Laundry List of Childhood Memories and Dreams

I found this in one of my piles today.

As a child in the '70s and '80s, I wanted to:

...be a ballerina

...be a model
...to look like Jayne Kennedy or Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
...be a writer
...live near my extended family in Galveston
...live by the sea
...be better in gym class
...be a leader
...be a cheerleader
...wear makeup and pantyhose
...always protect my younger brother
...be a singer
...play the flute
...to play the daughter of the onscreen superhero, Isis and hang with Samantha of Bewitched
...to visit far away places like England and France
...to spend more time with Daddy
...to have a rabbit fur jacket
...to change the world-- especially South Africa
...for us to have extra money to spend on going to places like White Water, Sesame Place, International Wildlife Park and Malibu
...to travel back in time like people travel to cities

Things I actually did as a child:

Collected stones and sea shells

Listened to "black music" and "symphony music" on my big, blue pair of transistor headphones

Roller skated on the sidewalks in the neighborhood and at Starlite skating rink

Played jacks, Uno, concentration, Crazy 8's and Boggle

Bossed my little brother around

Drew pictures

Wrote notes to cute boys

Read Laura Ingalls Wilder, Encyclopedia Brown, Scott O'Dell and Mildred D. Taylor books

Savored every summer and Christmas vacation spent with my extended family in Galveston

Wrote simple books and songs

Babysat a couple of kids named Talisha and B.J.

wore cornrows or an afro jheri curl

Played in mama's makeup

Got in trouble for playing in mama's makeup

Went to slumber parties

Watched a lot of television-- especially loved Fame, Gimme a Break and The Cosby Show as well as soap operas like Dallas, Dynasty, All My Children and the Young and the Restless

Played clarinet-- badly :)

Taught myself to ride a bike after getting over the fear of falling off

Got chased by dogs

could identify familiar songs after hearing a few notes

Experimented with making culinary concoctions

Made sock dolls, doll clothes and quilt patches

Collected Archie comics

Had a good sense of direction and could help visiting family members navigate their way throughout parts of the city familiar to me

Jumped rope, played hand games, freeze tag, Stop and Go and Simon Says with the other kids at Mrs. Ola Mae Giddings daycare

Drooled over Taimak, Tony Dorsett, Todd Bridges, Gregory Harrison, Ralph Macchio, Joe Montana, Rob Lowe

Plastered my bedroom walls with every Michael Jackson poster I could find

My Son, the Singer

When I began this blog, I had in mind that it would be multipurpose, one of those being to help organize my thoughts as well as some of my memories of Jared as he grows. I've got so many piles of photos, cards, keepsakes and calendars as well as little scraps of paper with notes jotted down, notes that I say to myself I'll write down all neat and orderly like a good mommie should in an album or scrapbook one day when I get time. (Meanwhile, the piles keep growing taller. )


One memory that I don't want to forget is his fondness for music. While he seems to for the most part think he's too cool to dance, my son has been singing since he was two or three months old. Some of the photos of him during his naming ceremony back in October 2006 do, in fact, show him with his cottony hair and velvety skin and mouth frozen while holding the note of song. During his first year, he and I would be out shopping and he would be singing at the top of his lungs in such a way that other shoppers would track us down in our aisle to get a look at the child whose voice carried from one corner of the store to another (which made me sometimes call him O Puxador, like Neguinho da Beija Flor and other singers who stand on top of floats bellowing out carnaval theme songs, no need for a mic). Granted, the stores where this would happen were always small stores, but still I thought it was funny. Even more funny was that when I enrolled the child in Music Together he spent more time investigating the room than he did actually singing or playing instruments.
When some of these people would, perhaps innocently, say to me that my son is destined to be a singer, it seemed laden with restrictive assumptions about the heights a black child should expect to reach. So, in response I would say that he could very well end up being a singer but might also be an orator or a host of other things that require vocal expressiveness.

In addition to his own original tunes, Jared's Fall 2008 repertoire includes:

Old MacDonald

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Twinkle, Twinkle

Frere Jacques


Of course, mommie can't wait to see what comes next in the little boy's songbook.

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Playsuit image from Stardust Kids