My Part
Way Normal Life
by Audra Baker
As a child my
family burned thing, destroyed things, and had random firework wars between my
Dad and Uncle Ryan, but most of the time my family did nice things
such as growing a garden, having cookouts with neighbors and occasional pool
parties at my babysitter's house. I lived in the small town of
Emden, Il, a town with the population of five hundred and only a
few miles south of the Tazewell and Logan county border. I lived on Mason
Street with the house number of one-twelve. I lived in a two-story house that
had a flooded basement most of the time and a huge back yard.
My neighbors, Mark and Tami, were my family's best friends and their daughter
Casey was my babysitter throughout my childhood. My cousins
were Tearney, who was seven and Bryson, who was ten. Their
dad was Ryan and their mom was Ronda. I am not really sure
how the two families are related, but my grandmother has a family
tree book that says there is a relation. My parents Kim and Terry and my
siblings Aaron, who was six and Adrianna, who was one is my
family now, then and forever.
As
a kid I was quiet most of the time, but then there was the daredevil side
of me that would do anything that I thought was dangerous. Around this time and
in my stories, I was six and then I had my seventh birthday somewhere
in it. In my neighborhood, I was allowed to ride my bike in the Ally,
play in my front yard and of course play in the backyard. With
permission, I could go and play with my cousins. In my front yard
there wasn't much to do and not many places for a kid to play except the drive
way and sidewalk for chalk. The backyard had a garden, sometimes a pool
and a sandbox filled with shovels and pails.
The backdoor of the Baker household lead to the back hall which lead
to the basement and kitchen. The kitchen was small and had a yellow and blue
theme to it and it lead into the dining
room. The dining room was a soft rose color and lead to
the living room, library and office. The living room was painted a cream color
and had a worn path in the brown carpet that lead to the
messy play room and the freezing cold, closed-in front porch.
The cream colored walls of the library had many book shelves full of books
on the east wall and a oak piano on the south wall. The office had wooden
panels on the wall that lead to the bathroom, cleaning closet and the
stairs that lead to the bedrooms. The bedrooms were split by a tiny hall
way, on the left was my parents room that had a wooden panel
wall and orange carpet and on the right was the kids room
which had white walls and blue carpet. My parents room had a small closet
and a small bathroom in it and the kids' room had a walk-in closet. My
bounderies were my yard and the alley behind it, but that didn't matter
because I never needed to leave them, because my favorite place to be was my
garden.
Fire in the Garden
When
I was little, I spent most of my time outside in my family garden. My
family spent hours in the spring planting seeds and weeding out the
weeds, so the plants wouldn't be choked out. My family
planted all kinds of seeds like, tomatoes, okra, beans, carrots, asparagus, lettuce,
cabbage, table onions, peppers, rhubarb, strawberries, and even had a
grape vine that grew over some old cattle feeders that had been
cut in half and put on their side.
My favorite
memory in the garden was when my dad and my neighbor Mark were burning it
in the fall. My dad, Mark, and I were watching the garden catch fire from
one corner to another. My brother came out of the house and decided to watch
too. After the flames were gone, my dad explained to Aaron and
me that the ground was still hot even though the flames were gone.
I, being a daredevil child, decided to walked around the wooded planks that
surrounded the garden thinking that I was so cool while doing it. Since I
am twins with my brother and every sibling has to have a sibling
rivalry with each other, Aaron ran into the garden to pick up one of the
sticks that hadn't burned. My dad was talking to Mark when he saw my
brother. He yelled at him to stay out of the garden. Aaron ran
out of the garden for two reasons; one my dad was yelling at him, two his shoes
were blazing hot. Aaron did accomplish his goal. He got the stick and, as soon
as, he was out of the garden, he sat down to take off his shoes.
My dad yelled," Don't touch your shoes!"
Yeah, he
didn't listen. He took off his shoes and started to scream. The
bottom of his shoes were melted and totally ruined, plus Aaron burned his
hand. It wasn't bad though. It just took a Band-Aid and some triple
anti-biotic ointment to fix it for a couple weeks. My dad told Aaron that
he hoped he learned his lesson, but I don't think he has since he and
I are always playing with the flames at cook outs
or bon fires.
The Firework War
Almost a year later, in the heat of a summer night, my
parents invited my neighbors and and cousins to the house to
celebrate the Fourth of July. Just coming home from a carnival and firing
up the grill for hamburgers and hot dogs, the mood was perfect and
everyone was excited.
Later that
night in my driveway, my dad and "Uncle" Ryan were putting on a
firework show for my mom, my six year old brother, Aaron, my one year old
sister Adrianna, my seven year old cousin, Tearney and me. It started
like a normal firework display with the pop rocks and fire crackers. Then it
turned into a full out dad versus dad with tiny explosives war. It
started when my dad threw a firecracker under my "uncle's" chair.
Ryan screamed like a girl when they went off. Then Ryan put a fire cracker
in my dad's chair which blew up and startled my dad so much he fell to the
ground. They took some old Barbie dolls, tied them to a pack
of bottle rockets and shot them in the sky. That was the best part of the
whole thing because nothing came back down. It was totally awesome
and it is still my favorite fourth of July celebration.
The Chimney Comes Down
During the spring of 2007, the chimney on my house was starting
to fall apart. My dad talked to my grandparents and the family
prepared to tear it down. The next weekend from that day, the chimney
came down and it was great.
With a trailer and my dad's truck, his brother, Randy and he torn down the
chimney and loaded the bricks onto the trailer. The afternoon
after, my uncles had left and the trailer of bricks were
placed in the front yard. My dad called me and my brother
downstairs. He hitched the trailer to his truck and seat-belted my
brother and me in the truck He drove to the entrance of the
pond, handed each a brick and said," Throw it." My brother and
I understood what that meant. Aaron and I ran to the edge of the
reed-lined pond and started chucking the bricks into the water. It was
the best day ever, with of all the destruction at the house and my
brother and I chucking bricks in the pond, which was against the
rules when my dad took my family fishing. My dad dumped half of the bricks
in the back entrance, so people wouldn't come into my grandfather's pond
without asking him first. He took my brother and me home and
played with his son and daughters for the rest of the evening.
Conclusion
As a kid, I was
quiet, but very wild and my life was very calm and easy. My personality hasn't
really changed, but now I can do more dangerous stuff, because I am
stronger than what I was then. Compared to now, my childhood was the
best thing ever. Life is crazy between school and my family, probably
because my whole family is in school, not just the kids. From
my stories I learned never to set bad examples for my siblings, like
walking as close to fire as I can, because they will try to do
better. I also learned not to follow the parents bad examples,
like a firework war, but to still have fun in destroying something
every once on awhile. What I miss most about my childhood life is my old
home and my old garden. After moving to Hopedale, IL, I miss my old friends and
school. My relationship with my family has become stronger, but everyone
in my family always try to best each other in everything, but, hey, that
is just the competitive spirit.
