Snapshots from My Life

In honor of my 60th birthday, I decided to record 60 snapshots from my childhood.

I thought it would be hard, but maybe I’ll live to be a hundred since that’s how many I came up with.

I won’t bore you to death with them all, but here’s 20 to start with.

My sisters may rightly dispute the facts, but these are my memories.


1. My earliest memory is standing in the living room looking at my mother in the hall of our small project house. It snapped in my brain like a photograph. It’s the only memory I have of that house.

2. I remember seeing the big white house on Kitsap Lake for the first time. The upstairs rooms were huge, with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, walk-in closets and attics, and even a cool portal window in one of the closets. It was years later that I learned about The Secret Room, where bootleggers hid their wares during Prohibition.

3. In first grade at Washington Elementary, and there was a black boy who was in love with me. He always chased me at recess and wanted to kiss me. One day he cornered me. When everyone else had gone back to class, a teacher intervened to break the stalemate, and insisted I let him kiss me so we could all go back to class. I let him peck me on the cheek.

4. One day in 3rd grade I was standing around my teacher’s desk with some girls while the others were outside at recess. I don’t know what I said, but Mrs. Lumley said, “Georgia, just because your dad is a doctor doesn’t mean you are better than everyone else.” I was instantly horrified, totally repentant, and completely understood her, all at once. I knew she was right, and have never forgotten what she said.

5. When I was in the 5th grade, the small school library in our classroom. I was appointed the school librarian, a job I loved and cherished. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but if pressed to answer I say I want to be a librarian.

6. I was a middle child and often had to try on hand me downs. Clothes were made of stiff cottons then, and very fitted, so I got stuck many times in dresses that were too small. I hated those try-on sessions. Maybe that’s why I’m claustrophobic.

7. Every Easter my mother would take us to the upper floor of Bremer’s, the local department store owned by Mr. Bremer after whom Bremerton was named, and buy us new Easter outfits. We got the whole deal: dresses, slips, underwear, shoes, socks, coats, gloves and even hats.

8. In the sixth grade Mrs. Baker made me write 100 sentences. You’d think I’d never forget what I did and what I had to write, but I have. It was the only time in my life I was punished so. She said at the time that she knew I hated her then, but that I would thank her for it later. This wise teacher was right on both counts.

9. We had a real jukebox in the big upstairs room. It stood about 5 feet tall and played records. We danced for hours and hours, and put on shows for the family.

10. We had a large stone patio, and we liked to jump off it onto the lawn below. One day I got brave and jumped off the higher ledge, and put my front teeth through my tongue. The gash bled a lot, but you don’t stitch a wet tongue.

11. Our first boat at our house on the lake was a little dinghy. We loved to go out in it and row around the lake. Then we got a white boat that had a little motor on it. That’s the one we weren’t supposed to play on, but we did, and Kaye fell in. I remember the long, hard run up the hill to fetch my mother, seeing Sue sitting on the bow, and Kaye on her back in the water waving her arms like she was swimming.

12. One day we came home from school and there was a BIG box in our driveway. When Dad came home we opened it to find a 16’ motorboat! We always joked that it came in a box. That was the beginning of our waterskiing days on the lake. I did a lot of the driving, and I mean a lot.

13. We were coming home one day and as we started down the driveway, Kaye said, “Look at me” as she stuck her head out an open window. I blinked and she was gone! She had fallen out of the car. Cool trick, Kaye!

14. My sister was driving us to dancing lessons one Saturday morning. I got into the old convertible, leaned against the door, and she took off around the corner of the circular driveway. I hadn’t closed the door tightly, and it flew open and I flew out! I flew a good bit down the cement driveway. I was okay, but I didn’t go to dance that day.

15. Our house had walk-in attics with low ceilings that were very fun. In the largest attic, we spent hours playing business, or we would play school where I taught my little sisters what I had learned. They claim it put them ahead in school.

16. Sue, Kaye and I slept in the big room upstairs, but not much. We kept each other up late most nights playing games. This was very frustrating to my mother. Sometimes she would come and stand in the hall. I would see her and get quiet, then my sisters would eventually get the hint. Or she would come into the room and turn on the light. Sometimes she would make us get up and clean up our messy room. Or she would make us go downstairs and do dishes, which sometimes ended up in another giggling session. Nothing she did ever cured us.

17. We went through a lot of milk with 8 kids. For a while the milkman brought it to our kitchen door twice a week. Sometimes we bought it in 3-gallon glass jugs, one which Kaye broke on the back steps when she was too little to carry it. She still has a scar from the gash she got. At one time we had a milk dispensing machine like restaurants have. It held 2 5-gallon metal containers and we dispensed it through a spout by lifting a handle. I think we had chocolate milk in it too.

18. In the 5th grade I learned to play the clarinet at school. What I really wanted, but never did, was to play the oboe. I had to give up the clarinet in 8th grade because orchestra was first period and I had a constant sore throat.

19. My mother was the ward organist most of our life. She didn’t do it often, but I loved it when she played the piano at home. That’s what made me want to learn to play. I took lessons long enough to learn to read music, but I hated practicing so I quit. But when the piano got moved from the living room to the privacy of a back bedroom, I renewed my interest in learning to play. One summer I played for hours and hours every day until I could play. The first song I learned with two hands was Beautiful Dreamer. I memorized Moon River so I could play it without looking.

20. My dad loved to go clam digging at the beach on the Pacific Ocean. We had to get up in the middle of the night to catch the tides. It was a long and winding ride in the dark. We played under dark gray skies on cold gray beaches while my dad dug for clams. We rode home on winding roads with smelly clams sloshing in the back of the station wagon. I don’t know how we did it on empty stomachs, but someone always threw up. And we always went back again. That Dad wanted to take us is still a wonder to me.