Days 10-13
10. College
Thanksgiving break, freshman year, one or two days after I'd started going out with my boyfriend L. A bunch of us-all guys in that group besides me-were hanging out at a mutual friend from high school's house, in the basement. It smelled thickly of dog. It was so late it was early. I was really tired. I was sitting next to L. on a stool or a wooden chair, and the host's dog came downstairs, a golden retriever or something, and started sniffing around, as dogs do. I was trying to push its nose out of an impolite place when L. reached over to help more firmly and said to the dog, "Hey, stop that. That's my job now." I'm sure I went beet red, but I don't think anyone else heard.
11. Pre-school
One of the few non-school memories I have of that era (age 3-4) is of watching Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments. It took a while, although I didn't mind; we may have watched it over a couple of afternoons. I think my mom once told me we watched it when I was home sick, though, so I'm not sure. I remember bits and pieces of it: dark red sky, smearing the lamb's blood on the doors, finding baby Moses in the reed basket, the whirling storm and parting sea, the chariots and Egyptians drowning, the dirt and loose clothes and sandals and beards and the women's long hair.
12. & 13. Elementary School
My friends E. and K. and I traded religious holidays a few times, like exchange students. They came over once for Hanukkah and maybe for Passover, and I spent a Christmas and an Easter at each. The unevenness of the swaps -- that, looking back now, I feel that I was more condescended to when I visited them, as if there were some element of Educating The Poor Ignorant Minority, and more of an odd curiosity when they visited me, whereas we simply explained and shared -- is a subject for another time.
The Easter I spent with E. was at her aunt and uncle's house somewhere out on the island. I remember:
- When her mom picked me up in the car, E. brought me a small Easter basket (it had a Reese's peanut butter egg) and a candy cane. *squints* I think there was a candy cane. If not, it was at Christmas. But I seem to remember that she explained the significance of the red, green and white stripes of the candy cane in the car on the way.
- E. and her mom telling me the basics of the story of Easter on the ride over: death and miraculous resurrection.
- At the house, there were jelly beans and Jordan almonds and little malted eggs. I loved the malted eggs and kept stealing them from the candy dish. There must have been relatives asking me questions, too, but I don't remember that much.
- There were little playground sets in the backyard, and we played there for the afternoon with E.'s cousins, who I think were younger. There was something unusual that they had, something other than a swing set or slide, but I can't remember what, exactly; not a bouncy castle-that's an SGA story I mixed up with this memory when I read it-but something maybe by Fisher Price.
- We had ham. I'd never had ham before, hadn't even seen a thick cooked ham, only the tissue-thin deli slices my dad would eat with Swiss cheese on his bagels.
What I remember of the Easter at K.'s:
- We went to the midnight Mass at her church (Lutheran). (Was that Easter? Is midnight Mass a Christmas thing I'm mixing up with this?) Before we left, so late at night, we were listening to the radio, some top 40-type station she liked; Desiree's big hit of the day was on.
- We brought Snapples with us; in the car, K. showed me a trick where you hit the bottom of the bottle with the heel of your hand so the cap wouldn't pop when you opened it for the first time and disrupt the service.
- Bits and pieces of the service, all mixed up with when we went at Christmas (if I'm not confusing these two and we didn't go at Easter at all) and when K. was confirmed. Latin, high walls, a choir, a sermon, a collection basket, people going up for communion, being interested and a little uncomfortable but mostly interested, and I wasn't sure whether I should mouth along to the songs and readings or sit/stand and observe.
- In the morning, K.'s mom gave us each an Easter basket. I don't remember what was in it (candy mostly, and K. got some small gifts, maybe a stuffed animal) other than lots and lots of plastic grass, which we kept finding in our basement years later.
Thanksgiving break, freshman year, one or two days after I'd started going out with my boyfriend L. A bunch of us-all guys in that group besides me-were hanging out at a mutual friend from high school's house, in the basement. It smelled thickly of dog. It was so late it was early. I was really tired. I was sitting next to L. on a stool or a wooden chair, and the host's dog came downstairs, a golden retriever or something, and started sniffing around, as dogs do. I was trying to push its nose out of an impolite place when L. reached over to help more firmly and said to the dog, "Hey, stop that. That's my job now." I'm sure I went beet red, but I don't think anyone else heard.
11. Pre-school
One of the few non-school memories I have of that era (age 3-4) is of watching Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments. It took a while, although I didn't mind; we may have watched it over a couple of afternoons. I think my mom once told me we watched it when I was home sick, though, so I'm not sure. I remember bits and pieces of it: dark red sky, smearing the lamb's blood on the doors, finding baby Moses in the reed basket, the whirling storm and parting sea, the chariots and Egyptians drowning, the dirt and loose clothes and sandals and beards and the women's long hair.
12. & 13. Elementary School
My friends E. and K. and I traded religious holidays a few times, like exchange students. They came over once for Hanukkah and maybe for Passover, and I spent a Christmas and an Easter at each. The unevenness of the swaps -- that, looking back now, I feel that I was more condescended to when I visited them, as if there were some element of Educating The Poor Ignorant Minority, and more of an odd curiosity when they visited me, whereas we simply explained and shared -- is a subject for another time.
The Easter I spent with E. was at her aunt and uncle's house somewhere out on the island. I remember:
- When her mom picked me up in the car, E. brought me a small Easter basket (it had a Reese's peanut butter egg) and a candy cane. *squints* I think there was a candy cane. If not, it was at Christmas. But I seem to remember that she explained the significance of the red, green and white stripes of the candy cane in the car on the way.
- E. and her mom telling me the basics of the story of Easter on the ride over: death and miraculous resurrection.
- At the house, there were jelly beans and Jordan almonds and little malted eggs. I loved the malted eggs and kept stealing them from the candy dish. There must have been relatives asking me questions, too, but I don't remember that much.
- There were little playground sets in the backyard, and we played there for the afternoon with E.'s cousins, who I think were younger. There was something unusual that they had, something other than a swing set or slide, but I can't remember what, exactly; not a bouncy castle-that's an SGA story I mixed up with this memory when I read it-but something maybe by Fisher Price.
- We had ham. I'd never had ham before, hadn't even seen a thick cooked ham, only the tissue-thin deli slices my dad would eat with Swiss cheese on his bagels.
What I remember of the Easter at K.'s:
- We went to the midnight Mass at her church (Lutheran). (Was that Easter? Is midnight Mass a Christmas thing I'm mixing up with this?) Before we left, so late at night, we were listening to the radio, some top 40-type station she liked; Desiree's big hit of the day was on.
- We brought Snapples with us; in the car, K. showed me a trick where you hit the bottom of the bottle with the heel of your hand so the cap wouldn't pop when you opened it for the first time and disrupt the service.
- Bits and pieces of the service, all mixed up with when we went at Christmas (if I'm not confusing these two and we didn't go at Easter at all) and when K. was confirmed. Latin, high walls, a choir, a sermon, a collection basket, people going up for communion, being interested and a little uncomfortable but mostly interested, and I wasn't sure whether I should mouth along to the songs and readings or sit/stand and observe.
- In the morning, K.'s mom gave us each an Easter basket. I don't remember what was in it (candy mostly, and K. got some small gifts, maybe a stuffed animal) other than lots and lots of plastic grass, which we kept finding in our basement years later.