Thursday Thirteen #22

Thirteen Things I Remember as a Kid I was stumped for a topic and trying to procrastinate, when I saw Shiloh's TT and borrowed her idea (I didn't think she'd mind- our lists are quite different). 1) I broke my nose when I was four (earliest memory? I’m not sure). 2) My brother and I taking a walk when we were visiting my grandparents, getting lost and ending up halfway down the mountain (they’d told us not to cross the street but the road curved so much that to get back either would have been all the way up the road we’d come down or cross the street and cut the trip in half)- again I was four- he was eight (I was the one that knew we could get back by crossing the street). 3) In third grade, a girl in the safety patrols was struck by lightning and killed (somehow I don’t remember it from that year, but from hearing about it the next year), what I do remember was she was walking home in a storm and carrying a metal lunch box. 4) Breaking my arm when I was nine. 5) And again when I was ten (same arm. yes, I was a graceful child, wasn’t I?). 6) Reading the Hobbit at ten, and the Lord of the Rings not much long after (that summer in fact, if I remember correctly). 7) Taking a field trip in fourth grade (and again in fifth) to spend a week in the Florida Keys in a program called Sea Camp- where we did lots of swimming, studied plankton, and explored mangrove swamps. 8) Spending a month at the beach, with my arm in a cast (see #4). Not allowed to swim, but only wade in the shallows (I had learned to swim practically before I could walk). 9) Borrowing my sister’s romances: I remember reading Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen Woodiwiss and Devil’s Desire by Laurie McBain (in Middle School?). 10) Going to summer camp after 6th grade and coming face to face with my very first real live, up close (and very tall) horse. The hardest part was getting on the bloody thing when the stirrup was up roughly equal to my shoulder (I have short legs-which didn’t help). 11) Getting to visit a school friend who had moved away and spending a whole month with her and her family and then flying home (she lived in the country and had her own horse- I lived in south Florida and had a sea grape tree in our front yard). 12) My mother catching me reading my sister’s romances and just saying, “I can’t believe you’re reading those.” 13) Getting glasses in sixth grade, and suddenly realizing why I’d never been any good at softball or tennis (watch the ball? Yeah right). Links to other Thursday Thirteens! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!