Why title a chapter with a single year? Because this year took me on a whirlwind of a ride that I'll never forget. January stormed in (literally) with a massive blizzard dumping over three feet of snow upon our area. At the same time that blizzard hit, my brother Nathaniel was born. For those of you keeping track at home, that's four kids now. Three boys and a girl. I remember those days being quite crazy as my Dad had to constantly shovel snow to keep up with the weather and the snow plows and also commenting how the stores were lacking bread, milk, eggs, and all those other food staples due to the blizzard. On top of that, he and my mother had a newborn to deal with. But for me, it was a blast. Three feet of snow was a child's dream. Snow forts could be built incredibly high and deep, guarded by a snowman army that took a couple of days to construct. The hills would not show green grass for well over a week thus allowing for endless hours of sledding upon them. But the best part was after a long day of snow adventures, a steaming mug of hot cocoa and a movie while snuggled up in blankets were waiting for us.
Sometime between the spring and summer, five year old me asked my mom if I could call Grandpa (my Dad's father). She dialed up the landline and handed me the receiver. I'm pretty sure my grandmother answered and made me talk to her for a bit before putting Grandpa on the phone. Once he was on, I asked him if he could pick me up and we hang out. Of course he got permission from my mother first and she was more than happy to have him take me out of her hands for a bit. But what she didn't know was that I had a mischievous plan in play. I was sitting on those concrete steps eagerly awaiting the arrival of that light blue pick-up truck. As long as I knew him, my grandfather drove pick-up trucks. If fact, he still drove them to the ripe old age of 91. It was always an exciting moment when it appeared around the corner. Once it did, I jumped off the steps, shouted "Bye Mommy" and hopped into Grandpa's truck. I then promptly asked him if we could go to the store. We drove into Hanover and stopped at the K-Mart (now on the verge of extinction in 2021). We wandered around the toy aisles for a bit and I had a blast pressing all the buttons on the toys that said "try me" on them. Eventually we found ourselves in the Lego aisle. All I had at that time were the giant Duplo blocks from my toddler years. Those and the yearly Toys R Us (RIP) Big Toy Book made me want to own some actual Lego sets of my own. As my eyes grew bigger at each set I looked at, my eyes fell on a specific one. It was in a small blue box and on the outside was a picture of a red, white, and blue airplane. Appropriately named "The Patriot Jet", it called to me. Not yet being fully educated in manners (or forgetting them in the moment), I asked Grandpa if I could have it. To my surprise and delight, he said yes. Now here's the thing. That set cost $19.99 in 1996. Which was a lot for a toy back then, especially for a five year old. And on top of that, my Mom wasn't there to say no. Lego plane now purchased, we made our way back to his truck. I thought we were going back to Grandpa's and Grandma's house, but Grandpa had to get me back by dinner. We got back to my house and I flew up the steps to the front door where my Mom was waiting. Upon seeing that I got into the house fine, Grandpa tooted his horn, waved, and drove off. "Look what I got!" I exclaimed to my mom. Her jaw dropped as she realized what I had done. She couldn't believe I had asked my grandfather for a toy like that and that he actually bought it. I spent a good bit of time putting that plane together and it became a main staple whenever I played with Legos at home. Like many sets I owned later, I took it apart and built other things with it. It wasn't until I was in my college years that my nostalgia hit and I wanted to rebuild that plane. Thankfully I had most of the pieces and the ones I was missing I found online. That plane is proudly displayed in my room to this day and is a daily reminder that in 1996, my love for Legos was born.
Summer of 1996 topped the one in 1995. This time around, I was in for a three trip treat. I returned to both Hershey Park and Ocean City, but the third trip was to Wisconsin where my mom's side of the family resides. The second Hershey trip consisted of the exact same crew as last time, but my dad came along as well. There wasn't any extraordinary thing that made this visit different from the last, but it was still a magical experience nonetheless with my summertime crew of Becca, Zeke, Chalene, Cam, and Joe.
