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Archive through February 10, 2004

The TVClubHouse: Archives: 2004 January - Arpil: Unusual Childhoods: Archive through February 10, 2004 users admin

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Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 7:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
This is for Tess, cause you asked.

Okay, so you might have heard somewhere around here that I lived in the woods. Yeah- it gets weirder. Let me just take you all back in time to about 1980.

We were living in eastern Oregon. Understand my memories aren't the clearest...I was 2. Anyway, my mom and I had a home, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a house. There was a hill in the woods that my mom and I would walk up. Eventually there was a..well, it was a shack. No electricity, no water. My mom loves to tell people that she housebroke me at this home. As a side note, we had a goat too. My mom had the goat come inside with us. That's my mom. A bit nutty but I love her.

We didn't live there for a real long time- maybe a few months. Soon we moved to Arizona.

Prescott, AZ: Add my two cousins, and my mom's twin sister to the mix. My aunt was now divorced and we were our own little clan- LOL. We all had a house rented for awhile in town. Eventually, apparently it seemed like a fun idea to live in the woods near a creek in Arizona. The area burned down in a fire a few years ago. See, in the National Forest, you can stay at one campsite for I think it's 2 or 3 weeks before having to move to another. That is exactly what we did.

My memories of this? I was a little older but not old enough for school yet so I must have been 3 or 4 now. Probably 3 or else my cousin should have been in school. I remember we had two tents set up and a board placed between two trees as the cupboard shelf. A cooler for a fridge. A creek for a bath. And a hill for a bathroom. Yep- that housebreaking came in handy.

To make a long story short becasue I don't remember a lot about all this, I don't think it did too much damage to me. LOL I'm one of the...oh wait...the only person I know who hasn't lived in a house their whole life. I have no problem peeing outside. None at all. I guess when I was little there are some stories- I didn't understand the whole thing about not getting all naked in public when I was little. My mom took me into town to a park one time (the courthouse square actually, which is a big pretty block with benches, statues, and fountains) and I guess I stripped down and was running around, then squatted to go to the bathroom. Hey, I didn't know ! I do now! I promise! (Mommy Eggie, I know you're wondering what kind of wild child you adopted...I will make you proud!!) :-)

As bizarre as it all sounds- all true. My mom had a photo hanging on her fridge of her and my aunt standing on their heads doing yoga in the woods. They were in their late 20s. Below that she has another picture of them doing the same, this time in my mom's yard (farm). They're 50. They decided they'd take the same picture every 25 years, assuming they're able. My mom hasn't changed much. She often, in the summer, hikes out into the woods in her yard and sleeps out in a tent instead of in her house. She's always taking off to the Apostle Islands on kayak or Voyageurs National Park or Questico/Boundry Waters with a canoe.

Any questions? Anyone else got some crazy stories?

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 12:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh come on, I know I'm not the only one here that had anything unusual about their childhoods. Quit holding back on me. Don't make me the big weirdo here! Nothing weird at all? Anyone?

Eliz87
Member

07-30-2001

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 12:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
hmmm...Well...not that this is very colorful or anything, but it probably is considered unusual by "normal" standards.

I was legally adopted when I was two, but my adoptive mother had taken care of me from birth. (The reason I wasn't adopted until I was two was because my mom wanted to give my bio mom the option to take me back -- kind of like a car lease I guess. haha) Anyway, my biological mom is my adoptive father's sister, so I grew up knowing her as my "aunt" although I knew the truth from the time I was six years old. (Hope that isn't too "Springer" like. LOL)

And, I skipped over the fourth grade. We were moving anyway and my grades/annual test score results were very high, plus, I started physically maturing more quickly than the other girls, so they just decided to move me on to 5th grade instead of 4th at my new school.

Also, I was always very unathletic, so I never did a cartwheel or learned how to swim or ride a bike. Now of course I wish I had learned to, but gee, I was a stubborn child. I much preferred books and games over playing outside and playing with dolls (oh how I hated dolls!).

Again, nothing earth-shattering, but rather unusual at least!

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 12:31 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I can't do cartwheels either and I can pretty much swim to save myself but not to do laps or anything like that. I used to do summersaults all over the house and walk around on my knees though :-) I have no idea why I walked on my knees- I tried it again awhile back. I'm not so good at it anymore LOL

So, Eliz, your adoptive father is your biological uncle actually right? That's cool- it's better than having to whole different, unknown family. Do you and your bio-mom have a good relationship?

