A Writing Experiment

Round IV

Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?
 
Solitude is something I crave - it's a NEED, not a luxury. At different times in my life, I have had different places and tools for sorting out those noises in my head.

I am one of those "mile a minute" people - my brain refuses to slow down and "multi-tasking" is the norm for me - all day, everyday. If I'm sitting in front of the TV watching a movie, I'll have my laptop in front of me - even if it's just to reformat used discs! I need the downtime to mute those voices - the ones reminding me of all the things I have yet to accomplish.

Sometimes, a good book will do the trick. I can immerse myself in the silly fiction with one side of my brain, while the other sneaks around solving my problems. Amazingly enough - it seems to work most of the time.

Writing, of course, is also an outlet. I love to write outside - no music, just the sounds of the day. This summer I spent 2 weeks in Florida (at different times) and found that writing with the sound of the surf in the air was the most wonderful thing ever. That would have to be my favorite place.

I guess I usually tend to end up in my office, some music on, Bert (the cat) in my lap or lying on my feet. It's not my favorite place, but it is the one where I end up the most, so I try to make it comfy.

:kiss:
 
Re: Round IV

tswyk said:
Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?
I can have alone at home all too often. Home is, however, my sanctuary.

Anger.

Music, I suppose - being alone is about time to decompress and think, or escape, not communicate.
 
Re: Round IV

tswyk said:
Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?

This is a difficult topic, tswyk. I don't have enough alone time anymore and there are times it makes me anxious, testy and a bit on the cranky side.

Like you, I am always in high gear. My mind never clears and shuts down. I have to stay awake and busy until I am so exhausted I fall into immediate sleep, otherwise, I lay in bed thinking about what I will do the next day, the next project I am taking on or how to address things with the ex.

I have had to learn to find solitude in the midst of chaos. I can write or paint with the children chasing one another or fighting over the television. I manage to tune out the noise and focus solely on whatever I am creating. That seems to help.

I know some on the board will find my post quite paradoxical. I have times of loneliness, but never enough alone time.

:)
 
Solitude.....

tswyk said:
Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?


Until I moved to east TN, I would go to the beach to be alone. Since I have moved here to Knoxville, I really haven't found a place that satisfies that need like the beach did....but I'm still looking.

Oddly enough, it is usually loneliness that drives me even further away from friends, etc. It is very much my characteristic to pull back from people to avoid being hurt. I still haven't decided which is worse, loneliness or being hurt by people you care very deeply for at the time.

If I take anything with me, it is music...but usually it is nothing more than my thoughts. I see it as a time of self-evaluation and renewal. It's also a time to take in nature and the little things that so often I tend to overlook as I hurry about doing the same old routine things.
 
Re: Round IV

tswyk said:
Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?


Aloneness is only a thought away. Quietness isn't necessary. Years of monastic-like meditation have cultivated an inner dialogue that can drown the cacauphony of activity. It's a magic carpet ride into a world of dreams and fantasies where love is the exhilaration of wind on my face, and compassion the long exhale of my imagination's completed course through my veins. It's a salt that makes each connection more palatable and satisfying. I crave it. I need it. But, only as one needs flavor to sustain an interest.
 
Re: Re: Round IV

MissTaken said:
I know some on the board will find my post quite paradoxical. I have times of loneliness, but never enough alone time.

:)

That is a funny feeling isn't it MissT....it's very odd how in the middle of a room full of people or in a crowded place, you can feel the most alone of all.
 
Re: Round IV

tswyk said:
Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?

When I still lived with my parents, I would often go down to the bay or into the forest to explore by myself. I would wander for hours on end, searching for any kind of natural treasurers like beautiful stones or natural formations of wood. That's how I found the large staff I have now.

I was often driven to being alone to deal with problems I was having...and I was alone a great deal. I always needed that alone time without major distractions to puzzle out my problem like working through a rubix cube. Sometimes I found answers, sometimes not, but I generally came away feeling better either way, since I had at least given some thought to my problems.

I rarely took anything with me. Usually I just brought along a walking stick to help me get around. All I really needed was my imagination.

These days, I'm happy to say, I don't find the need to be alone so often.

