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Mead Foot

10/26/2014

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That was the name of the street we lived on in that ridiculously famous city.  It is a British name.  Mead Foot…

I thought it was Meat Foot.  Well…I was only two when we lived there.

I can still remember the house.

There was a small entry that opened up directly into the living room.  To your immediate left was a hallway that took you to three bedrooms.  The first one on the left was our playroom.  (This is where I told my first lie.)

The second one on the left was our bedroom.  I shared a room with Maria.  There was a lot of giggling.  And after my parents would say good night and turn out the light, I would promptly get out of bed, climb the yellow shelves, turn on the light, and jump into Maria’s bed as quickly as I could.

And then my parents would come down the hallway, put me back in my bed, turn off the light and tell me to go to sleep.  This was, of course, repeated several times a night.  Eventually, I learned to just leave the light off.  This way I could sleep with her and my parents wouldn’t know until the morning.

(I don’t think they minded.)

Back to the living room…

There was a piano on the wall next to the front door and two sofas.  The sofas had huge red flowers on them.  (I decided then that I didn’t like large floral patterned things.)

As you walked into the living room, the kitchen was to your right.  We had an avocado green fridge.  And there was only room enough for the kitchen table.
And that’s it.  That was our house.  One living area, three small bedrooms, and a kitchen only slightly bigger than your half bath.  But it was gigantic to me.

And it was here where I learned how to lie, that the color red was going to cause problems, and that giggling was loads of fun.
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October 14, 1976

10/19/2014

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I was exactly fourteen months old on this day.  I have no recollection of it, but it was the first “most important” day in my life apparently.

It was the day she was born.

Her name is…well…let’s call her…Maria.  She was born on a Thursday, in a city that is famous for no reason at all.  Living in Texas for thirty four years still hasn’t provided me with any insight into why that city became so famous.  But…nevertheless…it is.  And we shall endure it.

Maria has black hair, as do her parents, brown eyes, like her father, and an angelic face that prompted the nickname “china doll” by a particularly special person.

She was born with the cord around her neck, quite lucky to have lived through the birth, and was brought to a small house of a stay-at-home mother and a hard-working father.

That fourteen month old, Kara is my name, (But when I was younger, I preferred Victoria.  Isn’t it a grand and feminine-sounding name?), is red-headed, lively, and already talking. I knew not what to expect when my mother and father came home, but I surely hadn’t planned on a sister.

What is a sister anyway, I wondered?

Well, holy cow, it was a baby doll that actually moved!!  So forget those fake ones!

And she cried, too!  And if you smiled just right or made the right noises, she might smile and coo back at you.  And you could bring your mother a diaper when she needed to be changed and chatter at her to keep her from moving all over the place.  Of course, you didn’t know you were inadvertently helping your mother by chattering, you just chattered.  Because certainly this little sister wanted to hear everything you had to say.

She would also, of course, want to do everything you would want to and play with every toy you thought worthy of your time.

But it wouldn’t be long before I understood that, while a little sister provided me with better entertainment than any toy I’d encountered thus far, she was someone I would share my life with.  Someone I would grow up with.  Someone I would love.  And, most importantly, someone I would learn from…as long as I had the wisdom to believe it and the courage to admit it.
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    Kara O'Neal

    An author who has too much to say is dangerous.

    The subjects on this blog:


    Monday Memories -- My Childhood

    Wednesday Words -- Books!

    To be a guest on my blog:

    Contact: kara@karaoneal.com

    Monday Memories: Cast

    Kara -- Me
    Maria -- sister
    Wendy -- sister
    Bill -- brother

    M'Lynn -- mother
    Drummond -- father

    Grace -- mother's redheaded friend
    Liam -- Grace's husband
    Gorgeous (Georgie) -- oldest son and friend
    Phillip -- middle son and friend
    Andrew -- last child and friend

    Jo -- mother's "big idea" friend
    Noah -- Jo's husband who builds things
    Jack -- oldest son and friend
    Roxi -- middle daughter and friend
    Lela -- last child and friend

    Alex -- friend who travels the country and lives in Dallas
    Blossom -- friend who lives in Dallas and sells houses

    Miss Holly -- next door neighbor
    Kirk -- middle son
    Scotty -- youngest son

    Lou -- uncle on my dad's side who likes baseball
    Evaline -- my dad's sister who's crazy funny
    Luke -- oldest son and my cousin
    Han -- younger son and my cousin

    Clark -- my mother's brother who bleeds maroon

    Alexander -- my eldest cousin on my dad's side

    Dawn -- cousin on my dad's side that is the same age as Maria

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