Okay I am going to share with you perhaps my favorite memory of all from this neighborhood… but I am warning you after reading this you will absolutely for certain know that I am a strange creature and that oddity was cultivated at a very young age!
I grew up Mormon and because of the situation with my family and my parents drinking I did not have many Mormon friends that were allowed to spend the night… but I had one friend, Erica B. who would spend the night often when I lived at Woodgate Court.
When she would come over we would clear every single thing out of my closet and lay out blankets and make my closet our own little sleeping fort. It was cramped but we loved being all squeezed in there with a flashlight giggling all night. And then on Saturdays we would wake up and put on our best most grown up church dresses… and I was always deeply jealous that she had a suit because it looked much more professional than I did in my dress.
After we were convinced that we looked at least 35 we would take our clipboards and notepaper and pens and begin going door to door and randomly survey people about whatever subject popped into our mind. …. And we were alllll business. No giggling or laughing… or acting unprofessional ever. We would have lengthy conversations with people asking them about tv shows, popcorn, Banquet fried chicken, the community rec. center… whatever popped into our mind for the day.
Most of the neighbors would indulge us in our little game… I would say maybe 90% opened the door and talked to us and took us seriously… never laughing at these foolish girls trying to act all grown up. There were a couple that would get irritated and slam the door on us but they were few and far between. It was because of those surveys that when it came time to sell candy bars door to door for a fundraiser I made a killing… because everyone already knew me.
I look back now and think to myself “what strange little ducks” and try to imagine what I would do if some 8 or 9 year old girl all dressed up in church clothes came knocking on my door and asking silly questions in the most serious tone imaginable… I think unfortunately I would probably bust into the giggles and be unable to take them seriously! But then again in the world of today… kids aren’t encouraged to go knocking on random strangers doors so I guess I don’t have to worry about it too much!
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Questions for the day:
• What kind of things did you do on sleepovers when you were little?
• Do you remember any fundraisers you did?
• Did you have a friend that you always did crazy things with?
• Did you ever play dress up?
• Where you a shy kid or were you more outgoing?
• Did you do anything when you were younger that just makes you shake your head in embarrassment now that you are grown up?
Of course you don’t have to answer all of them or any of them for that matter… but if any of them made you think… I’d love for you to capture those thoughts so you have them to share… because they are worth being heard !
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