:cool:
 
Solitude to me is not being alone. It's another way of communicating, if only with myself. I'm never alone.

I seek solitude primarily in nature. The forests, mountians, and deserts. I no longer seek solitude in the jungle. I seek solitude in what I read, and what I listen to musically. I can be dancing or holding a persons hand listening to music and find solitude. Solitude within myself and solitude in the closeness. It's not the search for solitude that drives me as much as it is the sense of inner peace. To hear the cry of the hawk, of the coo of a mourning dove. To read a line of literature that is well written and connects at the time.

Where do I go? Now I go to a wild river nearby. There's an eagles nest that I can see from where I sit and watching them watch over their young as I read, or just think is a joy. I become one with them for that brief moment.

I'm never driven to be alone. Only driven to be together in a different context.

I take a book on occasion, mostly nothing but myself. I don't take music to the woods, or any other natural setting. Nature provides her own music if one but listens.

My goal is not to blank my mind or numb it. My goal is to fill it in another way. Provide a balance to my world. Remind myself that there is more than one way of looking at things. That I am not the center of the universe and never will be.

And that as I finish writing this, I will step outside and look at Orion, and his belt. The plieades and Andromeda. Cygnus and Lyra. The colors, the movement. The reminder that as vast as it all is, we are never truly alone as long as we know ourselves.

Quietness is the counter point to passion. The lull before the storm. The enhancement of the tension. That spot in the dark that only the observant notice.

Ishmael
 
There are special places in nature that I seek , not for solitude, but for peace.

I live north of the Adirondack mountains and in Keene valley, there is a place, just off the highway, where the highway travels along a bottomless lake.

Keeping in mind that the Adirondacks were created by glacial activity, there are mountains with rock faces on either side of this small lake.

It is there that I feel peace.
I feel as though I am a small part of something much larger than me, the universe.

I have cried there.
Fished there.
Written there.
Or just sat quietly allowing the breeze, the sounds and aroma of the forest to pervade my being.
 
My favorite place is a playground nearby. I go there at night and will swing for hours staring up into the sky. I love to watch the stars and northern lights. The swinging reminds me of what it was like when I was a child. I find nothing more relaxing than that.

Why do I go there? So many reasons, I don't even know where to start.
 
Round V

How old were you when you learned to drive?
Who taught you?
Did you have your own car as a teenager?
What kind was it?
How much did it cost?
Did you earn the money to pay for it?
How often were you allowed to drive it?
Tell us about any "fender-benders" you may have been involved in as a teenager/young adult.


I'll post tomorrow -


t
 
Re: Round V

tswyk said:
How old were you when you learned to drive?
Who taught you?
Did you have your own car as a teenager?
What kind was it?
How much did it cost?
Did you earn the money to pay for it?
How often were you allowed to drive it?
Tell us about any "fender-benders" you may have been involved in as a teenager/young adult.

I first learned to drive when I was fourteen. My mom began taking me out on the road for little test drives around the neighborhood and through the roads. It was really easy because we lived in the boonies, so there wasn't a lot of traffic. Unfortunately, I never did, nor have I yet, owned my own vehicle, so I was stuck driving my mom's Chevrolet Silhoutte, a mini-van. We were a poor people back in the day, and pretty much still are. :D

I didn't really have to drive very many places, since I wasn't a very socially active person. So no late night parties for me. Occassionaly I drove to school, but not too often as my mom worked in the mornings most of the time. When I turned eighteen I landed my first real job at Palais Royal and spent most of my driving time going there. The farthest I've ever driven was from Houston to Galveston for my senior prom.

I'm quite proud to say that I have NEVER had any fender benders or accidents of any kind. I have never once been pulled over by police officers, even for a busted tail light. Because we were poor, as stated above, I could never afford to take driver's ed. class in school (it was over three hundred dollars). So, I simply spent the first two years driving without a license. Like I said, I didn't exactly have a lot of places to go, so I was never out that much. When I turned eighteen, I went out, got my license, and passed the first time. I'm very proud of my 0 accident record, especially when I went through high school hearing, nearly every day, that someone else has totaled out their car after spending three hundred dollars to take driver's ed, and then a couple of thousand after that for a down payment on their vehicle, and hundreds of dollars after that on car insurance. It's all just kind of funny.

