Like my last five photos, this week’s selection also shows me with dolls, real (my baby sister Moira) and play ones. Dolls in all forms were a huge part of my childhood. Baby dolls. Stuffed toys. Paper Dolls. When Moira got older, she and I spent hours making up stories for our various dolls, who assumed all kinds of characters. Sometimes we were the dolls, as we talked out storylines, especially at night before falling asleep. I’m convinced this type of play is the root of my adult storytelling and the main reason that what I like writing most is dialogue. 

Many thanks to author Mahrie G. Reid, who tagged me with a Very Inspiring Blog Award. I discovered this tag three weeks after the fact when I was checking out Mahrie’s website in connection with a guest blog post she has asked me to write for our baby boomer panel at Calgary’s When Words Collide writing conference this August. I look forward to getting to know Mahrie on this panel as we discuss Baby Boomer Lit – An Overlooked Market – Romance, Mystery and more.

By accepting this prestigious blog award, I am required to:

Link back to the person who nominated me for the award

Display the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

Reveal 7 things about myself

Nominate others to receive the award and continue the fun!

Here goes:

Seven Random Facts about Me

1. My fondest, childhood memories were summer holidays spent in the fishing village where my father grew up, on Deer Island, New Brunswick.

2. As a child, I took ballet and piano lessons and I still enjoy singing and Zumba.

3. I was in three high school musicals, with a solo part in Oliver!

4. During my foolish youth, I hitchiked through all ten Canadian provinces.

5. My food weaknesses are fudge and barbecue chips.

6. My ten years working as an insurance claims examiner inspired my mystery novel protagonist, insurance adjuster Paula Savard.

7. Paula’s name came from my first best friend, Paula Keyfitz, who moved away to Pittsburg after grade one. Where are you now, Paula? To confirm that I had spelled spelled her surname right, I Googled Paula K. and might have found her!

Lastly, I nominate the following writers to join in the fun:

Shaun Hunter , essay and memoir writer; expert Tweeter.

Pamela McDowell, prolific author of Ospreys in Danger and numerous non-fiction children’s books

Lori Hahnel , author of three fiction books including the upcoming After You’ve Gone, musician and Facebook maven

Rona Altrows , author, editor and Star Trek fan.

Kevin Glew, writer, blogger and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame guide.

I hope you choose to participate. What do we not know about you?

My next five photos include three of me with dolls. One was my 2nd birthday gift; two are of the real life doll that entered our home shortly before that birthday — my baby sister, Moira. One picture shows me touching her gingerly.

I wonder what I thought of this doll that moved, sqwacked and cried on her own. Another picture shows her looking like a present under the tree. She was likely more intriguing that whatever was in that box I’m unwrapping and Moira — not those other gifts – was with me for the longer haul.

The next five childhood pictures selected randomly from the box included two of toddler me with a book. I expect my parents thought it was cute to photograph me ‘reading’ before I could actually read.

I’m sure I didn’t have the numbers and variety of picture books that children today enjoy. In fact, for bedtime stories I only remember one – a book of poems my sister and I recited with my father. It seems to me we read this one book over and over. The poems were classics that included: “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Turtle Soup” from Alice in Wonderland — Beautiful soup so rich and green — “Who Killed Cock Robin?” and “The Keeper.” That latter we sang in two voices:
“Jackie boy?”
“Master?”
“Sing you well?”
“Very well.”
At some point in my childhood, one of us five siblings coined the phrase “All gone the book” when we got to the end of a story. This became one of our family catch-phrases when a book was finished.

But, of course, a book is never over. The story or poem stays with us forever.
“Hey down.”
“Hoe down.”
“Derry derry down.”
“Among the leaves so green-o.”

My brother inherited our family photo albums. He has set himself the huge project of scanning and distributing the pictures in case his house burns down. He’s now finished the oldest album’s 187 photos and sent me the original hard copies of ones featuring me, which is most them since I was the first and most photographed child in our family.

Rather than store the photos in a box placed out of sight until I’m ready to downsize, I plan to display them in my writing den in batches of five to look at for a period of time. The photos will be my blogging project through the summer — and a trip down memory lane.

The first five photos, randomy plucked from the box, are ones of me at around age two-three, when our family rented a bungalow on Pine Beach Boulvard in the Montreal suburb of Dorval.

Two of the photos show me with my first friend, Denise, who lived next door. I don’t really remember Denise, although I have a vague memory of her tied to a tree in her front yard. This was because Denise had habit of running onto the street, and Pine Beach had a lot of traffic.  Her being tied up likely struck me as interesting because I was a more cautious child who wouldn’t have run onto the street. I remember the first time I left our property on my own I cut through back yards to get to my destination rather than take the busy road.

Well, that might not have been my first venture out. My parents used to talk about Denise’s other habit of taking her clothes off. To stop her doing this, her parents put her clothes on inside out. One day Denise managed to strip and got me to do the same. The two of us ran up naked to the store on Pine Beach corner, where her father worked.

Denise moved away when I was around four years old. I wonder what she’s up to these days.