Landi
Member

07-29-2002

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 12:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
my mom was a bit of the haight-ashbury type. actually... she was alot.

she took me to woodstock when i was a little girl. where she lost me. luckily they found her a day later when she was coming off of a trip of acid. when we got back to oakland, she decided to clean up her act. she met my step-father. and then proceeded to become a totally different person.

the only constant in my life was my italian family on my mother's side. i remember the great big italian sunday dinners where everyone in the family would come. my nonna, she was the first person in my life who i know loved me unconditionally. my daughter is the second.


Egbok
Member

07-13-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 12:40 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Kaili, I really enjoyed hearing your story and I do not think it is weird. Your mom and aunt were truly down to earth and had the skills to live a simple life, for whatever their reasons. I bet those were happy times for them!

Have you read the book or seen the movie "Cold Mountain" yet? Well, even if you haven't....I'm going to call you Ruby...<giggle>...


Thanks for sharing!

Eliz87
Member

07-30-2001

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 12:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yes, Kaili, my adoptive father is my biological uncle. My bio mom and I got along fine (she passed away a couple years ago). It was really like an aunt-niece relationship -- the occasional movie, shopping trip, overnight stay, etc. Nothing more or less than I did with my other aunts. She was very respectful of my mother and never ever butted in, which was extremely cool.

I never did find out who my bio dad is though. I just know that she dated him for a few months -- nothing serious -- and she never gave him the specifics on my adoption.

And I wanted to add that your story is so interesting...maybe that's why many of us are hesitant to respond!! Really neat memories, eh? :-)

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hmmm...no I haven't seen Cold Mountain. Is that in theaters, or can I rent it? I've heard it was good, and I'd like to know who Ruby is now. Especially when it's followed by a giggle.

Oh we were dirt kids! Landi I'm sure may understand that! I wish I knew where I had this one photo album my mom made for me stored. I think it's in the basement. Just to show you guys what hicks we were though, I'm posting a picture we had done when I was about seven. It's scanning right now though.

Eliz87
Member

07-30-2001

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Landi...unconditional love. It's a rare gift isn't it? Not enough of it in the world IMO.

Eliz87
Member

07-30-2001

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Oh, and if anyone's interested, read Naomi Judd's autobiography. Her kids definitely had an interesting childhood! My parents were such homebodies...Oh how I fantasized about growing up like Wynonna when I read that book!

Wargod
Member

07-16-2001

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:04 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I'll try. When I was a kid, my step dad played in a band. He was very musically inclined and played drums, guitar, piano, organ, and keyboard, though he absolutely refused to sing. Anyways, since we lived out in the middle of nowhere (no neighbors within a mile of us) they guys used to come to our house several times a week to practice. And when the whole band wasn't there, he practiced several hours a night by himself. To this day, I can not do homework without music just blaring as loud as I can get it without my neighbors complaining. Also took me years to learn to go to sleep without music.

He was a biker, so we spent alot of time going on bike runs, toy runs, blood drives, rallies, camping trips, anything that wasn't adult oriented we were there. We practically grew up in the neighborhood bar and grill, lol. Step dad taught us to throw darts when I was probably about 9 because it kept us from asking for quarters.

Don't know how unusual it is, but for most of my friends, I'm definitely the oddball, lol.

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Okay, here we go. Us trying to be all fancy for the picture we had made for my grandparents....

Left to Right:
Evan (cousin), Alice (aunt), Chase (cousin), Mom, and Kaili

fam


Evan liked to get all dressed up when she was a little girl. She was all done up for this one. My mom loves to braid hair. She did a fine job with mine. Heehee- this picture is just so awful. I hadn;t seen it in years and my mom had it repaired and reprinted for all of us this christmas. It's okay if you want to laugh- it is funny

Deesandy
Member

08-12-2003

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I grew up living in a hotel...not a hotel room, but rather a "house" attached to a hotel. My parents owned it and it was a family business. We were open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We did not have a yard, but it was a farming community and there was a field out back that my brother and I played in. We were never allowed to have our friends over and we could not have a dog. We could not play loud ever, because a customer might come in. The office was off of the kitchen.

I had to clean rooms when I got home from school. I saw my first (used) condom when I was 7 years old.

I walked in on two naked people laying in bed. I had knocked and they did not answer. They did not budge when I opened the door. Now that I think about it, I believe they planned it that way.

We ate dinner late at night, in hopes of not getting interrupted. It was rare to not get interrupted.

One time a lady committed sucide at our hotel. I remember the entire (two trucks) fire dept. pulling into the parking lot.

My mom had a gun pulled on her when my dad was away, he had taken us to the fair.

My parents never took time off to do things as a family. We were with one parent, never both at the same time.

I was in the hosptial for three weeks when I was 7 years old. My father did not visit me once. But that is another story...