:cool:
 
Technically, I was 4 years of age. I drove the tractor for the farm hands bringing in the hay. (anyone that wants to challenge this, PM me. I'll give you my fathers phone number. :) ) I got my first motor vehicle in Texas. A Cushman scooter. I was 11 years old and you didn't need a drivers license for anything under 5 Brake horse power at the time. Was dreaming of a Cushman Eagle. It was 5 HP and had two gears. I earned the money mowing lawns with a lawn mower I bought from Sears on the time payment plan. My father had to co-sign.

My first car I didn't even get to drive. I bought a 1940 Ford coupe for $125. It was running rough but I got my father to look at it and I fixed it up and sold it for $300. I earned the money for that from a paper route and I was 14 at the time.

The first real car I owned was a '57 Ford Fairlane. I paid $750 bucks for that one. It was a dream come true and inspired by the movie "Thunder Road" with Robert Mitchum and Keely Smith. It had the 312 V8 and 3 on the coloumn. I earned the money for that running moonshine in the mountains of Arkansas with the family station wagon, a 1960 Ford. And a little road racing on the side.

I was 'racked in Memphis one night as an alleged "bootlegger". They took that '57 apart and put it back together again. 6 hours. Bastards.

My first 'fender bender' was not a fender bender. It was a disaster avoided. I was in Alabama for a rifle match. I had contacted a girl that I had known from Miami and we got together. We ran out of booze so I drove to the local Army base to hit the NCO package store. On the way back I got in a race with a motorcycle. It was an idiot thing to do, but young men are not known for their wisdom. The road came to an unexpected dead end, a Tee really, and at close to 100 MPH in a big buick, well, let's just say the brakes weren't up to it.

There were the cut off telephone posts at the intersection to prevent any automobile from crashing into the TVA transformer station across the road. Fortunately, I missed all the posts and went into the chain link fence around the power station. :rolleyes: All of this after jumping the ditch parallel to the highway. The speedometer was stuck at 55 MPH after impact.

But there was a good deal of luck in this. I was drunk and uninjured. My passenger was drunker and even less shaken and all of this took place across from the area Alabama State Highway Patrol headquarters. They didn't even have to drive, just walk cross the highway.

The officer came up to the window of the car and asked if everyone was alright before I had regained any sense of where I was to begin with. I was trying to restart the car and back out. A venture that the patrolmen quickly convinced me that was not in my best interest.

They loaded me and passenger in a patrol car and asked me where I wanted to go? To the base? Hell no, I gave him directions to the party and by God he took me there.

About two hours later I, being far more sober (right), got a fellow soldier to take me back to the car. I fired it up and drove away. Amazing. There was a bent tie rod to deal with and the rest of the damage was superficial body damage. Try that in a honda!

No ticket, no fine.

Ishmael
 
Holy crap, I can't believe I missed this!

I apologize for the length beforehand.

tswyk said:
Who were your best childhood friends?
What do you remember about them?
Are you still in touch with them?
I didn't have a lot of friends as a kid. I didn't live in a neighborhood with a lot of other children. After my parents divorced, I was reclusive and hesitant to make friends. The only ones I did have were Michael, who went to the same daycare as I did, and Alex, who went to school with me. Michael was the funniest kid I knew. He was always clever and willing to do anything to get laughs. I needed that. He was short, tanned, and rail thin. We were the kid version of the Odd Couple. Alex was stocky like me and into computers. That's all I really remember about him.

In junior high, my only "friends" were Mark and Robert, and we were more friends of convenience. Since we were pretty much the friendless people, we bonded for numbers' sake. Despite the shallowness of our friendship, I can't imagine having to go through seventh and eighth grade without them. It was the darkest time in my life, and just being with somebody, anybody, who understood made them worth their weight in gold.

I haven't seen any of them in years.

