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By the Pond
10 Sep

Fun Tidbit #7: My Not So Wild Youth

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Me on the left and my sister , Kim, on the right.

 

 

 

 

I have been thinking about my youth from 7 years old to college. I work part-time these days at Cranes Pie Pantry and Restaurant with young people in high school, in their twenties,  and a few of their mothers for the most part. I listen to them and think. The picture above shows me on the left and my younger sister, Kim, on the right.

Gramma Peggy did not have much money but we would go out to eat on Fridays sometimes. We would to The Lone Star Tavern in our small town. Gramma did not drink but they had dinner specials on Fridays. I was elementary school age. What I remember is that I would always get a hamburger and fries. My hamburger was meat and a bun plain with nothing on it. My favorite part was the burger. So I would mix eating my fries and burger, and I always made sure I had one bite of my burger to eat last. I wanted the taste of the burger to be the taste I left with.

When 10 years old, Gramma trusted me to walk to the bank with the social security checks and put them in and then pay bills in town. I remember one time losing them. I went home crying uncontrollably. I knew how important they were. They were all we had. However, by the time I had gotten home, the bank had called. Someone had found them by the door and turned them in. Relief. I thought Gramma would never trust me to do this again. Not so – she sent me right back out to finish my job.

Another thing I enjoyed would be going with Gramma to Josie’s Coffee House. She would go there to meet her friends. I loved listening to their stories about their lives. I would at Christmas spend days baking cookies and making candies to give them all a plate. Most of them did not do those things anymore and had very little family. Josie’s was also my very first real job. I started my sophomore year and worked about 2 hours a day after school. I used the money I earned to buy my high class ring ($49.50) and my senior pictures ($99). It took awhile at, I think, $1.25 an hour.

Gramma was worrier having lost my dad (29) and her husband (38) at such young ages. When I lived in Kalamazoo while attending Western Michigan University and went out with friends, she wanted me to call, no matter what time, and ring the phone twice and hangup. She would know I was safe then and back home. I rarely went to a party, and if I did I do not drink a or do any drugs. I twas usually just movies, malls, out to eat, work (a convenience store call Minute Market that I worked at until midnight), or out to eat. Sometimes just hanging with friends would go late. So, if she knew I was out, I would find a phone and call from wherever (if possible – no cell phones) I was and ring twice so she could relax and sleep.

The things that created the poet in me happened before these years. It feels good to remember the “normal” parts of life.  Living with Gramma meant not being so afraid all the time.

 

 


be kind family grandmothers memories mental health moving forward self-exploration struggles women poets
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About the Author

Written by sidonamarie

My poetry has been my therapy over the years. In 1993, an unusual traumatic event occurred with me. Poetry over the years has been my sorting out process. I have always had a strong spiritual nature balanced by strong doubt. During period of tremendous confusion, my poetry (sometimes more like stories my son thinks) helped me remember who I am, how I feel, and what I think and always have from a child. The theme I hope comes through is that we should not have our heads too far into the clouds or too deeply into the dirt. Life lives as balance somewhere in the middle with little visits to both edges. All 56 years of my life I have lived in Michigan. I was born in Kalamazoo September 16, 1958. My parents separated when I was young do to my mother’s mental illness. Dad died in 1965 at 29 from a cerebral hemorrhage. I was 6 when he passed. Grandma Peggy (my dad’s mother) went to court 7 times in a year and a half to fight for my younger sister (Kim who was mentally impaired) and me, because my dad had asked her too. She won custody of us. So, I lived with her in Bangor, Michigan through high school and college. I didn’t begin to write poetry until I went to live with my aunt (my mother’s sister) in Wartervliet, Michigan while attending Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor. My aunt lived near my mother and her mother (my Grandma Elsie). After 2 years there, I attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts major in English and minor in Elementary Education. Right out of college fall of 1984 I was hired at St. Mary’s in Paw Paw, Michigan as a kindergarten teacher. I taught kindergarten for 1 year half days and was moved into a full-time first grade position for three years. I met my husband Gary during that time. On October 17, 1987, we married and I moved to Fennville, Michigan where I still live. Gary and I have a son age 24 and a daughter age 19.


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