Hobbies and Imagination ...

I had a zest for art, colors, and music for as long as I can remember.   I have already mentioned many things I loved to do, but as I write this blog more memories pop up that I want to record here.  

I remember when we used to get the JC Penney Christmas Catalog and even Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs.  When I was a kid I would go through them and write down what I wanted Santa to bring me for Christmas.  There always was a Crayola art set on my list, sometimes a doll, but mostly art and science stuff.  

When I got older and didn't really have a mile long list of of things I wanted, I got a little more adventurous and used my imagination.  I would pretend that I had $1 Million dollars and I wanted to fill my dream home with things.  I would go through the catalogs, not the Christmas ones, but just the regular ones and write down things I would like to furnish my home with or things I would like to have....in my closets and just every room of the house.  I'd write the article and price and how many of each...even colors if I wanted various colors of the same thing.  It was a fascinating way for me to use my imagination, and THINK of what things I wanted that would actually fit my taste and the size of home I would have.  I never finished the list....I knew that my wish list was just a dream, but in the beginning it was fun to go through the catalogs and dream...

When I was in High School I often got books on handwriting analysis, personality analysis, and all kinds of things on arts and crafts.  I taught myself calligraphy and always had the pens to do that sort of thing.  While working at the library, I would check out books on all sorts of things.  I learned to macrame hanging basket holders...made a few for my Mom.  I read many different fictional books, mostly stuff from Judy Blume and V.C. Andrews.  Sometimes I read about psychology and sometimes I got books on poetry. 

I used to write poetry a lot.  I know I have most of it in storage but I don't ever get it out anymore to read what was in all those poems.  I loved poems to rhyme.  I tried writing limericks, they'd get silly.   I tried writing haiku's, but they don't necessarily rhyme, and they are so blasted short for my taste.  I read Edgar Allen Poe's poetry, and my sister and I spent time together one season memorizing his poem "Annabel Lee,"  It was easy to learn because of the rhyme and meter to it.  I have no idea why we both thought that was a cool poem to memorize.  I tried to remember the stanzas of "The Raven" but that one was a little too long for me.   Dad liked that poem.  I believe I kept the book on Edgar Allen Poe's works, it reminds me of Dad, and one good memory of my Sister, and his stories, though creepy, were interesting to me. 

I got a Kodak Disc camera when I was in high school, and took pictures all the time.  I loved going to the park and taking sunset pictures.  I would mail my pictures off to York Color Labs and pay a lot less than at the stores that did the same thing.   It would take longer to get them back, but I loved doing it nonetheless.   That little camera was my closest friend and took 15 pictures on the round disc it used for film.   I never did learn how to use a 35mm camera, the ones with the bells and whistles and different telephoto lenses and all that.  But it was always on my catalog wish list.  LOL

Think of a gizmo that kids played with, and I probably played with it.  My all time favorite gizmo was the Rubik's Cube.  I got really really good at that thing.  I still have one somewhere, but I would have to read the directions again to memorize the different moves to get a piece in a position to the side I wanted it to be.  It can be complicated at first, I got so good with it, I liked to show people, if they had the time and patience to watch me do it.  My friends Shan and Tricia, their Aunt's Sara and Theresa, would love to watch me do that thing.  I have a Christmas card from them in the past 10 years where they mention that too.  So funny that they remembered that one thing from my past.  Good memories those two!

And when my stuff was boring to play with, I would go tinker with my brothers stuff.  He had an Erector Set and I loved to help build stuff with that.  Heck I loved playing with Lego's, Lincoln Logs, and even now mentioned recently to my husband about finding some Lego kits and building stuff with them like I used to do.  He always looks at me funny when I mention playing with TOYS, but I just shrug him off.  I think toys are fun no matter what your age.  The building sets are good for manual dexterity, 3d imaginings and they do have all those lovely bright COLORS!

.....when you have nothing else to do, you can always use your imagination and play, and be a kid for a day!   Parents and adults sometimes forget that all this play and dreaming is calming on the nerves and serves a body well....and keeps you young.  My life needed more of this fun .... but it would be a while before I got back to it.  

Summer Jobs ...

