Two Prompts on tuesday!

And I don't have the time and patience I wish I had... Solution? combine them! Over at heads or tails the prompt is Summertime memory!
One of my happiest childhood summertime memories was staying overnight often at my best friend Linda's house. She had the 'fun' neighborhood. Every house on her street seemed to have a bunch of kids living there! We would often play neighborhood hide and seek, running into every back yard to hide out. You can imagine that this game would last a long time with so many homes involved! Another favorite part of my summer time sleep overs... when School was out so was an official 'bedtime' at Linda's house. We loved staying up till the wee hours and sleeping all morning.
Late Late at night we would find our way into her kitchen and start making crazy snacks.. Or we would start making some prank phone calls! One of our favorite past times was playing 'shows'
We would take turns performing! Put on an old album from her parents 'weird' collection and start lip sinking and dancing around! Often crazy costumes were involved!! We had our own vaudeville right in her musty basement! I remember vividly LOVInG and performing the song...
"im just wild about HArrY and Harry's wild about ME!" hahaha (During the late 60's early 70's of my youth... this song was WAY out of date! But not to me!)


Sweet Linda adored Shirley Temple and would often tap dance and do Shirley songs! We each had to judge the others performance, we had our very own 'americas got talent' down in that haven of a basement!
It was After one of these critiques ... that Linda and I had an awful argument and I got so hurt and so angry at Her ....I decided to walk all the way home all by myself!
I lived quite a ways away and was only about 8 years old. When I think back now I thank god I made it safely there, and I think What spunk that little girl had! When I walked through my kitchen door, My mother was shocked to see me and couldn't believe I didn't tell Linda's Mom that I had left. She couldn't believe I walked all the way home all alone! I remember getting in a lot of trouble that summer! Linda and I of course made up as we always did. I remember her clearly... explaining to me and Clarifying what she had meant in her critique by saying..."well,Lulu
you would have understood me, had you waitedA few minutes for me to explain it ALL to you." ( hmmm...i guess I've always been a little impatient)
carryontuesday

Lovely Linda

my 'future' husband is now a cop in LA!

I heard from my childhood friend Linda today. I've written a lot about her. I've written about how, when we were young we would write 'future' letters. We dreamed up fantasy future lives for ourselves. Lives that we imagined would have separated us in distance, but Not in heart, for we would write back and forth every week.(and we did write these future letters back and forth for SO long, even though we saw each other every day!) I imagined I lived in Connecticut and had a gorgeous life. In her illusion, She lived somewhere else with other imaginary loved ones and we would write to each other and tell about all the fantastic things we and our make believe husbands, children, friends were up to. (we were weird kids!)
Tonight in REAL life, we tried to catch up on events since the last time we spoke.
I could sense the sadness in her voice. She could sense I wasn't being truthful when I said 'everything is fine'. Even though we don't see each other or speak too often, I guess when you have a history like the one we shared together as children, you just really really know the other person. AFter confessing different difficulties and each of us encouraging each other as best as we could during what she needed be a short conversation, I couldn't help laughing. I couldn't help remembering those zany letters. I said.. "Gee Lyn, I don't remember any of this shit in those Future letters! Wasn't the future utopia? We were SO young and SO insanely idealistic, problems were never even a consideration!!" It took her a second but then she remembered what I was talking about and had a good laugh too. She said.. "didn't u live in Connecticut?!"
(I think Bobby Sherman was my husband too!)
I was so happy that THaT memory was able to take her back and give her a lift from her present day gloom. Maybe that was the reason we felt we needed to write those letters so long ago. We didn't know it back then, but maybe the reason those letters felt SO necessary to invent, was the treasured memories they would add to our actual futures.
NAH! It was more likely our overdose of the brady bunch and wAy too much sugary foods and idol time.

my oldest friend

The song playing always brings her to mind.
I recently ran into my oldest childhood friend at the Italian market. My friend Linda only lives about 10 minutes from me. We still email occasionally.
We have only intentionally met up a couple of times for a lunch in the past 20 years. I still send her a birthday card each year.
Yet, We were not only inseparable as children we were also blood sisters. Remember that Pre-HIV ritual that kids would partake in to confirm their bond of sisterhood? Linda and I met when we were in Kindergarden. Mrs. Woods' class. We didn't get friendly outside of school until the 2nd grade, when Our moms began working together and discovered their girls were in the same Class. ( Mrs. Masucci's class!) We quickly became best friends as did our Moms. Each weekend I would sleep over at her house. She had the 'fun' neighborhood, full of kids around our age. Looking forward to each weekend helped me get through some difficult times in my own family life. In high school, I began living with her and her parents. My own Mom was going through some tough times and this arrangement made everyone happy. I don't know how it happened, but when I decided two years later that I wanted to move back home to my Moms home, everything fell apart. Linda's mom freaked out... calling me ( at only 16 years old) ' A fair weather friend'. ( They had had two deaths in their extended family). I was heart broken to lose my '2nd family' and more heartbroken to know that Linda was not suppose to talk to me. Even though she tried to respect her Moms wishes... In school during lunch period, we just had to sit together and chat and try thinking of ways to make our families bond again. As a grown woman, When I looked back on this entire situation years later... I realized her Mom was going through her own traumatic difficulties which I know affected how she looked at the simple, harmless request of a child.