I moved on to a high school different from the system I was in and met Steven, who's my best friend and roommate. Like Mark and Robert, it was because we weren't in anyone else's circles that bonded us. Luckily, we turned it into a lasting relationship, though not without significant bumps in the road.

tswyk said:
What pets did you have as a child?
What were their names?
How special were they to you?
Do you have a special memory including them?
We had a dog I named Alex, but he tore the house up too much, so we gave him away.

We had a turtle I named Elliott (I'd just seen E.T.), but we didn't really have the resources to care for a turtle, so we let him go in the state park.

We caught a mouse in our house, and I insisted on keeping him. I called him Ralph (Judy Blume's influence there). He escaped.

We had a rabbit named Fufu ("Little Bunny Fufu"). Once when there was a tornado warning, I risked my safety running outside to bring him in from his cage. Not knowing that I was attempting to rescue him and not kidnap him, he scratched me and ran off.

We had a Siamese cat named Sheba that we had forever. My favorite memory was playing in freshly raked leaves with her. I cried a lot when she died. I must have been 9 or so.

tswyk said:
Did you have a nick-name as a child?
Who gave it to you?
Did you like it?
What was the meaning behind it?
Who, if anyone, still calls you by that name?
The only real "nickname" I had as a youngster was the runny-nose kid version of my name, which was thrust upon me by older relatives. I despised it, and still do.

I turned totally to the traditional short form of my name in seventh grade. I was sick of being teased since my name is a more feminine spelling than normal. The first day, having my name mispronounced so often during roll call, was hell. By 1:30 pm, I switched completely. I've never looked back.

In high school, I was taunted as "Marshmallow," a dig on my weight and play on my last name. Learning by now that even slightly bad attention was better than no attention, I shortened it to "Marsh" and insisted that everybody call me it, even some of my teachers. I ran for junior class president by distributing hot-cocoa marshmallows with happy faces on them, and despite the fact that I was a social outcast, I placed third with about a 20% showing. People who know me from high school still call me "Marsh."

tswyk said:
Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?
I find "me time" just about anywhere: when online, driving, whatever.

In really desperate times, though, I go to the railroad tracks a block and a half from my house and watch the trains go by. There's a story to that that only two people know about, and I'm not going to repeat it here.

I usually only have cigarettes and music. Though on the tracks, I have the rhythm of the wheels clacking on the rails. It's a very hypnotic and soothing sound, actually.

tswyk said:
How old were you when you learned to drive?
Who taught you?
Did you have your own car as a teenager?
What kind was it?
How much did it cost?
Did you earn the money to pay for it?
How often were you allowed to drive it?
Tell us about any "fender-benders" you may have been involved in as a teenager/young adult.
I learned to drive by having my mom seat me on her lap when I was a kid. I could have passed the driver's exam as soon as I was big enough to reach the pedals, which would have been probably age 10 or 11.

I didn't get my license until a month before I turned 17, though. The combination of no car and being too young to take Drivers' Ed when everyone else did contributed to it.

My first car was a 1984 Chevrolet Chevette that my grandmother exchanged for $50 worth of odd jobs. I needed it for college. We called it "da hoopty" because of its raging shittiness.

I've never been ticketed, but I've had more than enough fender-benders. I backed into a parked car once and foolishly drove away. That was double dumb. I broadsided a woman and her MS-inflicted daughter because the sun blinded me.

I lost control of my grandmother's van conversion and hit another parked car. The cop who issued me my accident report at the station couldn't understand how I damaged three parked cars. Well, it was because I hit the first car, a Pontiac Bonneville, at only like 20 mph, but since I was in a goddamn tank, I scrunched it up like a fucking accordion. It then had enough force to hit the next car, which was a rental; which in turn hit the next one, which belonged to a guy who was with his wife, who was in labor. Yikes.

The last accident I was in, I missed a stop sign, since I wasn't in my neighborhood and a tree was partially blocking it. A Dodge Dart crashed into my passenger side, hitting with enough mojo to knock me into a tree on the other side of the intersection. The only reason I was even there in the first place is because I was dropping off one of my stepbrothers at a park (I thankfully dropped him off before the crash), but my dad was too fucking lazy to get off the couch. The crash involving the woman with MS was because my dad sent me to go get KFC. After those, he quit sending me on errands for the most part. It was getting to the point where it was far cheaper to do it himself.