Egbok
Member

07-13-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Kaili, the giggle was all good. Ruby is my hero in Cold Mountain and I admire her greatly! The movie is still in the theaters and I'm hope that Renee Zellweger wins a Best Supporting Oscar for portraying Ruby in the movie. And for the record, I loved the book more than the movie and the book goes into great detail of Ruby's upbringing in the mountains. (Sorry this got off topic..)

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 1:25 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Maybe I should just go for the book- I like having a book to read for a week or so more than a movie to watch for a few hours anyway. And I don't have anything to read right now. It sounds good- thanks.:-)

Colordeagua
Member

10-25-2003

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 2:52 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Kaili, That is a beautiful picture of your family. Everyone looks so happy. I hope all of you were -- and still are.

Scorpiomoon
Member

06-06-2002

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 2:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Holy moly, Kaili! You were the cutest little girl ever!

Teachmichigan
Member

07-22-2001

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 3:12 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Kaili...Not a thing funny about the picture...just looks like any other picture from that era.

Definitely READ the book! They changed the RACE of Ruby in the movie...and although I love Rene Zellweger, it just changes a lot of issues that were in the book. Both are good, but the book is ALWAYS better! (yup...I'm an English teacher! )

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 3:41 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Kaili I doubt that anyone can top your story and, as Eliz said, that is probably why people are hesitant to post their stories.

I'll bite (but it is nowhere near as interesting as yours or Eliz87's)

when I was 7, my Mom left my alcoholic abusive father and, by herself, at only 27 years old, took 3 small kids (5,7,8) on a 12 hour train trip with not a dime in her purse! We were so hungry that strangers on the train were buying food for us. My poor Mom must have been so embarrassed. But she would not leave us behind. She had already lost one baby to children's aid when she was only 16. She swore never to have that happen again.

By the time I was 12 my Mom was remarried to a man not fond of kids so we lived with my Gram and saw Mom for about a half hour a week (we lived in Canada, she lived in the US but about an hour away).

By the time I was 18, my Mom had divorced my Stepfather and married his younger brother! For the rest of his life, the ex worked for my Mom and his brother. When they moved to another state, he moved with them :-)

Two years ago, the long lost baby found us and so now I have a new sister. She is three years older than me. Her original birth name is my first name. Her adopted first name is my second name (although my Mom still swears she did not know about the name change???)

We were very poor as kids but I never really realized it ..and we always had a toilet and running water :-):-):-)

Ducky
Member

08-27-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 4:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
What a great story Jan. It made me think of the time that my mom and us kids all five of us (8,10,12,13,16} moved back to Kansas on the bus from California.

My parents were divorced when I was two. I was the baby. We lived in California till I was 8. My Grandparents wanted mom to move back to Kansas. So off on the long bus ride we all went.

Are bus broke down out in the dessert at night and we had to wait till the next morning for another bus to come and pick us up. We were stuck on the bus with some looney guy that wanted to start trouble. The other passengers on the bus had to keep an eye on him so that he would stay away from us kids.

When the other bus came the next morning to pick us up we were glad that he could not get on as he had snuck onto the bus without a ticket.

Great picture Kaili.



Deesandy
Member

08-12-2003

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 5:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow Jan, that is a lot to think about. It seems as if there was a happy ending to it all!

I do not have any real complaints about my childhood, it was just different from my friends.

My mom however, she grew up in the projects of Detroit. Her father had TB and the entire family was quarantined. He was in the hospital for three years. He crocheted small items for the four children to sell door to door.

Of course they lived on food stamps. Every now and then a social worker would make an unannounced visit to see what type of food was in the house...items like sugar were considered a luxury and not allowed. The neighbors kept an eye out for each other, and if the word got out that the social worker was making the rounds, the "luxury" food was hidden by being passed from house to house.

My mom used to tear out her favorite pages of the Sears Wish Book and hide them...the catalog was used for toilet paper.

My mom had gotten a beautiful red dress that she wore to church. A girl the same age came up to her and told her that it used to be her dress, and that her mom put it in the poor box for poor people. Mom told her mom what was said and my grandmother was so upset that she cut the dress to shreds as my mom cried about loosing it.

Mom was able to have a happy childhood inspite of the hardships, and I have only listed a few. She did know what it was like to be poor and she did feel it deeply. Because of that, she married a man she thought would keep her from that.

And that is another story too...

Reiki
Member

08-12-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 5:22 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
We lived in a hotel too, only by the time my parents bought it it was more like a rooming house. There was a bar in the basement, we had our "house" on the first floor and there were bedrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

The hotel was a huge brick building built in the late 1800s. It was built on the site of a hotel that had stood there since pre-revoluationary war. Alexander Hamilton met his wife there, George Washington slept there, and Martin Van Buren opened his first law office right around the corner. Our building had a big marble floored lobby and a honest to goodness ballroom.

