I was a weird toddler. When I was two or three, I would take pretzel sticks, dip them in the water running down the sidewalk gutters and eat them. University City, where we were living at the time, was an upscale neighborhood, but still…eeuwww!!! Back then I thought it was the gourmet snack of the century.
And after my pretzelicious repast, I would go inside and ride my rocking horse, Blaize, for hours on end. Mom has a picture of me on Blaize, a fierce, determined look on my face. A mini Paula Revere on a mission.
My older sister Lisa and I used to play with this wooden block set. We’d build these magnificent block edifices, homes for our collection of plastic animals. The tiger was the ruler (I still have him, along with the blocks and the rest of the animals), harsh but just. We would sacrifice my Barbie dolls to apease the animal gods. Hey, their heads had to come off so easily for a reason!
For a short while I wanted to be a ballet dancer. I would lock myself in my room, put on one of my mom’s old frothy chiffon nightgowns, play classical music and dance my little klutzy heart out. For all the fact I grew into a mega ham bone, I never wanted anyone to see me dance. It was my little secret fantasy.
My first crush was Roddy McDowell. As Cornelius in PLANET OF THE APES. I’ve come a long way since my fixation on gay chimps.
you are definately my kind of people. Did you know you can swap the heads on the early my little ponies from the mid 80’s? And my first crush was on Shiro hagen who was a big chin’d puppet who was captain of the ship in Starfleet.
Hah!! Yup, we are obviously from the same twisted gene pool. 🙂
Pretzelicious! LOL – I guess that explains a lot. I love picturing you and Lisa building little jungle temple complexes to the Tiger God and sacrificing your Barbies! And how can anyone NOT have a crush on Roddy McDowell?
xoxo
-D
haha! i had a rocking horse too, that i apparently loved to ride naked (i did have a tendency to run around without clothes whenever i could). mom loves showing those photos…
i melted barbies in microwaves & did bizarre things to their hair.
Heh. I seem to vaguely remember a Barbie meeting a bad end in my little Susie Homemaker oven… Obviously I hang out with like-minded people.
MY first crush was Darlene Gillespie. (This was in her Mouseketeer days before she took up embezzling.) I thought “Corky And White Shadow” was the coolest! I either wanted to ride the range with Wild Bill Hickock or smash the empire of Ming The Merciless with Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe, of course. IS there any other?) At least this was when I wasn’t defending the Alamo with Davy Crockett. I, too, had a rocking horse(named Silver, naturally). Nothing quite so spectacular but what can I say? At that time I was distressingly “normal”. LOL.
Dana – You are tagged!
I just tagged you at http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
By the way, when I was young I took ballet lessons. I didn’t like practicing, so that went by the wayside.
Morgan
Jack, you managed to turn out wonderfully abnormal in your zombie loving ways, despite your normal childhood. Wonder what makes us zombie obsessed? Certainly not the love of ballet or Roddy McDowell.
I took ballet lessons too, Morgan, but was just dreadful. It wasn’t until after I took karate as an adult that I managed to get even semi-graceful at the ballet.
Sigh… I will address your new tag next week, you devil woman. 🙂
I liked Peter Tork of the Monkees and the vampire lead in Dark Shadows.
Roddy McDowell sounds pretty sane after hearing that, huh?
Personally I could always hear “the wind that blows between the stars”(Brian Lumley’s phrase). I was born two hours after Halloween which could well account for this “sensitivity” if wou wish. Anyway I’ve always been attracted to tales of the paranormal or of outright supernarural terror. Probably it also gave me an escape route from conformity to the norm. Anyway my wife, Susan, also enjoys a good ghost story. especially those which are “told for the truth.” And who, after all, can say what the “truth” in these cases, is. As the “veddy proper” English lady is alleged to have remarked: “I don’t believe in ghosts (or we could add zombies) but I’m afraid of them.” LOL.
My first crush: James Mason as Capt. Nemo.
This might be slightly better than a gay chimp, but I’m not sure…
Helen, I’m not sure which wins on the weird meter: Barnabas Collins or Cornelius the Chimp. Heh…
Jack, me too re: always been attracted to horror/terror/supernatural/morbid things.
Other Lisa…James Mason is a honey. Or rather, he was. White turtleneck…
I thought your first crush was Barnabas Collins!
I didn’t have a crush on Barnabas, but I sure loved the show! I actually thought Quentin was cuter.