Because my father wasn't working during the time I was in school from 7th to 12th grade, my family was classified as on welfare.  Mom received food items that the state doled out for families under certain income.  Not the best of anything but something to work with, I'll give them that.  And Mom worked hard to find any other services we could use to get by and make ends meet.  One of the services offered was a program offered by the City where kids in high school, starting at age 15 1/2, could work for minimum wage in one of the Government run organizations. 

The library district was the first place I worked from the Summer of 1982 to the Summer of 1983, and all through my sophomore school year.  I met a lot of good people there, and worked with Bernice and Patsy in the Children's library.  Now I didn't get paid by the library, I got paid by the City on a different payroll system.  But I got trained as if I was one of the other younger workers there.  Filing returned books and periodicals, helping patrons find things on the shelves and read the cards in the card catalog (yes this was way before anything was on computer!).  I got to help put children's craft lessons together and during the summer, help kids work on the reading lists...earning prizes and so forth.  Also periodically we had to do a complete filing inventory and go through every single book and make sure everything was filed and in complete alphabetical or numerical order by the Dewey Decimal system.  I actually loved doing that!   It was fun...again working with numbers (I know I am a freak about that). 

Some of my favorite times were going out to lunch with the others that could drive, I didn't have my license yet.  Gerald and Laurie were my two favorites and we would enjoy our breaks for sure.  I hung around with Laurie after work and on some weekends.  (I didn't know Laurie from school at all.) 

The Summer of 1984 I worked at City Hall.  I worked in the main office where city residents could get their city stickers for their cars (I don't know when they quit selling those but I am sure residents are sure happy).  They could also get their tags for their pets.   We sold liquor licenses to city and county businesses.  But the main thing I worked on was inputting the readings for resident's water bills. The mayor's office was on the top floor, I never met him.  His name was Doug Boschert, a distant relative per my Mom's side of the family.   I was the only one my age there, so there wasn't much fun in the way of hanging with other teenagers and getting into mischief or whatever.  It was pretty much a work only summer for me.   Oh, and one memory I have was when I locked my keys in my car.  I could drive then.  I told my boss and he got a coathanger and got the door unlocked with it, but in his zest to help, he tore up the molding around the top of the door, and it looked pathetic.  I thanked him immensely ...  I never locked my keys in my car again.   Lesson Learned!!

The Summer of 1985, after I graduated High School, I worked in the Air Force Recruiters office with MSgt. Moore.  He was nice as he could be to me.  I was kind of in my element there.  I had to type up prospective recruits' application forms and other paperwork.  Back then, no computers, so everything had to be 100% accurately typed the first time.  NO WHITE OUT, NO MISTAKES!   This was the military after all, they didn't want anything but top notch paperwork filled out.  I did have to retype some things once in a while, but hey you had to do it that way.  I learned to go slow and be meticulous.   

MSgt. Moore had to interview all applicants, to make sure they were acceptable to join the Air Force which has the toughest prerequisite list to get into their branch of the military.  I sat at the other desk in the office and got to listen to their interviews, while doing my work.  Some of these young people (some my age, most a little older) were so naive and so out of their element in what they expected could be acceptable to get into the Air force.  The applications asked about all criminal records, driving records and drug use.  I swear so many got turned away because of issues with any or all of these things.  You wonder what the big deal with driving records?   Well if you had unpaid tickets of any kind, even parking tickets, that all had to be cleared up first before ever getting to get to the place they do the physicals.  But really before anything else you had to pass the AVSBAD test at a certain level to get into see a recruiter.  I remember one guy came in and told his story to MSgt. Moore of why he was not permitted in the state of Texas.  He had been driving through the state with children in the backseat of his car, none in car seats, none buckled up, and he was driving 125 MPH! He got tossed in jail for all that....and wondered now why he couldn't get into the Air Force.  

There were more guys than girls that came to join the Air Force, most of the girls passed all tests the first time.  They seemed more conscientious to the idea that women were not as visible in that branch of the military as they were in the Army and Navy at the time.  Some that were refused to get into the Air Force went for the Navy, their office was next door.   Next to them down the line was the Marine recruiter office, and at the very other end was the Army.   I think the Air Force and Navy guys implied if you couldn't make it into their forces, you probably could get into the Army.   The Marines were all men I think back then, and didn't joke around much like the others.  I didn't talk much with them at all. 