( I have a vivid painful memory of receiving the card I sent her for mothers day ripped into many pieces and mailed back to me, MY mother declared her insane) The trauma of her rejection added so much to what I was already going through at that time. Linda, being an only child, was devastated by our forced separation. It is so unfortunate that we couldn't find a way to remain close friends. We went our separate ways only a few minutes down the same avenue. Each time I run into her my heart fills with warmth and it fills with a mournfulness over the wonderful times we missed out on in each other's lives and the lives of our children.
I don't think we could ever be as close as we were as kids (for too many reasons too complicated to discuss) but like she said to my son at that market recently about her oldest friend....." It doesn't matter how many years pass, each time we see each other I still feel like we're best friends". I love you too Linda and I feel the same way about you. ♥


If this sounds familiar I am reusing a story I wrote a few months back because it fit so well with the sunday scribblings prompt
Often when you've read about my childhood, you may remember...... Linda in the stories

friendship

Thanks Writers Island. Your prompt this week was timely considering an hour before I looked to you for the prompt, I ran into my childhood friend at the Italian market. My friend only lives about 10 minutes from me. We still email occasionally.
We have only met a couple of times for lunch in the past 20 years. I sent her a birthday card just last month.
Yet, We were not only inseparable as children we were also blood sisters. Remember that Pre-HIV ritual that kids would partake in to confirm their bond of sisterhood? Linda and I met when we were in Kindergarden. Mrs. Woods' class. We didn't get friendly outside of school till the 2nd grade, when Our moms began working together and discovered their girls were in the same grade. We quickly became best friends as did our Moms. Each weekend I would sleep over at her house. She had the 'fun' neighborhood, full of kids around our age. Looking forward to each weekend helped me get through some difficult times in my own family life. In high school, I began living with her and her parents. My own Mom was going through some tough times and this arrangement made everyone happy. I don't know how it happened, but when I decided two years later that I wanted to move back home to my Moms home, everything fell apart. Linda's mom freaked out... calling me ( at only 16 years old) ' A fair weather friend'. ( They had had two deaths in their extended family). I was heart broken to lose my '2nd family' and more heartbroken to know that Linda was not suppose to talk to me. Even though she tried to respect her Moms wishes... In school during lunch period, we would try to chat and would think of ways to make things right again. When I looked back on this years later... I realized her Mom was going through her own traumatic difficulties which I know affected how she looked at the simple, harmless request of a child.
( I have a vivid painful memory of recieving the card I sent her for mothers day ripped into many pieces and mailed back to me) The trauma of her rejection added so much to what I was already going through at that time. And being an only child, I know this seperation was devestating to Linda. It is so unfortunate that we couldn't find a way to remain close friends. We went separate ways only a few minutes down the same avenue. Each time I see her my heart fills with warmth and it fills with a mournfulness over the wonderful times we missed out on in each other's lives.
I don't think we could ever be as close as we were as kids (for too many reasons too complicated to discuss) but like she said today to my 23 year old son whom she had never met before....." It doesn't matter how many years pass, each time we see each other I still feel like we're best friends". I love you Linda and I feel the same way about you. xo


Often when you've read about my childhood, you may remember...... Linda in the stories

Writing

Dear Sunday Scribblings,
I am writing to let you know how much I enjoy your weekly creative prompts.Writing has always been something I've enjoyed. As a child, I would practice writing cursive in many dramatic styles, trying to find one that would be my signature signature.
As a pre-teen, I poured all my feelings into writing in a daily diary.
I also wrote constantly to my best friend Linda. We were inseparable through childhood, but we loved
to write back and forth to each other something we created called " Future Letters". As strange as it sounds,
we would write letters, as if we were already grown women, creating a fantasy life style and keeping in
touch with each other,( because Of Course, circumstances had led us to different parts of the world!) I wonder if it was our way of hoping for a brighter tomorrow? The letters were very detailed. We had names for all our children and our husbands. We had fantastic jobs with names and stories for all the coworkers. What wacky kids, huh? This is another reason I love your prompts. I haven't thought about those future letters in forever. Your prompt this week, brought back a wonderful memory. I even think somewhere in my unorganized garage, I have a stack of these precious letters saved. I can't wait to try and dig them up.
As a teen and young adult, I always attempted poetry and song lyrics. ( I know I have some of these saved as well) (somewhere?) My poem titled "unconditional Love" was written for my youngest son as he sat in his high chair, spitting food in my face. Like much of what I've written, I never feel like I can share these words with anyone. I don't think they're "good enough". I wrote for the way it made me feel.
About 10 years ago , I actually started writing a book of my life story. ( I exaggerated a bit for excitement.) I have it in a spiral notebook, with lots of cross outs and grammatical errors. I know I don't have the talent to create a novel worth publishing, However, My talented son who has a BA in English does! Last year, I apprehensively showed him this very personal attempt at creative writing. I told him that someday, maybe we could collaborate my ideas and his abilities and seriously attempt a draft. As usual, he was encouraging and supportive. He also reminded me that I should have pursued the children's story that I had written a while back. He feels it would definitely be published and do well. I had googled publishing and read that you need a literary agent, and how difficult it was, blah, blah, blah. So, I put the pages in a draw and there they've been for many years.
When encouraged to try blogging, I was reluctant to say the least. My insecurities and fear of negative criticism were screaming, You can't do this". I'm so happy my friend nudged me along. The positive feedback from the amazing blogging community, my friends and family gave me the " I CAN do this" feeling that was not only encouraging but heartwarming as well. Then, You came along sweet Sunday Scribblings, with these motivating prompts and a way to connect to the nicest people I've ever met! Through your inspiring creation, you've allowed me to be connected to a talented writing community full of beautiful, caring, extremely creative people. You've helped me continue blogging longer than I expected I would. I hope you continue your generous weekly gift. I wish you all the luck and happiness in the world.
Sincerely grateful,
Lucy Lulu