every year.
My dad put in a 20” doughboy pool, and then when I was in high school, he added an addition to the house and put in a huge built-in swimming pool.
The backyard had a detached 4 car garage that my parents set up as a rec room, with a billiard table. My dad built me huge extensive breeding cages, and I raised rats and guinea pigs. I loved those animals! My mom sold them once a month, but it wasn’t until I was much older that I found out she was selling them to Stanford University for research!
Many of the rats would escape from those cages, and my mom adopted them as pets and they would run wild in the garage...(she would feed them in their own dishes everyday).
We also had lots of dogs, and rabbits and even chickens, once. But no cats. Mama hated cats!
The back yard was fenced separately. It had avocado, peach, apple, cherry, apricot, persimmon, orange, lemon, walnut, and almond trees. My mother also grew artichokes and rhubarb year round. Once a year my grandfather would come and plant corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans and potatoes. The potatoes never grew!
…and to top it all off, one half of the “2nd backyard” as we called it, was naturalized with yellow daffodils – still my favorite flower.
Our house was a kid magnet! You could bring home anyone you wanted and not have to ask permission. My mom never fed less than 20, every night…..when I was in high school I had no less that 5 different classmates move in – from 2 weeks to one year - everyone was welcome in our house. Everyday after school my mama had beans and home made tortillas and rice pudding or Italian cookies for us to munch on…wednesday was always spaghetti night...
But- we were not spoiled…..we didn’t have a lot of money and I thought my dad was the cleverest man alive, the way he built things and recycled things….and my mom sewed all of our clothes and canned our food and we sold the fruit and nuts…and she did lots of volunteer social work for the church and our community, and we did volunteer work, too! (mama would have me babysit very old and infirmed women over night so that their caretakers could take a night off – very scarry in their old houses…one old lady made me snort snuff with her – I was 12!) …40 % of any money we earned had to be given back to the household…and we all had jobs early in age….
My mom loved fires….and would pack all 8 of us kids into the old station wagon to follow the firetruck. I still remember the fireman saying to my mom – please, Mrs. Rinaldo, take your children home !
We had a crazy woman named Millie, who lived in our basement. Mom had hired her to help with the ironing., but she never did a lick of work…
mom didn’t have the heart to throw her out in the street, so she made her an apartment in the basement and Millie would bang all night on the plumbing pipes and berate the air. But she’s another story….
the house was always chaotic and noisy and wonderful. Mama made mud pies with us and sang to us, and made funny faces at us that made us laugh. She told us great stories and had an incredible imagination which she shared with all of her children…. I could go on and on with my childhood memories…I was very lucky…….
My childhood was a joy !


13 comments:

MrCachet said...

LOL. Just read your little ditty about replies. No worry. I' coming back. You tell a good story to go with the pictures.

Marit said...

I love your book!!! I love bloghopping through al those "colaborators" blogs and find all these buried treasures - you inspire me! Thanks for sharing this!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

The visual imagery you created with your words is wonderful. I can just imagine the chaotic household. And the art is really great, too.

Unknown said...

What a great read! Your house sounds like the one everyone always wanted to be at when I was young! Your parents sound wonderful.
Homemade tortillas! Yuuummm! You've made my mouth water. One of my very favorite "nostalgic" smells.
Enjoyed your photos too.

3rdEyeMuse said...

oh! what an awesome post and since I missed it the first time around, I am so happy that you chose to share this one ... I would have loved play dates at your place!

Mary S. Hunt said...

mama and dad did good by y'all
provided you with tha ability to fend for YOURSELF!
how refreshing!!
enjoyed the read and glimpse into cetta life

Anonymous said...

I so enjoyed your Buried Treasure! Glad I stopped by!

jackie said...

Connie, I thought I had read every single post on your blog BUT somehow I missed this delightful one - so glad you "unburied" it! What fun it was to re-live your wonderful childhood with you! Your mama was truly a kind-hearted, fun-loving soul - I can see why you miss her so much! I was like you - never owned a Barbie until high school (for a Social Studies project) but my baby dolls were my constant companions until I was about thirteen. I wish I could have been one of your friends back then - visiting your home and family would have been the ultimate good time!!

A tired retired recluse @ Swallowcliffs.blogspot.com/ said...

What a fun journal entry and memories! Thanks for sharing.

femminismo said...

What a house to grow up in! Statues on the fence, feeding 20 each night, babysitting old ladies and using snuff when you were 12! (I tried chewing my grandpa's "chewing tabaccy" when I was about that age. Ugh! Awful! I didn't know you were just supposed to put it inside your lip. I thought you really were supposed to chew it.) Your stories are wonderful. Long live daffodils! - Jeanne in Oregon

Kim Palmer said...

What a blast, no wonder you enjoyed your childhood! Gotta say I feel like that about mine too, but we had less people in the house! So glad you posted this one, as it has me reminiscing and feelin a little gratitude as well,LOL!

Anonymous said...

What beautiful childhood memories - your Mom sounds like a special person! I'm just getting to know you (thank you Seth) so I don't know if you're a Mom yourself but I'm raising 2 girls and I only hope that their memories of me will be half as good!

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