Being a kid

I'm trying to go back to what it was like to be a really little kid. My first memory is of a big teddy bear I received for Christmas when I was three years old. I remember because I had asked for that teddy bear for Christmas, and there it was next to my stocking on Christmas morning!

I also remember being in preschool in Mrs. Burrows' class at Tucson Community School. I think of her as wearing a purple sweater with short sleeves. 

I have lots of memories of playing at my friend Virginia's house. Back then we called her Ginna. Her family had a bubble over their outside pool so that they could swim in the winter. That was amazing. Also, her mama made us get out of our bathing suits the instant we got out of the pool. No sitting around in wet suits for us (even in Tucson). We also had to have our hair dried by an old-fashioned hair dryer -- the kind with a shower cap and a big vacuum tube connected to the dryer part of the machine. I had never seen one of those before.

I remember playing lots and lots in our backyard, where my dad had planted grass. I remember his watering the grass with a hose when he could come home from work. I did so many cartwheels, round offs and may have tried a few back handsprings back there (I never did get good at those). 

When I was a kid, we used to walk to an art gallery that was near our home. They had a fountain there and a soda machine that sold bottles, so it was pretty magical for this kid. One time the artist himself was walking around and caught us trying to fish coins out of the fountain. That was mortifying.