but her life is so beautiful/as memories continue to grow

My little red and green wagon has been around the block a few times. No, literally. As well as figuratively. My Little Tikes (what is a "tike", anyways? I hear it's an endearing term?) is on it's 10th year. And still going strong! I helped the family clean and reorganize the garage today, and I got to scrub it down. Looking at it reminded me of all these weird memories from when I was five, and first moved to Hawaii. Pardon the long and nostalgic post, but I decided I must write down these fading memories before they're gone from my mind forever. Okay, so, chronologically - here. we. GO.

I'm five. We're looking for housing, there's no room on base. Holly is 11, Katherine is 1. For the time being, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel. It was both weird, and fun. I remember going to the hotel pool a lot, which was extremely beautiful and fun. And the hotel/poolside snack bar - oh the frosty ice creams. So GOOD. Those were a real treat. They were laced with either blue or pink frostingy stuff. But anyways, this hotel - I remember that's where my dad brought home the board game "Memory!" (I had hours of both fun and frustration with that game) and the wagon. It was odd, having a wagon inside a hotel. I actually don't ever remember using it there. But it was nice to look at.

Oh, and then there was that lady. That homeless lady. She sat out in the sun near the beach all day, and she didn't have any umbrella or shade except for the palm trees she sat under. And you think you've seen sunburn? No, you haven't EVER seen sunburn compared to this lady. It was awful. She was like a wrinkly, flaming prune. (flaming prune, eh? I need to invent that. might taste good. anyways.) So one night Holly and I stayed up late working on a secret project for the "Homeless Sunburnt Lady". I drew a crayon picture. The picture was of the beach, a crab, a palm tree, and her. I labeled everything. Being five, I was always worried people wouldn't understand what I drew. The red thing on that picture? That was her. I remember the color I used, too. A combo of "brick red" and "burnt sienna". Holly did something, I forget. Maybe it was a shell necklace. So the next morning Holly and I venture outside the hotel place and walk up to the beach, and under the palm tree she was sitting under. I gave her my picture, and just in case she couldn't read my labels, carefully pointed out what each picture object was. Even her, the "red thing under the palm tree." We also handed her a bottle of sunscreen. I don't know what she thought of that. So we didn't give her a home, or food, or money...just a picture, a necklace, and some sunscreen...but hopefully she remembers us little kids as much as we remember her.

Next is...ooh, here's a fun memory. We went to go look at a house. It was a neat house, everything was wood and wood paneled. Gave the house an intriguing look. The coolest thing, though, were the geckos. The house had geckos EVERYWHERE. That's not unusual, it'd be unusual to find a house withOUT them in it. But these geckos had taken over. They were just...everywhere. It also had a large outside jaccuzzi. I remember lifting the lid of this jaccuzzi and screaming. The inside was teeming with geckos, gecko eggs, and gecko skeletons. I love finding them, even the skeletons, but finding them in such a quantity and in such a manner would give anyone a bit of a shock. Later, I got bored and went outside. I found a dead crab shell. Actually, I found many, but this was the only one with the majority of the shell intact. So I brought it home! I got in the van, the very back (I always sat in the very back. Don't know why.) and placed it in the little arm rest container. Well, it was a hot day that day. Add the factor that the air conditioner in this van wasn't working, and you have some real heat building up in there. Soon a foul smell began to circulate through the car, slowly but surely. We all held our noses and searched for the source of the smell. Then, I opened up the container with the crab shell, and sheepishly grinned. My crab shell was mostly intact for a reason, I later found out. Some of the insides were still alive and stink rotting. Ohhh...it took weeks for that car to de-funk-ify...

The last thing I can remember about this part of my life was our transition to a hotel on the other side of the island. This hotel place was...kind of creepy. It was yellow and not very kept. Holly and I shared a bed that was about half the size of a twin...so all I remember was taking turns falling off the bed as we lay there, trying to stay as still as possible, and holding on for dear sleep to the edge of the bed. This hotel also had a pool. Not a great pool, but for being five, I found it very fun. I have no recollection of exactly how long we stayed there, but what gave me panic was the fact that my mom suggested STAYING there. For KEEPS. *shudders*

Mom, that was a shady part of town. Just sayin'.

Anyways. Sorry for the selfish post. (though aren't they all selfish?) I had to gratify my need to write about myself and my experiences. Even the lame ones. ;)

ps. that little red and green wagon has been through all four of us Birdsong girls.