Girly-girl Tomboy...(This is me, Then)

I

was always

a Girly girl

Tomboy.

I wanted to wear

dresses every day;

when they got too short,

and I still wanted to wear them,

my father

made me wear long pants underneath,

but I hated that, hated the fact that

it didn't jive with the look

I was going for

although now that I

think about it,

my Dad was actually very fashion forward

for 1980.

After dinner we would play football or baseball

on the front lawn and I

was a fast runner, even then.

Once I ran full speed into

my oldest brother's forhead during a scrimmage,

then got so angry and jealous when

his bump swelled up bigger than mine.

I

told Jeff in my 2nd grade class that my front yard was so big

we could play football on it

but he

didn't believe me.

( I had no idea

how big a real football field was)

With my girl friends, I loved

to play house, or Barbies, or Cabbage Patch Kids, or make up

cheerleading routines,

with my brothers and their friends I'd play

War and tag and cops and robbers and ride bikes

and jump out of trees

until we

fell and skinned our knees or bit our tongues and I

was always coming home filthy,

proud of my new grass stains,

skipping and singing

some song I'd just invented,

the lace around my collar torn loose and fraying,

(I could never be

as put together as Anne, with her

perfect braids that stayed perfect all day,

but I loved her for it, anyway)

I wore my Gunny Sack dresses with

tomato red knee socks

and

tennis shoes

(just in case I needed

to run.)

-XOXO,