I grew up in Orlando, Florida; College Park to be exact. My family moved there from North Carolina in 1967 as my father had gotten a teaching job at Edgewater High School. I had just turned 3. Since I have no memories prior to this move, in my mind this makes me a Florida boy.
For reasons I may not yet know, much of my childhood has seemed about as clear in my mind as one of those documentaries on an uninteresting subject you might see late at night while nodding off. In other words, my memory has, all these years (I'm in my 40's now), been very spotty: non-sequiter black-and-white flashes, sounds, and faces. Perhaps I have been blocking painful memories; perhaps it was just so dull that there truly wasn't anything to remember!
I've made attempts at tapping into my childhood memories a couple of times in the past - somewhat benign exercises that entailed my scrawling down every word or phrase or person's name I could remember. Unfortunately, what I could remember easily fit onto one small page of a sketchbook or journal, and even then some things that got recorded were, at best, vague memories that I knew weren't quite right. I would quickly move on to other more pressing issues and not revisit the subject very often. So, my past remained a dark blur.
Until recently.
This blog is about remembering, but it's also much more than that: its about mining for memories - memories of the people, places, toys, cars, bugs, animals, TV shows, music of my childhood in College Park. But even more importantly, it's about sharing and passing on those memories to my own children as a way of better connecting with them as they navigate their own childhood. Also, everyone is a product of their past, good or bad, and I believe I will better know myself if I pull my memories of childhood together and complete the picture of myself, like so many puzzle pieces.
The blog format seemed appropriate in that a one-sided memory has too many gaps (at least mine does), so I hope to get input from a number of sources and over time fill in many of the still quite big holes in my memory. Every new memory is like a building block that leads to another memory, and it really feels like I am 'solidifying' in mind and spirit, pulling (pushing?) my childhood out of the late-night TV world and into reality.
I'm looking forward to sharing, learning, remembering. Some of the topics:
Schools:
College Park Methodist Church (Kindergarten) 1969 [don't remember if full year, half-day or full-day, etc]
Lake Silver Elementary (1 - 3, 6) 1970 - '73, 1975 - '76
Lake Highland Prep (4 - 5) 1973 - '75
Robert E. Lee Jr. High (7 - 9) 1976 - '79
Edgewater High School (10 - 12) 1979 - '82
Bikes:
Schwinn Stingray [red, slick rear tire, white banana seat with silver speckles]
Schwinn 10-speed [black]
Dogs:
Rusty [sad story]
Bear [brother of Lady; sad story]
Lady [a lovely friend]
Cats:
Amos [not ours, but seemed like it based on how much time he spent in our house; black with white chest]
George the duck [resident of our backyard pond]
Tiny [neighbor's dog - I can't spell chiuaua]
Duke [other neighbor's Pug]
Dilly and Dolly [another neighbor's labs]
[I vaguely recall another neighbor's wiener type dog]
Cars:
Ford Country Squire wagon [yellow with 'wood' side panels, facing rear seats in cargo area]
Mercury Zephyr wagon [silver with red vinyl interior; stalled often]
Buick Le Sabre sedan [light brown with dark brown vinyl top, light brown suede-like interior]
Sports:
T-Ball [Control Specialists]
Princeton Little League [Kelsey and Sons]
All-Star team
Neighborhood:
N. Westmoreland Drive [cul de sac]
TV Shows:
Star Trek
Loony Tunes
Johnny Quest
Get Smart
Wild, Wild, West
Bonanza
Green Acres
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
The Wonderful World of Disney
Demolition Derby
Lost in Space
The Jetsons
The Flintstones
Mission Impossible
The Rifleman
Battle Star Galactica
[okay, so I watched a lot of TV- this list is just off the top of my head...]
Interests:
Playing the piano [when the TV wasn't on, so not that much]
Drawing
Biking [exploring, really]
Model building [ships, tanks, air planes, cars]
Model railroading [HO scale]
Fishing [occasional] [knocking Vince's tackle box off the dock - where were we?]
