Childhood
I am the first of three girls. I was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri near St. Louis. From there we moved to
Michigan when I was in second grade. This is the state I call my home. Most of my youth I lived in Traverse
City. This is a beautiful area situated at the tip of the little finger as one looks at the Michigan mitt. Here
I learned to appreciate the beauty of the outdoors, this is still a very important part of my personality. In
my early teens we lived on a small lake. I have many vivid memories of fun and laughter. My family shared out
on the water or on the beach late at night with the fire still burning - roasting marshmallows.
My father is a mortgage banker, and always has been in banking. It was always very important to him that I
liked and excelled in math and related subjects - probably one reason I decided to major in Economics and
Management in college. During my childhood my mother was a stay-at-home mom. She was very active in the
community and volunteered both at Church and at my school. This is a value that I have tried to emulate, giving
back to the community through volunteerism. Most of my school memories are from Traverse City. The grade school
I attended was small.
One of my fondest memories from grade school was when I was in sixth grade, for two reasons. One, my sister
was now in attendance at the same school! How proud I was of her. Also that year the kindergarten teacher, Mrs.
Nelson asked me if I'd like to work for her after school. I would help straighten the classroom and grade
papers and things like that. Mrs. Nelson was a wonderful lady, in her 60's at the time. She lived down the
street from us. After school, and being picking up, we would walk home together, she was always interested in
hearing about my day. At the end of my 6th year, she gave me a book for my help called Balloon. Even at that
time, I dreamed about reading it to my children and telling the wonderful story of Mrs. Nelson.
One of my most vivid memories from childhood happened when I was a young teenager. It was Christmas (my
favorite time of year!). My parents always made us wait at the top of the stairs. We could wake them up when we
woke up...but they had to turn on the tree lights and get the coffee going. This time for me and my sisters,
was so exciting ... all that anticipation!!!
Then when they were ready they would stand at the bottom of the stairs (with the camera) and yell that they
were ready for us to come down. We three would dash down the stairs and run into the living room where Santa
had left the gifts.
This particular year, Santa had brought cross country skis for everyone ... all 5 of us. We busily tried on
boots, skis, and posed for many pictures. We finished with the rest of our Christmas traditions, opening our
stocking gifts and the gifts under the tree. Then having brunch.
But this year as soon as brunch was over, we all hurried off to our rooms to change and get ready for our
ski trip out that afternoon. We went out skiing (being in Traverse City, snow was not a problem on Christmas
day). Mom and Dad had prepared a lunch in a backpack, complete with hot cream of tomato soup. We skied for
awhile,(the first time for all of us to be on skis). We stopped and had lunch on a fallen tree. Then we got up
to ski back to the car.
On the way back the path came to a fork, all of us girls, my Mom, my sisters and myself took the long way
down. My father chose the straight down way! He let us get to the bottom so we could watch. He started down the
hill, going faster and faster, loosing control by the time he was half way down , his poles were flying in
every direction, and a snowmobile had started up the hill. By the time they saw each other , it was too late
for the snowmobiler to avoid my dad. The snowmobile had to make a sharp turn... so sharp, in fact, that the
rider fell off his snowmobile and just laid there, hitting the snow with his fist as my dad skied into a snow
bank. No one was hurt, but we all laughed about it for a long, long time. This day was a very happy, funny
memory ... One that my whole family shares together.
As a child, I was the "typical little girl". I loved to play with dolls, play house, school, other quilt
games. I liked to color, read, and rock my baby dolls. I liked many kinds of quite play without getting dirty.
As a teenager, I was more outgoing. I enjoyed being with friends, going to football games, dances. I have to
admit, I was still feminine but I was really interested in being outside and socially involved with
schoolmates.
I had a good friend, Carolyn H. who, one summer, taught me how to play football. Carolyn was the last of a
whole line of boys and was a tomboy from the word go. I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow one summer,
Carolyn taught me how to have fun in a more outgoing style (even getting dirty!). And I taught her it was fun
to play the way I liked to play. That next school year, Carolyn was seen wearing a skirt to school a couple of
times and I wore Levi corduroy slacks. That was a big deal!
