Thursday, January 22, 2004

Fragments of my childhood

I have this obsession with remembering my childhood room. I have these spotty, dreamlike memories of it, the room I had from the time I was 4 until we moved when I was 9. Spring green wall-to-wall carpet, spring green walls. Pressed-wood dresser with avocado green drawers. Taller, mismatched chest of drawers, with my Cher doll on top, together with a carved egret with a broken beak that I bought at a flea market. The instructions that came with Cher said that her hair would sometimes get caught in her eyelashes, and to carefully unwind them. Goldfish bowl, sometimes with Goldfish of the Month, sometimes empty. That really stinky flaky fish food, yellow with a brown lid. Kids' record player, blue and red plastic. Really played 45s, with that yellow insert thing in the middle. I had "Band on the Run", "Dancing Queen" and "Aristocats". "Band on the Run" really intrigued me. That distant echoey sound, like they were singing the song in a cave. A cave while they were on the run, of course. "Well the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun/and the first one said to the second one there, "I hope you're having fun"./Band on the run/band on the run/and the jailer man and sailor sam were searching for everyone" Avon Pink & Pretty kitty cologne, the kitty's blue skirt held the cologne and the top was her waist and head. I found one on eBay recently and am thinking of buying it just to smell it again. Wooden fish with glued-on googly eye, a gift from someone forgotten. Think I still have it somewhere, along with the broken egret. The child's desk and chair, the heavy lamp I still have. Lots of stuffed animals, though I can't remember many in particular, except the red bear won at Skee Ball in Santa Cruz, smelled like baby powder and leaked styrofoam balls. Some sort of cartoonish animal print my mom got as a mail-away, had something to do with a coffee can. Will have to ask her, that one has escaped me.

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