My Family

I grew up very close to my 6 siblings. I am the 6th of 7 and we are all about 1 year apart. So yeah, super close.  In order, Kristina, Michael, Barbara, Heidi, David, Kirsten, Mark. We lived just outside the city limits on a street that dead ended into the woods. That was the best playground any kid could ask for. 

Michael had the wildest imagination and anything we did was his idea. He also loved the history of the royal families of Europe. We built castles in the woods. 7 of them to be exact. They were amazing. Castle 2 was mine. It was a couple of trees that had fallen on each other. 

Castle 7 actually had a throne room. Michael gave us all titles and family lineage. He really knew a lot. 

The best was Smurf Island. Where the creek ran through the woods, there was a steep bank and a sandy embankment that really seemed like an island in my mind. We played there for hours each day. Smurfs was one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons.

And then there was Village Square. It was actually across the street. Kudzoo grew over everything and in the fall and winter the leaves died off, but left vines. We hollowed them out and it really gave us shells we made houses and stores out of. We had a mayor, Michael, and a bank, Heidi, and even made money. In the stifling heat of the southern humid summer, and no air conditioning, it was the perfect place to spend our summer days.

The way Michael described it all, you could see it in your mind how it would really look. 

Good Grammar

Whenever my children say something grammatically wrong, I tell them how it would drive my 4th grade teacher, Mrs Poole,  bonkers. There were a few kids in my class who used the phrase " I ain't got none" when asked about their homework. She always groaned and promptly corrected their grammar, but it don't think it ever did any good. I suppose I have her to thank for my, mostly, good grammar.

J. Paul Beam

Most of my favorite memories are from my school, J. Paul Beam elementary. One of the best things about JPB was that it was small, only 1 class per grade, and we grew up together. We knew all the teachers and they knew us. Mrs. Hubbard was the 6th grade teacher and everyone's favorite. Back then I went by my childhood nickname Kiki. In fact, I doubt anyone even knew my real name was Kirsten.

My best friend was Kenya Littlejohn. It's funny, I grew up in the South when racial tensions were better than in my father's school days, but still prevalent, but I really didn't see much of it at school. My German mother and southern father didn't have any problems with the fact the Kenya was black, or my other friend Bobbi Jo. In fact, they were 2of the smartest kids in my class.

My mother used to buy books for us at a used bookstore in Spartanburg. One book she bought me was Steal Away, Steal Away Home. It was about 2 young slaves escaping North on the Underground Railroad. I loved that book and wish I still had that copy. She also got me a book on Frederick Douglass. That must be what started my love of reading biographies. She got me many other books I loved to read, but my absolute favorite book to this day is Bridge to Terabithia. Mrs. Hubbard read it to us and I do have a copy of that still and read it every so often.

Mrs. Hubbard read a few books to us that have remained favorites. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Lottery Rose, which still makes me cry.  A Taste of Blackberries and The TV Kid were others she read. Mrs. Poole, our 4th grade teacher, read The Boxcar Children to us. I still can't read it without hearing her voice say "it is delicious, and cold too." I ran into her in 1998 at a grocery store while visiting with my family. She recognized my sister Heidi and I and asked about all our 5 siblings. She informed us that Mrs. Hubbard had breast cancer. Never found out more about it unfortunately.

I loved those teachers and wish I could tell them now how much they affected my life for the better.

My childhood memories

I grew up in Gaffney, South Carolina in the 70's and 80's. My family moved to Utah in Aug. 1986, a week before I started junior high. It took a few years, 8 to be exact, to enjoy living here. But I have always regarded my childhood as a happy one and have so many memories that I want to record. They won't be in any kind of order, just as I remember them.