There, pretty much the story of my life.

TB4p
 
HOT DAMN!!

These were great responses, guys! I should have known that a car question would bring in the boys!

Welcome, TeddyBear - long time, no see!

I promise to get mine up today - at least sometime before midnite!


:kiss:
 
*settling down in this thread to listen to the stories*

I love it, Ish. I love the stories about the good ole days - prohibition, no traffic laws/no traffic violations, etc. I use to love to sit and listen to my grandfathers tell their stories, too. There's something special about that bygone era.








I'm still in the work force, so I'll catch up with you guys later today after work.
 
On Friendship...

My oldest friends are Diane, Tony & Susan - In the mid-'70's, we were the "Fearsome Foursome" - not sexually connected, but did a LOT together. Distance, marriages and circumstance have decreased the frequency, and we've all "moved on"... well, most of us - anyway - when I do see any one of these three crazies, we pick up again like our last meeting was yesterday.

Like Ishmael, my family moved me around FAR too often - but the upside of this is that I ended up having a set of real friends that have evolved from diverse situations and locales! I am blessed!

Tizzy, I'll catch up with the next questions later today... gotta get to work (GROAN) :(
 
Re: Round V

tswyk said:
How old were you when you learned to drive?
Who taught you?
Did you have your own car as a teenager?
What kind was it?
How much did it cost?
Did you earn the money to pay for it?
How often were you allowed to drive it?
Tell us about any "fender-benders" you may have been involved in as a teenager/young adult.


I'll post tomorrow -


t

Cars! Ack! Boy Toys.

I learned to drive at 16 and having no need to get my license, I actually got my license at 25. (I walked everywhere.) Since then, I have driven approximately 500 k miles in 12 years. So, I guess I made up for lost time.

So yes, my first car was mine and came with my first "real" salaried type job.

No fender benders.
No accidents.
No tickets, barring a couple of seat belt tickets. Hmmm I learned that lesson and shouldn't be flirting with tragedy, anyway.
No marks on my license.

Hey! Anyone want to go for a ride!

:D:D:D
 
Round V

tswyk said:
How old were you when you learned to drive?
Who taught you?
Did you have your own car as a teenager?
What kind was it?
How much did it cost?
Did you earn the money to pay for it?
How often were you allowed to drive it?
Tell us about any "fender-benders" you may have been involved in as a teenager/young adult.


Gee, I was 15 when I started learning and 16 when I got my license. I've been driving now for over 30 years....talk about experience :D
My dad taught me by taking me to the cemetary :) His logic was that there were roads, turns, and intersections there but I couldn't kill anyone as I learned.
The only car was the family car and I was 4th on the list for that so I didn't get to drive too much but if the car was available, I could use it.
I did finally get my own car when I got my first job. It was a 1972 Mercury Capri and I loved it. I don't remember how much it cost but I do remember thinking I had arrived because I got a bank loan for it and began to establish my credit.
As far as fender-benders, I had 2 but I'm happy to say they weren't my fault. Both times I was rear-ended. But the scariest experience was coming to east TN and traveling Interstates 40 and 81 with the 18 wheelers. We had very few 18 wheelers to deal with in the area I come from originally. I'm used to them now and can run with the best of them.
 
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At my high school, you could take the Driver's Ed class for only about $25, so the money was not an issue and you got a better insurance rate.

Because so many students wanted to take the class, spaces were assigned first by your birthdate, and then alphabetically. I should have been able to take the class first semester, but was bumped for Mary N. It really pissed me off and I raised all kind of hell with the teach - a coach. Not only was my birthday before Mary's, my last name began with an "H"...you figure it out!

Anyway, I finally took the class and all survived. I got my license when I was 16 and a few months. My parents were thrilled because I could now drive the car pool...yeah, that's what you want, a brand-new driver ferrying the kids to school...

No fender-benders for me as a youngster...now my sister is another story, but I'm not supposed to tell tales out of school! And we just won't even talk about the "fender-benders" I've had as an adult!

