An Alphabetical History of My Childhood

Devil's Elbow State Beach

Foods of My Youth

Apple sauce, burgers from Tasty Freeze, Cheese ‘n Crackers, doughnuts, egg salad sandwiches, French Toast, Graham crackers, hot dogs, ice cream (yum…bubble gum), jerky, Kix cereal, licorice (red), Mexi fries, nasturtiums (from Aunt Lorraine’s house), orange juice, pecan pie, Quaker oats (with butter, salt, and pepper), Russian tea, Spanish rice, tuna sandwiches, Uncle Ron’s specialty (homemade hash browns with mayo), Velveeta, watermelon, x-centric concoction (made one time in a blender by a cousin of my dad’s I’d never met before—never will forget it), yogurt (fruit-at-the-bottom, baby!), Zingers.

What I Played With

Anagrams, Bubbles the Bear, cardboard box creations, doctor’s kit, envelopes for playing “secretary,” Fisher-Price people, glasses (to look like a different person), Holly Hobbie, I Took a Lickin’ From a Chicken (it was a lot like Simon), jump-rope, King’s Corner, Little Professor, Mitzi (a doll I named after dancer Mitzi Gaynor), nude Barbies (I changed their clothes a lot, so half the time they were naked), Operation, Perfection, quilted baby doll blankets, Rubik’s Cube, scratch ‘n sniff stickers, Trapper Keeper binder (yeah, it wasn’t technically a toy, but it was purple and I loved it), underwear (I made an old pair—along with some upholstery material—into pillows for my Barbies), Viewmaster, wind-up animals (I loved watching them walk), xylophone, yo-yo (though I was never very good at it), zoo animals.

Places I Liked to Go

Aunt Elsie’s beach house, Brooklyn Park, Cleawox Market (where I bought my first glass floats), Devil’s Elbow, Eunice’s house, flying with Bill Kernowski, Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant, Harbor Theater, Idaho (age 13), JC Sentry Market, Circle “K” (burritos and pinball…good times), Laughing Clam, Mode O’Day (got my most favorite shirt ever there), North Fork, Old Town (Florence, Oregon), Petersdorf’s Food Town Market, quiet streams of the Siuslaw National Forest, Reedsport Pharmacy (where I got my Viewmaster slides), Sand Dunes Frontier, Taco Time, U.S. Route 101 (at one point, we lived right on the highway), Visitor’s Center at Cape Perpetua, Windjammer Hair Salon (where I got my ears pierced!), x-ceptional tide pools (the Oregon Coast is famous for them), Yachats, zoo (especially the time a giraffe tried to steal my Great Aunt Pearl’s hat).