Here's a break from the "heavy" stuff. I try to keep my promises, although sometimes something happens where I can't, but I said that my next post would be lighter, so here it is.
I had a pretty nice childhood and adolescence. Of course, there's always something that might have been better, but over all, I had it pretty good.
The first picture (above) is of my cabin-mates and counselor at camp the summer of 1973, when I was 13. We (my brothers too) went to church camp every year from when we became eligible, which was something like 3rd grade. It was a week in the summer and brought together young people from our sister churches around the state. We always had a lot of fun at camp and it was also a chance to step back and grow spiritually too. It was a time to re-commit ourselves to Christ and consciously choose to live for Him.
But we also had crafts, various competitions, swimming and boating, and as we got older water skiing was also an option. It was a lot of fun. I'm the girl at the end on the left with the short blond hair.
Holidays were also fun times. I think many families have a lot of drama (disagreements, or whatever) around holiday gatherings, but we didn't. Usually we alternated spending Christmas in Seattle with us and Dad's family and other years in British Columbia with Mom's family. Either way it was a pleasant time. It was fun to see the cousins and participate in all the festivities.In this picture (above) I'm 16 and decorating the Christmas tree. I'm also wearing a smock that I sewed. I used to sew a lot and was reasonably accomplished. I even made at least one lined suit that I can remember, made of Pendelton wool. This smock you see here wasn't anything particularly special though.
The above picture is of me and a very good friend coloring in a Doodle Art poster. I had 2 of them and this one here is the one of a big doll house with dolls from around the world. I had another one that was an ornate bouquet of flowers. I had both laminated, but I don't have them any more.
This friend in the picture went to my church, but her family moved to the Olympia, WA area, so when I got a car (my parents sold me an old-but-good one they had) I would drive down and spend weekends with her. This was one such weekend in Jan. 1977. Later I was the maid of honor in her wedding.
So you can see, at least a little here, that I had a pretty nice growing up. I was pretty happy and had no major problems with anything. My relationships were fine, my school was okay, there wasn't really anything to give a hint of problems to come. And I don't really think I was very equipped to deal with them either coming out of this sort of idyllic life, which lasted at least through my undergraduate years, till I was 22. From 22 to 25 I had it hard financially, but other than that things were okay still, although I was beginning to get some hints of problems to come and it started affecting how I related to my parents. But until then, as these pictures show, life was really pretty great.
