mrs-roboto's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In A Child's Mind The impending war has been weighing very heavily on my mind these days. I'm opposed to it as you might have guessed but more so than that I'm terrified of just the idea of war. I was thinking about a certain episode from my childhood. Remember me discussing my cousin? The one who got married? She plays a big part in this story. A little background information if you will. On Friday nights, throughout the better part of the 70's and 80's, my parents and Dee's parents would meet up for rousing games of poker and beer drinking. This means the kids (me and Dee specifically) would be fed pizza and allowed to drink vast quantities of Pepsi while being baby-sat by the television. Dee is two years older than I am and although that's no big deal now, the difference between five and seven is tremendous. To me, Dee was worldly and brilliant. She introduced me to the joys of Kiss, taught me how to use a curling iron to "flip" my hair, and gave me my first real talk about the facts of life ("a boy lies on top of a girl in bed and they make a baby" - when I later asked my mother if this was true she said "it's entirely possible"). Anything Dee said was gospel for me. If Dee wore feathered roach clips in her hair, I wore them too. If Dee got a bike with a banana seat, I had to have one as well. If Dee went to the store, I followed a few steps behind. Basically, you could say I idolized her every move and Dee was well aware of this. She could get me to anything for her. If she needed a refill on her drink, I'd go to the kitchen and get it. If she wanted her clothes folded I'd do that too. I'd clean her room and polish her shoes and adore her presence. All week I'd looked forward to Friday nights when we'd get to hang out. On one particular Friday evening in the winter of 1980, Dee and I sat watching television. We mostly watched the Dukes of Hazard and Dallas and other popular shows of the day. Certainly these shows were a little beyond us in term of our years but our parents were otherwise occupied. Bring on the sex, violence, and adult situations!!! We'd usually mimic the dates and fights and drama at a later date, acting them out for our friends whose parents actually kept an eye on them. But back to that night; there was some sort of a news broadcast on. Beats me as to what channel we were watching but President Carter came on and spoke for a good long time about the Soviets and the evil they were capable of. To me, it was all gibberish. I really wanted to watch Chips as my boyfriend Eric Estrada was going to be on any minute. But Dee refused to change the channel. She shushed me when I asked her to switch channels and leaned in intently towards the screen. It seemed like ages before Carter disappeared and Dee turned off the TV. "What are you doing," I asked. "I want to see Eric!" "Did you hear a word the president said 'Lil Miss? Do you understand that we are about to go to war with Russia? That the Communists are going to get us? That we're going to die?" Like I said, I have almost no recollection of what Carter actually said. I only remember what Dee told me. She elaborated about Russia. She told me about a nuclear bomb they supposedly had and how when it was dropped on America, only roaches would survive. Why roaches, I asked? Well, because they can go underground, Dee explained. Why can't we go underground, I wanted know. Well, maybe we can, Dee said. So it was that we got two shovels and headed out to dig a tunnel. Sadly, growing up in New York there is little soil to be found. My cousins yard was all cement and above the ground pool. There was no tree strip out front. We ventured to the end of the block and across a two lane highway to a circular traffic donut where we found a patch of earth and much dog excrement and we began to dig our survival tunnel. I wonder what the drivers passing by thought of two young kids out on a Friday night digging a hole in the earth? I have no idea how long it took our parents to come and find us. An hour, maybe two? I remember being cold and scared and feeling as if the world were really ending. I do remember my uncles response to our efforts. "You know you're gonna die anyway? The Commies have lasers that detect little girls who live in holes and they'll come and bury you alive." I know I promised 50 more fun-filled facts but I have yet to get to it. Some day soon though, okay? 12:51 p.m. - 2003-02-25 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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