Anyway, delightful Maggie has passed on a blog award to me.
It's the "Baton of Friendship" award. In addition to displaying it on my blog (like I wouldn't anyway!), I am supposed to answer a few questions to the best of my ability.
1 - too small when you were asked, what you wanted to do when you were big; What did you reply?
The grammar snob in me is having a hard time deciphering this question, but I will try. That's not Maggie's fault, by the way; it appeared that way on her blog too. And the person who gave it to her. And the person who gave it to her. I traced it all the way back to a blog that is in Italian, so I can't determine whether the grammar issues began in the Italian version or in the translation.
I wanted to be an ice skater, until my brother Jack told me I couldn't weigh more than 100 pounds because I would crack the ice. He didn't mention that growing up in a trailer park in the Deep South put me at a decided disadvantage. Butthead.
2 - What were your favorite cartoons?
The Road Runner and the Pink Panther, although I didn't get a lot of the PP ones until I was older. I loved the Charlie Brown specials, although the Halloween one always made me cry because he always got a rock. And you KNOW those were grown-ups putting rocks in his bag, because all the kids were out trick-or-treating. Buttheads.
3 - What were your favorite games?
Life, Scrabble, Monopoly. Katydid and her husband taught me a card game that I THINK was called Back Alley and took about three years to play.
4 - What year was your nicest birthday and why?
Gosh, this one is tough. I don't remember a lot of birthdays. I know I had a surprise party when I was about 9 or 10, and that was pretty special. On my 17th birthday about half the senior class at my school skipped school for the day and went to a local swimming hole. Jason and I jumped off a bridge into the river to celebrate my birthday.
5 - What were the things you absolutely wanted to do, and not yet done?
Grammar again. I just finished teaching a session tonight on parallel structure, so this question is bothering me. I'm too much of a literalist to change it, though. Now what was the question? Oh....things I have absolutely wanted to do and not done..... Ride in a hot air balloon.
6 - Which 'was your first love? sports? or what not?
Huh? If we're talking about sports, I remember sitting on the floor with an encyclopedia open to the entry for "football." This was (way) before the days when the referees had microphones (not to mention the yellow first-down line), and I wanted to know what penalties they were calling. So I kept the encyclopedia open to refer to the signals. Oh, and I loved a lot of what not also.
7 - Which was your first musical idol?
Donny Osmond. I kid you not.
8 - Which was the most' beautiful sought (and eventually received), Santa Claus, Jesus' Child, Saint Lucia, Christmas gift?
When I was in the seventh grade, I remember telling a friend of mine that I got "everything I wanted for Christmas." Her mother turned her nose up and said she didn't think ANYONE should get EVERYTHING he or she asked for. Give me a break, lady. I wanted a hand-held hair dryer, a transistor radio, and a camera.
I am also supposed to pass this award along to 10 people, but several of the ones I would have chosen have already been picked by someone else. So I will break the chain and risk all kinds of bad luck and ill health by not naming anyone specifically. If you read this blog, you are hereby designated my friend. And I pass the baton of friendship on to you. If you would like to use the blog award on your blog and answer the questions, by all means do so.
By the way, #5 reminded me.....
I'm still looking for suggestions for 50 new things I can do next year, my 50th year. I will be posting some of your suggestions in the next week or so, and we will begin to build a list together. Keep 'em coming!