For reasons I may not yet know, much of my childhood has seemed about as clear in my mind as one of those documentaries on an uninteresting subject you might see late at night while nodding off. In other words, my memory has, all these years (I'm in my 40's now), been very spotty: non-sequiter black-and-white flashes, sounds, and faces. Perhaps I have been blocking painful memories; perhaps it was just so dull that there truly wasn't anything to remember!
I've made attempts at tapping into my childhood memories a couple of times in the past - somewhat benign exercises that entailed my scrawling down every word or phrase or person's name I could remember. Unfortunately, what I could remember easily fit onto one small page of a sketchbook or journal, and even then some things that got recorded were, at best, vague memories that I knew weren't quite right. I would quickly move on to other more pressing issues and not revisit the subject very often. So, my past remained a dark blur.
Until recently.
This blog is about remembering, but it's also much more than that: its about mining for memories - memories of the people, places, toys, cars, bugs, animals, TV shows, music of my childhood in College Park. But even more importantly, it's about sharing and passing on those memories to my own children as a way of better connecting with them as they navigate their own childhood. Also, everyone is a product of their past, good or bad, and I believe I will better know myself if I pull my memories of childhood together and complete the picture of myself, like so many puzzle pieces.
The blog format seemed appropriate in that a one-sided memory has too many gaps (at least mine does), so I hope to get input from a number of sources and over time fill in many of the still quite big holes in my memory. Every new memory is like a building block that leads to another memory, and it really feels like I am 'solidifying' in mind and spirit, pulling (pushing?) my childhood out of the late-night TV world and into reality.
I'm looking forward to sharing, learning, remembering. Some of the topics:
Schools:
College Park Methodist Church (Kindergarten) 1969 [don't remember if full year, half-day or full-day, etc]
Lake Silver Elementary (1 - 3, 6) 1970 - '73, 1975 - '76
Lake Highland Prep (4 - 5) 1973 - '75
Robert E. Lee Jr. High (7 - 9) 1976 - '79
Edgewater High School (10 - 12) 1979 - '82
Bikes:
Schwinn Stingray [red, slick rear tire, white banana seat with silver speckles]
Schwinn 10-speed [black]
Dogs:
Rusty [sad story]
Bear [brother of Lady; sad story]
Lady [a lovely friend]
Cats:
Amos [not ours, but seemed like it based on how much time he spent in our house; black with white chest]
Hamsters:
Francis
Other animals encountered:George the duck [resident of our backyard pond]
Tiny [neighbor's dog - I can't spell chiuaua]
Duke [other neighbor's Pug]
Dilly and Dolly [another neighbor's labs]
[I vaguely recall another neighbor's wiener type dog]
Cars:
Ford Country Squire wagon [yellow with 'wood' side panels, facing rear seats in cargo area]
Mercury Zephyr wagon [silver with red vinyl interior; stalled often]
Buick Le Sabre sedan [light brown with dark brown vinyl top, light brown suede-like interior]
Sports:
T-Ball [Control Specialists]
Princeton Little League [Kelsey and Sons]
All-Star team
Neighborhood:
N. Westmoreland Drive [cul de sac]
TV Shows:
Star Trek
Loony Tunes
Johnny Quest
Get Smart
Wild, Wild, West
Bonanza
Green Acres
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
The Wonderful World of Disney
Demolition Derby
Lost in Space
The Jetsons
The Flintstones
Mission Impossible
The Rifleman
Battle Star Galactica
[okay, so I watched a lot of TV- this list is just off the top of my head...]
Interests:
Playing the piano [when the TV wasn't on, so not that much]
Drawing
Biking [exploring, really]
Model building [ships, tanks, air planes, cars]
Model railroading [HO scale]
Fishing [occasional] [knocking Vince's tackle box off the dock - where were we?]
This is going to be a long running endeavor, so additional items will have to wait. I will stop here on this inaugural day...
Cheers,
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