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Here is something fun to do

    By 8-year-old Ann

    Take off Chatty Cathy’s mustard colored knitted dress that Granny made and wrap her clothes in Kleenex. Take off Kissing Barbie’s mustard colored scarf that Granny made and wrap it in Kleenex. Put these gifts under the orange desk chair. My mom says my matching curtains, bedspread, and wallpaper colors are called mustard, orange, and olive colors. One day I will have to make my lip-shaped pillow in home ec out of mustard corduroy because that is all we can find in the basement. Go watch Love Connection and eat three bowls of Cookie Crisp. Wake up beautiful daughters and say “Merry Christmas.” Let them unwrap their presents. Take Chatty Cathy’s abdomen disc out and put it in ten times. Pull the string so she says “Willllllyoooooouubeeemahhhfreeehn?” Wish you hadn’t cut her hair, because she does not look good. Punish her by giving her a time out, while you take Kissing Barbie and go watch The Peoples Court. Do several amazing couch routines, because you are great at the ideas of gymnastics. Put on your sister’s fancy rose ballet outfit and deliver a soliloquy entitled “Where am I , Where are my parents” in front of the floor to ceiling mirrors in the living room. Try to see what you look like when you are sleeping. When you hear loud laughter proceed directly to your room, lock the door and sing Tomorrow Tomorrow because you are just as good as Aileen Quinn. She looks so weird in that Annie wig that it makes you uncomfortable. Wish you could stop looking at her. Read Ramona Quimby and repeat Jeezus Beezus over and over again. Go drink water out of a Dixie cup in the bathroom, and film a commercial in the mirror for Natural Nature Drink. Go ride your bike in circles and pretend to drop your beautiful daughters off at school over and over again. Parking is great. Go inside to set the table even though you hate it so much.

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    Thank you so much to NapWarden for my blog redesign! Check out her blog and design site. I’ve really enjoyed working with her (she also did my Ann Imig website–see tab above).

    Thanks to everyone who delurked and commented last week. It was thrilling to see such a response. I will make my donation this week. I think I have a sponsor or two planning to match me. Stay tuned for details…

    0 thoughts on “Here is something fun to do”

    1. Frau

      Love it…..your flash back brought back bad memories of my pixie haircut! Love dancing in my sister sequin ballet outfit it was puke green! Love the new look very nice.

    5. Jenn Thorson

      Oh boy, Ann, I feel I lived this, but with different dolls… er, daughters.

      PS- Mom was a HUGE fan of the harvest colors and refused to let go. We lived for decades in a very mustard, orange, avocado and coffee-colored world. 🙂

    9. Becky

      1) LOVE LOVE LOVE the new blog and your website. Nap Warden did an awesome job.
      2) This post made me truly laugh out loud as I totally remember vividly doing half that stuff. Especially the couch routines.

    11. MommaKiss

      just thought I’d say hi so I’m not lurking – can’t comment on the dolls as I didn’t have them! I was a victim of ‘boy’ hand me downs, therefore we played with a lot of G.I.Joe and A Team and Storm Troopers.

    12. Kate Coveny Hood

      You were a whirlwind! I think I would have spent that entire episode in my room, reading Little House on the Prairie.

      Luckily – we escaped the ’70s colors in my home. My mom was a decorator, and her personal style eschewed the “harvest colors”. Notice they’re back though.

      I never really liked Aileen Quinn as Annie either. I thought that bald guy totally ruined her hair when he took her in. Must have been hair envy.

    22. Heather of the EO

      Watch neighbor girl perform a routine in her driveway to Built This City and snicker behind a tree. Go inside and watch Days of Our Lives. Wonder how Hope Williams Brady does that thing with her eyebrow. Eat all the marshmallows out of Lucky Charms for lunch. Go look for Ho-Hos and find only one left and then feel really glad about snagging it before sister. Peel chocolate coating off ho-ho and then unroll it. Eat like flatbread.

      Oh, I’m sorry Ann…I couldn’t help it. You got me started. And also, I left my face off through this whole post. You rock.

    24. Jill

      That? Is awesome! I especially love the couch routines because you are so good at the “ideas” of gymnastics! I just wish I could remember being 8… that was the year my parents divorced so everything’s a little muddled, you know?

    28. MommyTime

      Do several amazing couch routines, because you are great at the ideas of gymnastics.

      This is perhaps the most perfect sentence I have ever read for capturing the thoughts in a 8-year-old mind. I was especially fantastic at the ideas of ice-skating and bare-back-circus-horse riding (as practiced on the hard-plastic spring horse in our basement to tunes twinging out of our old record player).

      And now, I think I might have to go and write my own post. Thank you for the delicious memories.

    29. Not The Rockefellers

      Ann
      You clean up nice 🙂

      And some of those were my 8 year old flashbacks
      I was great at the ideas of a lot of things plus I could do a cartwheel way better than Liz! Everybody said so… But nobody said so to her face because they thought she was hot stuff cause she went to the John Denver concert at the Garden State Art Center. Stupid flat leavers…

      Heh

      Peace ~ Rene

    32. stepalicious

      Love the new Bloggy design! Very cool! Fun post too…had to laugh at the kleenex wrapped doll clothes! I did it too…and Lil’ Z had taken up the task! Little Kleenex packages hidden all over the house!

      And I filmed hair commercials in the mirror…

      Smoochies!

    33. Jen

      Mustard, avocado and olive…ooh and burnt orange! My daughter wraps all her dolls in Kleenex, don’t know where she learned how to do that, certainly not from me.

    34. The mad woman behind the blog

      This is what I missed by not having cable, cereal w/ sugar or any name-brand toys? Damn you Mother! Though I do think I read every thing Beverly Cleary ever wrote.

      Thank you for taking me back. Aah, the orange and mustard yellows, the color of my favorite sheets from childhood. Love it.

    37. dadwhowrites

      I’ve a suspicion that the inside of my Little Elf’s head sounds rather like this (though with UK cultural reference points) but as she can’t talk yet, she can’t tell me. But it definitely *looks* like she’s got a similar monologue going…