1. The house where I grew up was originally the general store in a little railroad community called Kennedy Station. We lived about 100 feet from the railroad tracks, and in the summers my brother Dan and I waited for the train to come by because our favorite engineer sometimes tossed us candy. Dan and I also entertained ourselves by running along the tops of the freight cars parked on the siding by the grain elevator. I’m still amazed that we jumped the gaps between all those cars without falling and breaking our necks!
2. I’ve never met an animal I didn’t like, and as a kid I tried to make pets of all of them. A partial list of my non-human friends includes garter snakes, mice, turtles, guinea pigs, hamsters, a flying squirrel, parakeets, chameleons, lizards, goldfish, guinea fowl, and, of course, cats and dogs. One family pet was a baby rabbit Dad rescued from Rex the dog. We raised Petey until he was full-grown and let him go in the yard. He never let us touch him after that, but he hung around for years.
3. By now you probably know I’m a runner, but you might not know I’ve run approximately 50,000 miles since I got hooked three decades ago. I ran four marathons--all under four hours--and I qualified for the Boston Marathon twice. My slowest, and first, marathon time was 3:43.19 and my fastest time was 3:17.49. I no longer run marathons, but I still run 35 miles a week. Very slowly.
4. I’m ambidextrous. I write and eat with my left hand and do almost everything else with my right one. I bat, brush my hair, and use scissors with my right hand, but if I’m cutting with a knife I use my left hand. So if you see me with a knife in my right hand, you’re safe—and so is that chocolate cake sitting on the counter. But the cake won’t be safe for long!
5. In junior high my best friend Susie and I discovered an island in the river on the east side of my hometown. An equally wonderful discovery was a rickety wooden ladder leading from the side of the bridge to the wilds below. We found lots of weeds and thorns and mosquitoes on the island, but we also stumbled on a deserted house just ripe for exploration. Susie and I made the death-defying climb to the island many times—and it was worth it!
Those are my secrets. Who’s next?
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2 comments:
I remember all of those things. Remember the bull snake we drug home to your Mom and the bees we froze in her freezer that came alive when we took them out. We weren't supposed to play in the river, but we figured the island was OK. We climbed trees and discovered a "Fairy Ring". Always you're best friend, Susie
I thought I was the only person who remembered the "bee" incident! I even wrote a story based on it called "Bees in the Freezer." Clever title, huh?
I also remember when my brother ratted us out to Grandma DeCamp about the island and got both Mom and me in trouble. You and I had a lot of adventures.
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