My first car was a ....1972 red Maverick with new black and white PLAID interior seat covers. RAH, RAH!!!!!!! But, before I got that car, I drove an old light blue Ford Falcon that had belonged to my dad and then my uncle (who was 12 years younger than my dad) had driven it to college. I don't know exactly what year it was, and I can't seem to reach my dad on the phone to find out, but it did have a manual choke - GOD I hated that thing!

The first new car I ever bought was a 1984 Mustang GT - silver w/black interior and those lovely spoilers. It had a 5.0 liter engine and was rated the fastest production car made in the US at the time. Ah...the memories!
 
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Car and Driver question

Here's the deal...I drove on the farm. I drove on construction sites. I drove cars, trucks, tractors, heavy equipment! As a young teen, I worked with an uncle who moved houses. I drove the rear pilot car...and was always flanked by a police escort. I'll never forget the fear that I felt the first time I was driving (14 y.o. and without a license) behind a house with police cars all around. I just knew that I was going to get arrested...lol. I drove a lot! But...when I turned 16 and I went to take my driving test...you guessed it...the officer did me a big favor, and failed my cocky ass with the excuse that I wasn't adequately aware of the road signs. It gave me a good wake-up call. When I returned the next week, I drove my parents 1 ton, double cab pick-up with a full, over the cab camper. It was a monstrosity. This time I passed, and when I was done, I could tell you every road sign that I passed on the whole test.


First car that I bought, was a 1967 convertible, Datsun Roadster. I still want another one. Bought it in early June without it running, and a month later made a 3000 mile roadtrip to the east coast. It had electrical problems galore, and there was one stretch of Interstate in Mississippi where we ran without lights one midnight. We pushed started that car everywhere...lol. We took a wrong turn in Atlanta one night when it was barely running, and ended up on a back slum street that could have swallowed us and the car with just one wrong look. Young and foolish choices! but we survived.

Most fun vehicle I ever drove...Government Issue, tank retriever. It was a tow truck for Army tanks. It had a 1000+ cu. in engine made by a locomotive manufacturer. It took a ladder to get in it, and you could only see in front of you. It was unstoppable...(in my best Tim the-tool-man-Taylor imitation) uh! uh! uh! uh! More! Power!
 
Strangely enough...

I learned to drive in the US, in Southeastern PA, to be precise - on a 1967 Cutlass 4-Door. My driving instructor was the town cop - Mace Adams - his name, not what he used on students... :D

I didn't get an Ontario Drivers' Licence until I bought my first vehicle, a 1968 Triumph 500 motorcycle. Folks were pissed - they would NOT let me drive their vehicles - my Dad is STILL stuck in the Depression-Era way of thinking, over 30 years afterwords.

My Mum had a 1967 Cougar, which I used to steal when my folks were away - quite often, as it happens. Mum always wondered why her Wide Oval tires needed replacing so quickly.... :devil:

My first car was a 1965 Austin 1100 - the big brother of the Mini. This car only lasted maybe 4 months - I wrapped it around a guardrail on the Niagara Parkway in an icestorm. I replaced this beast with another, newer Austin - but put a "full-race" Mini-Cooper engine in it - the car was a poor boy's rally/autocross and sex/party vehicle for 4 breakdown-filled, but FUN years - 'til it rusted into scrap from good old Canadian road-salt! :( I still favour small, fast vehicles - I've never owned a car w/ more than 4 cylinders - except a few Company-leased vehicles w/ 6.

One of the old friends mentioned in my previous post, reminded me last month, that we (4) drove home in my car from camp - the pot was great, but the heat was terrible - in order for the car not to overheat, I had to run the heater at full-blast... Ahhhh. the silliness of Youth! :eek:
 
Looks like I've got some catching up to do....
Who were your best childhood friends?
What do you remember about them?
Are you still in touch with them?