Most days Msgt. Moore was out of the office at schools giving the AVSBAD test or driving new applicants to the place they go for physicals OR to the bus station where they all headed to Lackland Air Force base in Texas.  While he was out, I worked on the paperwork and got that all in ship shape.  Then if I had everything caught up, I listened to the radio, and organized my desk.  I think I retyped all the Rolodex cards and made them really neat and orderly.  And if nothing else to do at all, I brought in my needlepoint and did that.  I met a General one day, had to be on my best behavior for that.  Apparently Generals or anyone higher up the ranks than MSgt Moore would or could visit and everything had to be in order.  I was civilian so I didn't have to wear anything but office attire clothing, but the needlepoint had to be put away.  LOL

I did enjoy my summer there, learned a lot about the Air Force, and learned that I wouldn't make it through the basic training.   They played mind games and I wouldn't have been tough enough for that psych-blowing trip!!   MSgt was a very nice and amicable man.  I enjoyed it when he was there.  I grew to have a fondness of our US Military recruits.  They are trained well and they have to be pretty smart to even apply to get in the service. 

....  my first few jobs were interesting and got me well into the outside world of business, books, bills, patrons/customers, and even to understand a bit of military life.  But this was nothing compared to new work adventures ahead, and new places ahead I would go.   However it was the people that I remember the most.  And I have some new people to talk about next. 

 

Readying For The World ....

May 1981 was the last year there would be a Freshman class at the Junior High.  The 8th and 9th graders all were leaving TL Hardin Jr. High behind and moving up to the Senior High school together.   1/2 the school in August 1981 was new to the High School.  Was that ever strange. 

I went from Jr. High where all the classes were under one roof, to the Sr. High where there were 3 main buildings for the main academic classes, and a 4th building that was the Shop.  I never was in that building.  In between Buildings A, B, and C was what was referred to as the Quad.  I remember a pep rally or two there, but first thing every school year, all the clubs were out there to garner new members.  In my Freshman year, I don't believe I joined any clubs.  I wasn't sure which ones to join, nor which would be fun, plus I knew just about no one at school except my friend Lori, but we didn't share too many classes together.   I think we hooked up more at lunch time if our 4th hour classes had lunch at the same time.  

My Freshman year taught me a little of everything:  English, Geometry (I had Algebra I in 8th grade), Probability and Statistics, Physical Science, Art, PE, Civics and of course my least favorite, Missouri History.   None of my teachers struck me as all that interesting, except maybe Mr. McCoy the Science guy.  We got to work in 4 fields of Science.  I loved playing with the Chemistry set, but not so much liking to have weird funky smells come from the lab.  I had two different teachers for English, due to my schedule I had to switch teachers after the 1st semester.  Neither impressed me much.  The one memorable thing I remember making in my first art class in High School (and I cannot recall the teacher's name) was making an item solely out of construction paper and a minimal amount of glue that you could stand on and not crush when you stood on it.  It was like mixing physics and art together.  Think of a box with many partitions on a level, and several levels...to hold Christmas ornaments...but miniaturized version.  I did it and it worked.  I wish I still had that thing!

My Sophomore year was again a little of everything: English, Algebra II, PE, Health, World Geography,  Driver's Ed, Gen. Business, Typing but NO History!  This year though I decided to open up a bit, get to know some people and enjoy my 2nd year in H.S.  I met Lisa C. in World Geography class and we hit it off.  Hung with her every Friday night during Football season.  I really enjoyed going to the games and hanging out with Lisa and other friends who cheered on their rival teams.  I was never on the Pompom or Cheerleader squads.  I was not into that frilly stuff or getting up in front of people.  Dare I say I about passed out when I had to give speeches in Mrs. Hodges' English class!  She was one of my first mentors in school.  Absolutely loved her!  We read one of my favorite novels, "To Kill A Mockingbird" in her class.  I did well in her class.  But speeches I detested. 

My other favorite mentor was Mrs. Hillemann who I had for PE.  I had a very huge crush on her oldest son Charlie who is a year older than me.  I never told her that, but my friends knew I think.  He dated my friend Melissa's older sister.  They were high school sweethearts, got married in the early 1990s.  I got to go to their reception and enjoyed the whole thing.  What's really wild is that many years later I would run into him again, for a financial reason, and he looked SO different!  He was still married to his high school sweetheart, and that I always love to hear! 