We a few unusually characters who roomed with us. Little Henry was a little person. Frenchie was, well French. Our bartender Hans was German. I sometimes felt like I lived in the middle of a Shirley Temple movie.

My mother worked the bar during the day and after school I would go downstairs and sit at the bar and do my homework while the old men of the town drank and told stories.

On the weekends we had to help clean the bar and that's why I learned how to draw a glass of beer at the age of 5. The fun part was when the man came to empty the vending machines. He would give us slugs to use in the juke box, pinball machines and pool table.

After a few years my father converted some of the upstairs rooms into apartments. My father's mother and her boyfriend lived on the 2nd floor in one of the apartments and my mother's mother lived on the 3rd floor in one. Her boyfriend only visited sometimes.

When my oldest brother was in high school my parents decided to hold teen dances on Friday and Saturday nights in the old ballroom. I guess they figured at least they would know where their kids were. We had live bands and had a soda bar and snacks. I was 5 or 6 at the time and can still remember working behind the soda bar. One of the bands always closed their set with "Hey Jude" and it became one of my favorite songs. It being the 70s my brother painted the ceiling and wall of this old ballroom in psychedelic paints and images. It was cool man!

When my older siblings starting getting married and having babies (sometimes in that order) they would move in to one of the various apartments in the building. Pretty soon the whole building was filled with family.

My parent sold the hotel in 1973 when I was 10 years old. A few years later they tore it down and used some of the bricks and materials to build some trendy gift shops. They used the same heavy double doors that used to be our front door and the back bar was used as a display case. The lion footed bathtub from my grandmothers apartment was used to display towels.


Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 6:13 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
My story is not as "different" but it was my family. My father grew up in foster homes and was moved around a lot until he was 15 and moved in with the people that we called Grandma and Grandpa. His foster brother was married to my Mom's niece so they introduced my mother to my father and the rest is history there. My dad was a newspaper reporter so we chased fire engines and ambulances. Whenever a siren would go off and drive by, we'd turn around and follow. Always a story somewhere....He also was a clown. Willy the clown..he would do this for church functions, for the mayor whenever asked, for company picnics but he also was Santa. He never turned anyone down for anything. Great man, my father was, he had a bad childhood but he did not let that bring him down and he rose above it.

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Monday, February 09, 2004 - 11:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yay! I get home from work and lots of people have admitted that they didn't come home from school to milk and cookies and dad
reading the paper. Not that I expected that, but I had a friend who's house was sooo like that. I'm sure she would have her own stories though. Sometimes I wonder about the families that *seem* so normal :-)

Wargod- you dad sounds like fun. My two cousins' dad is a biker too. Well, more of a weekend biker and back then he was a biker hippy mix if that's possible. The biker thing emerged more after the divorce. He owns a bar in northern IL now.

Jan- that's cool your sister found you guys. Did she have to look for a long time? That must have been exciting. I used to always wish for a long lost sister. I'm an only kid (but I grew up with the two cousins in the photo so they kinda count).

Ducky was the bus trip long? Did you stay in Kansas then?

Deesandy- Your grandma sounds like she was a very proud person. Sounds like a hard life for them. And the hotel thing...I have always wondered when I've been to owner lived in hotels what it would be like. I think it would be fun looking at the people coming and going. Sounds like it wasn't always fun though... (waiting especially on the 3 week hospital stay story- what'd ya do?!)

Reiki, I was kinda sad about the building being torn down by the end of your post. How weird to go back and see stuff you grew up with being used as a display case.

Mamie316, that sounds like it would have been fun growing up with you dad. Kind of exciting. my mom has an old friend from high school who's a clown. She's such a fun woman.

I'm glad you guys like the photo. I still think it's horrible. I think it would be fun for the five of us to do it again- same seating arrangement and maybe even poses but everything else as we are now.


Colordeagua
Member

10-25-2003

Tuesday, February 10, 2004 - 7:56 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nothing unusual about my childhood. A little story about my parents though. Both my parents were from small farming communities in northeast Iowa. They met in college (small college near both of their hometowns). They got engaged during the college years (mid to later '20s), but my mother broke it off. She was ahead of her time. She didn't want to settle down and get married. She wanted to work and have fun. So 13 years after the engagement was broken -- they got back together. They got married and not long after moved to Chicago. Dad went to WWII (spent the time behind a desk in England and France) and came back. And here I am -- born in the first of the baby boom years.