Snippets from my five-year diary.
February 25.
*1970 (age 11): Allownace Day $2.00. Walked Pepe. Vicki came over and walked Pepe with me.
Allowance Day! (Note, I did figure out how to spell it by next year’s entry.) Only $2.00 a month. Walking Pepe netted me $2.00 also – one day I’d make what my dad would pay me for a month of chores. No wonder I wasn’t fond of chores!
*1971 (age 12): THUR. Allowance - $2.50. Avon day.
By age 12, I’d gotten a 50 cent a month raise. Maybe because I knew how to spell the word.
*1972 (age 13): FRI. – Piano Lesson
So much for an exciting day.
*1973 (age 14): Sun. – Today me and Vicki went bike riding – when on my bike I did a summersault when I fell into a grading. And Vicki, while on my bike, she smashed into a truck.
I still remember that fateful day when both Vicki and I had huge mishaps on my bike. First, when I was riding my front tire slipped inside a drainage grate. It left me arse-up, still on my bike, at the corner of a very busy intersection. Vicki thought it was funny and laughed.
I was humiliated and refused to ride my bike anymore and rode Vicki’s. Vicki rode my bike and halfway down a side street, she turned to look at me and crashed into the tailgate of a parked pickup truck. I repaid her empathy by laughing at her.
I think we both walked our bikes home after that.
*1974 (age 15): Mon. School. After school me & mom & sue went to Woolworths. I got my purse it has a squirrel on it.
I don’t remember the purse, but I do remember going to Woolworths. A great place to purchase items and have an ice cream for a nickel. Sue is my sister. She was two years younger than me and had Down Syndrome. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 54.
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Note to self: The bike incident will be the first of many public “humiliations.” It’s better that you learn to laugh it off than feign indignation. Laughing at yourself works well too.