Sunday, July 16, 2017

Sunday Stealing

(Link in meme-roll)
Firsts

First Job:
Babysitting for neighbors.
First Real Job:
Shelving books in my local public library.
First Favorite Politician:
Of all time, U.S. version: John Adams or Abraham Lincoln.
Still living: Jimmy Carter (but Barry's right up there ready to step in).
First Car:
The first car I drove regularly was a 1971 Toyota Corolla passed down from my mom, though I never "owned" it. The first car I ever spent money on was an 1987 Toyota pickup truck.
First Record/CD:
The first one I bought with my own money was a compilation record that had a bunch of songs I mostly didn't know on it. One was Jethro Tull's "Bungle in the Jungle." Another was something by Foghat. Just for clarity's sake, this was definitely aimed at an older, druggier demog than 12-year-old Cat. The first one I bought that I actually played (ENDLESSLY) was, I think, Shawn Cassidy's debut. For my sins.
First Sport Played:
Does Hide and Seek count as a sport? Or jumprope? I didn't do organized sports, except in P.E. class, until junior high (basketball one year, volleyball another year) and I hated it.
First Concert:
First rock(ish) concert was the Beach Boys at the old Denver Bears stadium. But I went to classical concerts from about age 8 on, with my parents. They had season tickets or something for the Denver Orchestra.
First Foreign Country Visited:
England, in 1988. We rented a canal boat for 9 and floated around for a week. It was great!!
First Favorite TV Show:
I used to love Blinky the Clown--how I learned Happy Birthday to You!--and Romper Room when I was wee. Then I eventually aged into Captain Kangaroo and all the PBS stuff.
First Favorite Actor:
I had a little thing for David Cassidy when the Partridge Family was on.
First Favorite Actress:
Marlo Thomas. While I was far to young to understand That Girl!, I loved Marlo's voice and her expressions. Always wondered why she never did another comedy.
First Girlfriend/Boyfriend:
At age 6, I proposed to Chris (Last Name Unknown) across the street. We were going to get married and live in the bush in his front yard where we played (it was a large, branchy bush with a lovely interior "room" that was big enough to sit in on the dirt together). I remember "cleaning up" the "house" like a proper little 60s housewife. And I proposed to him by note, which somehow my mom got ahold of. I wish she'd kept it. Anyway, Chris's family soon moved away--I think they were renters--and I never saw him again. He had a slightly older brother named Tony.
First Encounter with a Famous Person:
I went to a church that was attended by several members of the 1976 Denver Bronco's team. Randy Gradishar--SWOON!!--was there. So was the coach, Red Miller. I was far too shy to speak to them, but I remember being incensed that Gradishar's wife was a cute little thing whose head barely, if at all, reached his chest. Come on, big guys should be with TALL GIRLS. Life is so unfair! (can you tell I was a teen?)
First Brush With Death:
Probably sliding off the road into a median in a blizzard in Wyoming on the way to or from my sister Marie's. Dad somehow slid off, missed the jack-knifed semi that was blocking both lanes of I-25, and slid back onto the road without damaging us or our car at all. A moment that, of course, has gone down in family lore because my sister Ellen immediately told him to "do it again!" Or maybe it was I who said that? I was pretty little.
First House/Condo Owned:
This is the house my dad designed and built in 1946. The room above the garage was built because I showed up and they'd run out of bedrooms. There is one other house with this design in that same town--minus the upstairs room. Mom & Dad lived there, raised all the kids there, and then moved to a condo for retired people in 1994. That tree in front of the living room window in the photo is the one I used to play under. All of the rest of the greenery is new since I left.
First Film Seen:
I don't remember. It involved a married couple in bed together (talking) which was pretty risqué for my family to be seeing. All I remember besides that was a lot of burnt orange decor. No clue what the movie was about.
First Favorite Recording Artist:
As a child? My brother was 10 years older than me, and my sisters even older than that. I grew up listening to Blood, Sweat, and Tears, early Chicago Transit Authority albums, the 5th Dimension, and endless musicals (The Music Man, My Fair Lady, etc. etc.). The outlier, whom I still adore was Sœur Sourire. Jean had her album, which I absconded with while Jean was away and listened to endlessly. I liked "Dominique" of course, but also "Fleur de Cactus" and "Plume de Radis." I have a different copy of the album still. Maybe I should pull it out and listen to it one of these days.
First Favorite Radio Station:
When I was allowed by own radio, I usually chose KHOW (AM). As I got older, I moved to KIMN, KPBI and KAZY (all FM).
First Book I Remember Reading:
ALL . OF . THEM !!! We went to the library pretty much every Saturday afternoon. I got a stack of books while Mom chose something from the New Books. Dad would read to me, lying on the floor with his head against the couch while I sat above him and "played with his hair": bobby-pins, curlers, whatever was in the container from the bathroom, or just combing his hair down over his forehead or making it stand up (he used VO5 gel stuff in it so it was pretty "moldable" for me).
First Meme You Answered on Your Blog:
The first one I did here on this blog in May of 2004 was a writing prompt from a now-defunct site called BlogIdeas about a "family vacation gone wrong." The first question-answer one on this site was from BlogDriveInsanity, which is still up (kind of) though D.O.A. for lo these many years.

5 sweet-talkers :

Vicki said...

I loved Captain Kangaroo and David Cassidy too.

The Gal Herself said...

What a sweet bookish memory about your dad! Made me smile.

CountryDew said...

Another David Cassidy lover. Wasn't he worth swooning over when he was young? Ah, how times change.

Bev Sykes said...

We took a canal boat trip in England too, but we did one that someone else planned. We thought about going back and renting a boat ourselves. I loved that trip, even though it was during a Mad Cow scare and we had to be careful where we walked along the tow path

Kwizgiver said...

This meme has made me so nostalgic for childhood TV shows!

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