Me at 5 years old

(my favorite bird was the Goldfinch at 5 years old. I got the sticker from Bible school and stuck it on my picture.)


The year was 1971, and I wanted to be Tarzan. Do I hear laughter all the way from blog land? I was not your average 5 year old girl. That summer I ran around in my underwear, (it was 1971) Tarzan didn't wear clothes, neither would I. It was a common occurrence for me to be in the front tree of our home and let loose with a Tarzan yell. I practiced those yells daily. You know, the old Johnny Weissmuller yell, the best Tarzan of all. One day the neighbor lady was putting water in her birdbath when I let loose with one of these yells. She tripped over herself trying to find out what that heinous sound was and fell flat on her back. My Mom comes running out because she has seen the whole thing from the window. She helps the lady up, I am ordered in the house. She came back in a few minutes and explained to me, while trying not to laugh why I should not scream like Tarzan when older people were around, I agreed. But, occasionally still let loose a yell , when the bird lady was in the yard.

I remember very vividly my birthday that year, my Mom never got me a present, or baked me a cake (no, we are not Jehovah witnesses). So I waited until she took her afternoon nap. And crept into her room and cracked eggs in her knee high boots. It was a glorious feeling. I put them way back in the closet and about a week later the most horrible smell erupted from her closet. She started searching for it and came upon her boots. She took them out of the closet and black mold had grown all the way to the top! She asked me if I knew anything about how they got like that. I looked at her very solemnly, and told her Dad had cracked eggs in her boots when he was drunk. And she believed me! It wasn't uncommon for him to do stupid crap like that when he was drinking.

I remember being fascinated with everything around me. I was so curious. I loved to color and create things. And I ran everywhere. I knew the names of trees and birds, because my Mom taught me those things. I had an imagination out of this world, and was convinced our next door neighbor was a werewolf.
I drove my Mom crazy because I wanted to be a singer when I grew up, and I would go around singing Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves at the worst possible times, like in the grocery store at the top of my lungs. When people would ask why I liked that song I would tell them because my family was a band of roving Gypsies. Dad spanked me once for that when he overheard me telling the mailman we wouldn't be needing the mail delivered at our address anymore because we were getting ready to leave for a long trip across America in our caravan.

I also was madly in love with the boy next door, who also was madly in love with me. He was an ass. He taught me to pick my scabs and convinced me to eat one. I know that is pretty gross. He did it first!

We broke up after the little brat knocked me out with a horse at the park. It was one of those swings in the shape of a horse. He said, "Hey Nita, come here." So I go running over and he pulls up on his horse hits me in the temple and I go out like a light. Still makes me mad.

I really liked me. I remember thinking I could be a dentist because I pulled my own teeth. None of my friends were that brave. Yep, that was me at 5. ~nita~

What were you guys like when you were 5 years old?