The Algebra II teacher I was assigned to ended up having to take a leave of absence the whole year, due to some illness.  I don't think she ever returned to teach.  The teacher that replaced her was Mrs. Rosenberg.  The first Jewish person I had ever met!  I didn't know it then, but this would be a seed to my interest in religious studies.  Charlie and Michelle were in my class and we all sat in the same row.  I spent more time looking at him than paying attention in class.  LOL  But I did well in Algebra II.  I loved math and decided I would continue to take more Math classes the rest of my years in High School, although state law only said I had to take 2 years of Math to graduate.  I just really enjoyed numbers.  

My General Business instructor was Mr. Dave Williams, he was a hoot.  We got 18 inches of snow that February or March and it took forever to melt.  He told the class to silently write down the last day the snow would be on the school campus and whoever guessed the closest would get 50 extra credit points.  I didn't need any extra credit, I was carrying a solid A in that class.  But as luck or the universe would have it, I indeed guessed the closest date, somewhere in the middle of April, and got the extra points.  I was impressed with myself.   I should have asked if I could give the points to someone else but I don't think that was an option and I don't think I thought of it at the time. 

I got inducted into the National Honor Society that year.  That was really interesting.  Had to go to monthly meetings before school.   This was a true honor, as they had a special ceremony one evening and I know my parents came to that.  Had to dress up in a dress, YUCK, and go through this particular procedure to officially get inducted and say an oath I think.  Very cool for a 16 year old to go through.   

Ah, and that reminds me, I learned to drive in my Sophomore year.  Mom's car was a Plymouth Volare..  One of those dorky cars that you really didn't want to be seen in....it was like your Grandmother's car.  My Driver's Ed teacher Mr. Cheves didn't much care for girls.  We called him the chauvinist guy.   He did like Denise, who along with Rick (the guy who got baptized at the same Church and time I did) and I all made up the team in the car that we had to drive early in the morning to practice driving before getting tested.  He let Denise drive more, I think.  I got an A in the class and a C in the driving test, and landed with a B overall.  Not bad, but I waited 6 months before I got my license barely passing that darned driving test the state makes you take.  The woman tester had me doing things we never practiced in class....I nearly failed.  What a shock to me.   I can attest to this day I have never been cited at an accident for failing to do anything.  I have only gotten 3 speeding tickets and they all were over 20 years ago.  I have been in my share of accidents, just none were my fault.  We'll probably write more on this in a later post. 

I got a job at the City library and worked every night after school.   Mrs. Lowery, the school's track coach really wanted me to join the track team because I was pretty good at distance running back then.  I had to turn her down because I needed the job and couldn't make practices after school.  It's one huge regret I have from back then.  I used to blame my Mom for pushing me into working and keeping me out of things I wanted to do.   It really wasn't her fault, things were what they were and we needed more income to offset what was not coming in since Dad was still out of work.  I learned a lot about the public and I loved working with the crew at the library.  That job ended right before my Junior year started.  The program I was in wouldn't let me work past age 16, for whatever reason.  I tried to get on as a regular library employee but couldn't. I was hugely disappointed because I really was part of a big deal.  The Kathryn Linnemann branch used to be in an old 2 story house, and they merged that branch and the original branch I started working in into one new K.L. branch.  My name was on the plaque that was displayed for years as the people that helped bring that new branch together.  I always was proud that my name was on something especially in a library, where the public could see it, and a place where knowledge was in a book, magazine or video.  That was one awesome year!

Well that was my first half of High School. It came to end with Lisa C. moving away. I was heartbroken again. She forgot to leave me her new address, so I never heard from her again. How disappointing too. She was a very interesting gal. I believe her family moved to Germany, because her father's job moved him there. I still was friends with Lori, but we didn't hang together outside of school. Not since the 8th grade.

..... the journey in life sends out into the real world, with real people and real events that shape every facet of our being.  Sometimes we cringe at the things we run into, and we avoid many situations out of fear or ignorance.  Sometimes we find new and fascinating people and things to do that changes us forever! 

 

 

 

 

The Pythagorean Theorem