May 1967

Mummy, Daddy, Me, baby, and middle sis

May 1967

. Memoirs:
Having fun living, loving,
and being a kid in a Dodge Van

May 1967

It’s hard to explain being the daughter of an traveling minister, you move when Daddy had to preach. We lived in different parts of the UK, Ireland and Scotland, but the biggest part of my life seemed to come from my childhood traveling in the States. With my Mummy schooling us, my baby sis in her play crib, stuffed in the middle of the console. Everything we owned, clothing, wardrobes, and our toys, were all in a 1965 Dark Green, Dodge Van. There were no seat belts because the seats were taken out. We played in the back, slept, ate, and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, all in a van. My life was fun, full of love, even the times i didn’t see it. I was a child living a life only adults may of seen in their lifetime.

Before the Dodge Van, before the states, before being schooled by Mummy, there were years of memories, memories I have sealed in my life and I’m the only one who has the key to unlock those stories.

I sometimes wonder how I remember 1967 so much and at such a young age too. Yes I was young, always had a question about every single thing that happened. I wasn’t just growing up, I was a grown up in a child’s body. I knew how to be the perfect child when I wanted to be, and I knew when I was about to be disciplined for things I always seemed to do wrong, all at the same time. I didn’t want to grow up, but yet I loved being around adults all the time. It seemed I was always walking a very fine line many times. When my Daddy looked at me with a big smile, and the biggest bear hug, I knew he was either proud of me or I did something right. Yet when I ran in the middle of the street, clearly seeing a car about to hit me, just to catch a ball, I also knew when Mummy said “Wait till Daddy gets home young lady!” I dreaded those few words, knowing Mummy wouldn’t forget what I had done wrong and for hours I dreaded my life. It didn’t matter the punishment, my life as I knew it was over.

The crying lasted all day, “Please Mummy don’t tell Daddy, no one died?! But Daddy is going to kill me! You’re just going to make his day worse, do you really think he wants a bad day? Pleaasssee?! It wasn’t my fault, Jenny told me if I lost the ball her Mummy was going to kill her?! I didn’t want someone else to be in trouble because I threw the ball too far….”

To be continued later