Where I'm from

I am from the big blue quilt, from Velveeta "cheese" and four-inch thick sandwhiches loaded with MiracleWhip I made for myself after playing outside all afternoon.

I am from the red and white rambler on 75th street; the bedroom I painted purple from whose window I watched the evergreen trees waving in the wind, their branches changing shape in the shadowy moonlit night to look like wolves or flying birds.

I am from the huge thistles we collected from the vacant lot and brought back to Mom to put in a vase, the plum and cherry trees in the back yard whose branches I climbed and whose fruit I consumed.

I am from looking at the night lights of the city and appreciating the clouds in the sky with my Mom; and my little sister and I crinkling up our pug noses when we giggle, from feeding ducks with Gramma Gladys and sitting on her counter eating cinnamon toast while she mopped the kitchen floor on hands and knees, and swinging on the branches of the willow tree, being Cheetah to my brother's Tarzan.

I am from high cheekbones and stick-straight thick hair. From "You are built just like your Gramma." and "You can do anything you want to if you set your mind to it."

I am from Seventh Day Adventists and Methodists; Vacation Bible School, and Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. From keeping the Sabbath on Saturdays and singing Bible songs with a family of gypsies.

I'm from Tillamook Oregon and the Umatilla tribes of Pendleton, from the Tillamook Cheese Factory and walks to 7-11 with my sister for Slurpees.

From the story of how I was born so many weeks early and wasn't supposed to live, and was small enough to fit in a shoe box, and how I slept for the first year of my life on my mom or dad's chest; from moving the furniture and rolling up the rugs on weekend nights and dancing on top of my dad's feet to Glenn Miller, and getting a lesson from my mom on how to "shimmy" to Elvis or Rockin' Robin.

I am from trips to Oregon to visit my grandparents, from the family pictures displayed on my mother's hallway walls, from playing down the dead-end road with my sister, from traveling to Europe all by myself, from so many children whose nanny or teacher I have been; from meeting my true love at work and trying to memorize the names and birth order of his 9 siblings.

I am from the cabin under the mountain where my first child was born, from the sounds of music wafting through my farmhouse. From the future I know not yet.

Hat tip to Amy, and Dy, and directions for doing one of your own here. If *I* can do it, so can you! Let me know if you do it, or put it in my comments if you don't have a blog.