weekend of random memories...
a conversation W and i were having somehow reminded me of a childhood friend. when my parents and i first moved to the bay area from the scorching central valley, we lived in an apartment complex that fortunately had 3 girls my age living nearby. one was an indian girl, C, and she and i, along with R and B, quickly became great friends. C's family moved around the same time we did, and we went to different jr. high schools. we rarely spoke or hung out after that. and the next time i saw or heard anything was my senior year in high school. i was eating my cereal, getting ready to go to orientation, where you get your photo taken, your ID card, your class schedule. we used to get the local paper back then, and i opened up the pages to see C's face! but then i noticed the headline, not of celebration, but of loss. she had died of some sort of heart failure while vacationing in india with her family. i remember she had a heart problem that she was born with, and had really severe asthma that had hospitalized her several times while we were growing up. when i got to school, several of my friends had also seen the paper, and word spread fast about C's sudden death. every once in a while i'll wonder how her family is doing. she had an older sister and a younger brother. i remember her family was one of the first i ever knew to have internet at their house, way back when prodigy was the big thing.
my friend M was car shopping, and got a great quote from a dealer, only to go and find out that the salesman was P, a guy that another friend L had known in high school. P was kinda obsessed with L, and tho she probably shouldn't have, she agreed to go to his senior prom. they got into a pretty bad accident on hwy 17 while on their way to dinner, and screwed up her back pretty bad. and he didn't have insurance, so her insurance had to pay for everything. yeah, it wasn't a good night. but she felt bad that he didn't get to go to his prom, so she invited him to our's. this made me remember another admirer of L (she had several, all strange, old or just not of interest, and all way obsessed). this guy, i think he was a manager, at the burger king near my house was in lust with L, and whenever we'd go there, we'd get hooked up with sodas and french fries. it freaked her out cuz he didn't hide his affections very well, but i loved it cuz it meant free food! and that goes a long way in high school, when you don't have a job! haha, okay, so maybe i was using L to get free food, but deep down, i know she liked the attention. :P
this sort of heat way we're having (100+ degrees all last week, and into next!) reminds me of living in fresno, where the summer temps were over 100 every day for weeks at a time. our family friends had a pool in their backyard, and i remember one summer literally spending all day and night in my bathing suit, just swimming and lounging in the pool. i didn't even want to get out of the pool to eat, so i'd ask someone to bring my food to the pool where i would float in an innertube eating my ham sandwich. i don't remember sleeping much that summer. i was like 5 or 6. i have soooo many memories of that time, between the age of 4 and 7, and that family of 7 kids. they were like my brothers and sisters. like playing hide and seek in the dark (times were different then, kids could play in the street in the middle of the night and not have to worry about bad things happening). or the time one of the twins and i ate a whole loaf of bread, toasting slice after slice, spreading butter and strawberry jelly. or the time we were chased by a huge black dog down the street and just made it to the house before the dog ate us for lunch (okay, he wasn't that big, and he probably just wanted to play, but we were kids, and we were scared out of our minds). or the time one of the twins was doing the laundry and his sister's red shirt got in the whites and turned his dad's underwear, socks and undershirts pink! i swear, it was straight out of a sitcom. i could go on forever, so i'll stop here.
i like hearing my friends' memories, and always suggest they write their memoires. everyone should write their own memoires, a collection of stories and memories of their life. the stories i like hearing best are the ones my dad tells, of his childhood, of growing up in korea, all the mischief he got into and how he disobeyed his parents. even when he tells the same story over and over, it's still fun to listen to them over and over...
a conversation W and i were having somehow reminded me of a childhood friend. when my parents and i first moved to the bay area from the scorching central valley, we lived in an apartment complex that fortunately had 3 girls my age living nearby. one was an indian girl, C, and she and i, along with R and B, quickly became great friends. C's family moved around the same time we did, and we went to different jr. high schools. we rarely spoke or hung out after that. and the next time i saw or heard anything was my senior year in high school. i was eating my cereal, getting ready to go to orientation, where you get your photo taken, your ID card, your class schedule. we used to get the local paper back then, and i opened up the pages to see C's face! but then i noticed the headline, not of celebration, but of loss. she had died of some sort of heart failure while vacationing in india with her family. i remember she had a heart problem that she was born with, and had really severe asthma that had hospitalized her several times while we were growing up. when i got to school, several of my friends had also seen the paper, and word spread fast about C's sudden death. every once in a while i'll wonder how her family is doing. she had an older sister and a younger brother. i remember her family was one of the first i ever knew to have internet at their house, way back when prodigy was the big thing.
my friend M was car shopping, and got a great quote from a dealer, only to go and find out that the salesman was P, a guy that another friend L had known in high school. P was kinda obsessed with L, and tho she probably shouldn't have, she agreed to go to his senior prom. they got into a pretty bad accident on hwy 17 while on their way to dinner, and screwed up her back pretty bad. and he didn't have insurance, so her insurance had to pay for everything. yeah, it wasn't a good night. but she felt bad that he didn't get to go to his prom, so she invited him to our's. this made me remember another admirer of L (she had several, all strange, old or just not of interest, and all way obsessed). this guy, i think he was a manager, at the burger king near my house was in lust with L, and whenever we'd go there, we'd get hooked up with sodas and french fries. it freaked her out cuz he didn't hide his affections very well, but i loved it cuz it meant free food! and that goes a long way in high school, when you don't have a job! haha, okay, so maybe i was using L to get free food, but deep down, i know she liked the attention. :P
this sort of heat way we're having (100+ degrees all last week, and into next!) reminds me of living in fresno, where the summer temps were over 100 every day for weeks at a time. our family friends had a pool in their backyard, and i remember one summer literally spending all day and night in my bathing suit, just swimming and lounging in the pool. i didn't even want to get out of the pool to eat, so i'd ask someone to bring my food to the pool where i would float in an innertube eating my ham sandwich. i don't remember sleeping much that summer. i was like 5 or 6. i have soooo many memories of that time, between the age of 4 and 7, and that family of 7 kids. they were like my brothers and sisters. like playing hide and seek in the dark (times were different then, kids could play in the street in the middle of the night and not have to worry about bad things happening). or the time one of the twins and i ate a whole loaf of bread, toasting slice after slice, spreading butter and strawberry jelly. or the time we were chased by a huge black dog down the street and just made it to the house before the dog ate us for lunch (okay, he wasn't that big, and he probably just wanted to play, but we were kids, and we were scared out of our minds). or the time one of the twins was doing the laundry and his sister's red shirt got in the whites and turned his dad's underwear, socks and undershirts pink! i swear, it was straight out of a sitcom. i could go on forever, so i'll stop here.
i like hearing my friends' memories, and always suggest they write their memoires. everyone should write their own memoires, a collection of stories and memories of their life. the stories i like hearing best are the ones my dad tells, of his childhood, of growing up in korea, all the mischief he got into and how he disobeyed his parents. even when he tells the same story over and over, it's still fun to listen to them over and over...
posted by joyce at
5:47 PM
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