There was a guy that I was in kindergarted through 4th grade with. Pat and I were best buddies....he and I were practically inseparable. The thing I remember most about him was that he reminded me of Charlie Brown - round of face and very short hair... :) My family moved the summer before I started fifth grade, and I went to another school....but when I got to high school, I got involved in competative speech, and Pat was on the speech team of a rival school. I saw him at a tournament and said hi...and he looked at me like I owed him money. My best friend in high school is still one of my best friends, though he stayed in the area and I moved to the big bad city. ;) We did theatre together and hung out at each other's houses and stuff, and I was best man at his first wedding. We're still close friends. My other best friend I met during high school - and at a speech tournament. We'd hang out at the tournaments, and then got to be friends after high school. We now live in the same town and are even working together now, on a temporary basis. We make each other laugh...which is a good thing... :)

What pets did you have as a child?
What were their names?
How special were they to you?
Do you have a special memory including them?


Our first dog was a poodle. Yep, a poodle. Suzette (god, what a name!) Don't remember much about her now, except seeing her birthing a puppy and thinking that she MUST be sick (I was about 4). I remember loving her, and crying when her puppies died. We had a siamese cat named Samantha that I really loved.....though I tried dunking her in the toilet (thought it was cool that her paws would stretch out the closer she got to the bowl (yeah, I was a sick kid). But I had a dog named Humphrey when I was in fifth grade....I loved him!! I lived about a half mile from school...and one day he showed up during recess.....I still don't know how he got out. They let me take him home That's the only memory I really have of him. He got out one day, and I never saw him again.....god, that hurt.

Did you have a nick-name as a child?
Who gave it to you?
Did you like it?
What was the meaning behind it?
Who, if anyone, still calls you by that name?[/]

Many nicknames as a child. First was embarrassing....."Baby ___" (first name inserted) because I have a family name, and it got confusing for them, I guess. HATED that nickname. Next, my uncle nicknamed me "Skip" - I think because of a baby portrait of me in a sailor suit. He and some of the family still call me that...which doesn't really fit me now...but what the hell.

Where do you go to be alone?
What usually drives you to need to be alone?
What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?


My home is my alone place...but when I don't want to be bugged by the phone, etc....I take a drive and walk on the beach - just to hear and see the waves breaking on the shore and get some thinking and relaxation in. Depression can drive me to being alone....or just having a lot going on and needing to clear my head. I usually don't take anything with me - just the music on the stereo for the drive....but when I want to be alone and quiet, I want just that. No distractions.

How old were you when you learned to drive?
Who taught you?
Did you have your own car as a teenager?
What kind was it?
How much did it cost?
Did you earn the money to pay for it?
How often were you allowed to drive it?
Tell us about any "fender-benders" you may have been involved in as a teenager/young adult.


I was fourteen when my mom taught me to drive - back road outside of my home town...big, old Cadillac of hers. When I got my license, I shared a VW bug with my sister...till we got a second car for us kids. Then when I was 18, I bought a 64 1/2 Mustang convertible. I loved that car, but college expenses made owning it (and paying the loan) impossible, so my uncle took over the payments and still has it. The only fender bender of my youth happened when a friend of mine got his car stuck in a ditch...and I was trying to push it out with my car. At night. In the fog. Disaster. A car hit his car...which hit mine.


Great thread, tswyk!!!
 
Who were your best childhood friends?
A cousin of mine and a girl from my 3rd grade class

What do you remember about them?
They were just as goofy as I was.

Are you still in touch with them?
yup

What pets did you have as a child?
A kitten

What were their names?
B-B

How special were they to you?
very. I cried when I had to give her up.

Do you have a special memory including them?
Everyday after school I’d make myself a ham sandwich , break off little pieces and feed her. One day she just swiped her paw over my open sandwich and stole the whole thing. Little thief.

Did you have a nick-name as a child?
yes. Avena. Spanish for oatmeal.

Who gave it to you?
My aunt.

Did you like it?
no.

What was the meaning behind it?
It used to be “a”, pronounced “ah”, the first letter of my name. One day, someone called out to me in Spanish “A, ven, A!” She though it was the funniest thing in the world and started calling me “Avena”

Who, if anyone, still calls you by that name?
My aunt and some cousins when they want to bug.

Where do you go to be alone?
alone? I’m never alone I’m surrounded. But I read to escape.

What usually drives you to need to be alone?
I don’t know. When I can’t take the pressure.

What do have/take with you - music, pad and pen, Bible, what?
book

How old were you when you learned to drive?
LMAO. I refuse to answer.
 
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