The Story of My Life: Foundations Begin

 After my parents had settled in PA, they wanted to find a place to meet with other Christians. They ended up joining a congregation in Upper Adams, PA. It was here where we met some people who were going to play very prominent roles in my life. The first were an older couple named Al & Sue. They had a grandson who was 6 months older than me by the name of Joe. Him and I became fast and very close friends. The other family we met who became very prominent in my life were Tom, Sandy, and their two kids Chalene & Cameron. But more on all of them later. 

There were many other families I met that I can't remember their full names but I still remember their faces. One family in particular had a son named Daniel. He was a few years older than me, on the tall and lanky side, wore thick rimmed glasses that were quite prominent in the 80s and 90s, and had a very distinct voice. There's one particular memory with him that I'll never forget. I'm not sure of the time frame but it took place in the mid-90s and it was in the summer. Al & Sue had a lot of us kids over at their house. They told us they had a surprise. Turns out they were taking us to a prominent fun center in my area called Kids Biz. This place was basically a knock-off of Chuck E. Cheese. The main food was pizza, they had a robot band of animal mascots, and a ton of games to play to win tickets for prizes. Their main mascot was a bear named Billy Bob. He made occasional appearances to entertain the kids. As a young child, I did not realize that he was just a person in a costume. I was about to find this out the hard way. Daniel and I decided to take a restroom break. The restrooms were located at the end of a long hallway. As we were walking there, one of the side doors was open. Daniel and I peeked in and saw Billy Bob lying on a table with his head not attached. Shocked, we ran over to Al & Sue while shouting that Billy Bob was dead. Imagine the horror on the other parents in the place and the staff who heard these two obnoxious children announcing that their beloved mascot was dead. Thanks to Sue's quick thinking, she calmed us down and asked why we thought that. We explained what we saw and she broke the news to us that it was just a costume. Shortly after that incident, we walked by again to find the door tightly shut and a little later, Billy Bob made another appearance to show us he was alive and well. What a memory that was.

Now back to the congregation. For some reason I'll never understand, my child brain strongly believed that the church we joined was a long program that was one day going to end. I ran with this thought the whole time we were there. While a lot of my memories are slightly foggy and fragmented from those days, I still remember a small handful from this place in detail. I remember being in children's service around Easter and the lady who was serving us gave us all these plastic eggs filled with M&Ms. She didn't want us to scarf them down all at once so she told us that they were like medicine and we could only have some at certain times. So whenever she would allow us to have some, she'd say "okay class, we can take some medicine now." She'd grab one or two from her stash and demonstrate how to eat them with manners and we'd follow suit. When my parents picked me up and asked me what I had, I proudly exclaimed "medicine!" They were probably relieved to find out they were only M&Ms.

Once a week, we would stop in the church's bookstore and rent vhs tapes that contained animated bible stories. I loved doing this because it was cool to see all the tapes behind glass and I got to pick one to take home and watch. From the services I remember them being very upbeat with a full music group on stage, people standing, arms raised, and some dancing. It was wild in the eyes of a four year old. I always got excited when the collection plate came around as my dad would give me some change or some dollar bills to throw in. There was a playground on the property that I utilized quite often and would spend hours on it if I could. 

The very last memory I have of this place was an enormous church picnic at after service. Either we never attended one or this was the first one of they had in a long time. There were a lot more people there than normal. At one point I had nothing but a plate full of animal crackers and was talking to another little girl whose name I cannot recall. They even opened the above ground pool and a good number of kids were going swimming. One boy asked me if I was coming, but my parents said no as we were leaving. I remember at this moment thinking that this was it. That the church service I thought was one long program was ending. That this picnic was the last hurrah. The chain of events that were already in motion were about to affirm my childhood perspective although in reality, it wasn't entirely true. But the fact was that this was the last time my family and I would be attending that church in Upper Adams. Change was coming in more ways than one.

The Story of My Life: The Beginning

 I came into existence November 2, 1990. Born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to two God-fearing parents with bible degrees. My father (Rick) was from a small town in Southern-central Pennsylvania and my mother (Sandy) from a very small town in Northern Wisconsin. My father made his living as an auto parts salesman and my mother was a missionary in West Africa before she met my dad. How did these two souls find each other? My grandfather on my Dad's side wanted to donate to a mission and wanted to know the person he was helping. So he was put in contact with my mom via letters. He eventually mentioned he had a son and put them in touch via letters as well. My parents wrote back and forth and I believe sent photos of each other. Keep in mind that there was no internet nor widespread cell phones back in the 1980s. So letters took three weeks to travel halfway across the world. My mom eventually went home on a brief furlough and met my Dad in person. Something began to form between them, but my mom eventually had to go back to Africa. Near the end of her service, my Dad flew out to Africa to get her. They came back to the USA and were married in October of 1989. Then they started dating as my mom likes to say. 

My parents lived in Wisconsin that first year as my mom had been away from her family for so long which is how I ended up being born in Wisconsin. After a year, my parents joined a Christian group called Christ for the Nations and ended up moving to Dallas, TX. In May of 1992 my sister Sarah was born. She was born in the very hospital John F. Kennedy was taken to when he was shot. Being 1.5 years old, I really have no memory of the days I spent in Texas. 

After a year, my parents left Christ for the Nations and moved to Hanover, PA near where my Dad is from. We moved into a duplex owned by a missionary couple who were currently overseas. Believe it or not, my two year-old brain decided to start recording memories here. I remember that yellow duplex located on Walnut Street. And all these stories I'm going to share are mostly straight from memory. Not from pictures, nor my parents, but from my own recollection.

I remember my friend Daryl who lived on the other side of the duplex. Then the house next to us had some older neighbors who I was terrified of because they seemed like the grumpy type (especially when we launched toys into their yard). My parents used to buy food from the Schwann Truck and I expected ice cream every time. We had a swing set I climbed all over and a green turtle sandbox that we played in. A few particular memories were on nice summer nights we'd take walks around the neighborhood and sometimes end up at the nearby park. I'd pay attention to the sun setting through the leaves on the trees, the dogs we passed by on walks of their own, and the random things happening in the neighborhood. 

But there is one memory my two year old self somehow retained in full detail and to this day, I don't understand why it's this one. One afternoon, my mom was taking me upstairs for a nap. That day I really did not want to. So I put up a little bit of a fuss, but she finally managed to get me in bed. I waited until she left and I heard her go all the way down the stairs. Once she did, I got out of bed and grabbed the yard stick that was propped up against the wall. I stood on the bed and looked out through the nearby window. I saw my mom hanging up laundry on the clothes lines. I took the yard stick and began banging on the window and calling her name to see if she'd notice. I saw her stop, look around, look up, and head back toward the house. She came up into the room and found me happily tapping on the window. She then took the yard stick from me, put me back down in the bed, and told me I needed to go to sleep otherwise I was going to be in trouble and have to go to bed earlier. I became compliant and fell asleep. To this day I still don't understand out of all the awesome things I could've remembered, this memory was it. 

A few other memory fragments include waving goodbye to my dad as he left the house for work in the mornings, my grumpy neighbor tossing my squeaky bat from his yard back into ours, sliding up and down the stairs without getting hurt, climbing the doorway frame, protecting my Sesame Street table from my little sister, and playing with my next-door neighbor Daryl. I wish I had more full memories from this stage in my life, but unfortunately children's brains in the early stages don't retain all that much. We weren't long for the house on Walnut Street, but more of that to come later.

Author's note: I realize when I introduced that I was doing this that I called it an autobiography. Well it's actually going to by a hybrid autobiography/memoir as not only will it tell my history, but will at times focus on a collection of memories from my life.