The Fifth Year - 1984

Between packing up to move, finals next week and starting PT school the week after, these next few posts will be difficult to get through on time.

I remember just as much about 1984 as I do about 1981 - nothing - as far as I know. Most of my younger childhood memories are so jumbled I'm not 100 percent sure what happened when, even with some of the more memorable events.

One thing is certain, I think, my younger brother Andrew was born in 1984. I don't remember his birth, but I remember him - somewhat.





I remember we (my siblings and I) used to push his forehead down and sing the Transformers theme, because it made him look like a Decepticon. Andrew seemed to develop pretty quickly - physically. I think he walked early and he was able to climb out of his wicker bassinet he slept in at a young age too. I wish I had a picture of that thing. We had it for years - long after it was deemed unsafe for any use.

My grandparents (dad's parents) had a "farm" just behind our house (between their place and the construction company). They had pigs turkeys and chickens, maybe a cow? I know there was a goose too, I don't know who owned that, but I know I was afraid of it because it would hiss and try to bite me. As a much younger child, (maybe around this time of my life) I remember going down to the pig pen and catching the piglets and trying to ride the larger pigs with my cousins and siblings.

One year, I remember my uncle Loren (my dad's youngest brother) taking one of the pigs out to kill it for food. He tied it up and shot it with a 22 rifle. Needless to say, it took a few shots and I just remember that pig squealing to no end. My uncle asked me if I wanted to take a shot at it (so I'm guess I was older than four at the time) but I remember being too afraid - as I had never even held a firearm before then, let alone shot one - much less AT something... and even less so, a living thing. I can't say it was a traumatic experience, but I do remember it.

My grandparents also had a large holding area full of feed grain. We used to play in it - it was always full of grasshopper heads and legs (mixed in with the corn). I always wondered how they got in there and why they were there, as an adult, that mystery has been solved.

That "farm" was where I spent a lot of my time getting into trouble (playing in the feed corn, and stealing eggs from the chickens so we could try to cook them on a tin roof) as well as a lot of time paying for that trouble - weeding the garden. That was an endless chore. Back then, each row of corn seemed forever long, now that I think about it, they were pretty short rows. I could probably get through one in a matter of minutes... a task that took all day (if it got done at all) back then.