I do want to highlight this second Ocean City trip as three more people were involved and there are some stories that I can't leave out. Joining us this time were both my grandparents from my mom's side and my newborn brother Nathaniel. Now I'm not the only one in my family who has a very retentive memory. It turns out Nathaniel does as well. There was an afternoon we were all on the beach, enjoying the sand and the ocean. Nathaniel was strapped in his stroller and was facing the water. At one point the wind picked up and the sun was bright. We looked at Nathaniel and thought he was getting sand blown in his face. My mom turned his stroller around away from the wind. Now here's the kicker. Nathaniel was only about six months old at this time. One night years later when we were reminiscing on this trip, we brought this memory up and Nathaniel piped in "Yeah I hated that." We looked at him like he was crazy. He said "I was happy looking at the ocean and no I was not getting sand in my face. Then y'all turned me around and left me to stare at...sand. It sucked." He remembers that from only being six months old!
We avoided the previous year's no kite fiasco by bringing our own kites this time. We brought them on the beach and began flying them happily. Then at one point I see my dad take off down the beach. At the last second before he disappears from my site, I saw him chasing a kite. Apparently a burst of wind came by and yanked the kite from Sarah's child fingers. Thus resulting in my Dad chasing it down the beach. He did eventually manage to corral it. Later that day, I was playing with my bucket when a man walked by and gave me a starfish he had found on the beach. It was the first time I ever saw a live one. I filled half the bucket with sand and added water to it. Then I put the starfish inside and brought it back to our rented house. My parents only let me keep it for a day before I had to return it to the ocean. That one was lucky. I managed to catch one on my own the next day, but my mom wouldn't let me keep that one. So after admiring it for a bit, I tossed it back into the ocean like I was throwing a rock. At that moment, a seagull swooped down in the area where the starfish landed and then took off. I heard my Mom mumble "Uh-oh. I hope that bird didn't eat that starfish." Then she looked at me wondering if I knew what was going on. I didn't, but I did hear her and I was sure then that the bird failed. But today when I replay that memory in my mind, I think there's a good chance that the starfish became lunch that day.
The Wisconsin trip was a big deal because it was the first time I could actually remember being there and a number of "firsts" happened during that trip. But I'm going to save that one for a chapter of its own as there's many things that happened on that adventure.
The last major life event of this year was that in the Fall, I began school. However, it was anything but ordinary. My classroom was my basement and my teacher was my mom. I was officially a home schooled student. And I was going to remain one for the next seven years. My desk was a large, circular, wooden table. My mom had a large, black, metal desk. The rest of the "classroom" consisted of a washer, a dryer, a freezer, a couch, a TV, and a bunch of toys. The floor was a weird black slate tile with colorful patterns on it. If you didn't wear socks or shoes, it turned your feet black. There were a couple of windows so at least we had some natural light. To make it feel like more of a classroom, my mom put up educational posters all over the walls, along with a small blackboard and dry erase board.
Home school had its advantages as well as disadvantages. The pros were that as long as we covered the daily material, we could start whenever we wanted and finish whenever we wanted. Most days I started at 8:30am and be done by 1PM. But as I got older and got the hang of things, I simply studied my mom's lesson plan and was able to do most things myself except for a test or new lesson. By the 6th grade, most days I was done with everything by 11AM and had the rest of the day to myself. I had one on one attention meaning there was no rush to get to the next lesson and I learned what I needed to know before moving on. Our summer vacation was longer. I'd be done with homeschool by the first week in May and not have to start again until very late August. I also didn't have to be stuck in my house every day. If we wanted to do a field trip day somewhere we could. If my mom wanted to send me over to Alice's (the mother of Melinda and Joanna) to do computer work, she could. And lastly, I had very little homework since I did it all in class. The cons of this however was that I didn't get extended holidays (2 weeks winter break and spring break), I didn't have the privilege of learning with peers and making friends in school, not being able to participate in extracurricular activities or school events, and my least favorite, having to go over all my math homework in the evening. This was because my dad is the math whiz of the family and it was easier for him to go over it with me after dinner. It was only my least favorite because it left me little time to play between dinner and bed-time when I had to do it. We'll talk about homeschooling more in later chapters as it can't be summed up in a paragraph or two.
As I continue through the years, I'll flashback or dedicate certain chapters to stories as certain parts of my life are better put collectively. Not all years will be like the bliss of 1996, but that's life is it not?
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