Where all the trauma began

I’ve got to be out of things to blog about if I’m answering questions about childhood. Gah.

Reader Poll Monday:

1. What was the worst nickname you had as a child?
My mom had a million of them for me. I don’t know that I minded them as much as I said I did, but her little made-up songs about me used to grate on my widdle nerves. She still calls me Lucy. I don’t know if it were a “Peanuts” thing or what, but it’s the only name I’ve allowed to survive the years. Mostly because she won’t let go of it!

2. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you at school?
I know there were plenty of things, but I have blocked out my formative years so well that I honestly cannot recall anything off the top of my head. Whenever bad things would happen, I would imagine a chalkboard in my head, whereupon I’d write the terrible thing. And then I’d painstakingly erase it. And seriously? It worked.

3. What was your most memorable haircut?
I had long, thick, flowing jet-black ringlets up until age 6. God, I used to hate my hair as a child — too much to lug around. And I hated the plastic/foam pink rollers my mom made me sleep in. But damn, I was cute. 😉

4. Which fashion trend makes you cringe when you look at old pictures?
I grew up in the ’80s. I don’t have a picture I DO like!

5. Who was your first celebrity crush?
Scott Baio. And I totally met him at the Pittsburgh convention center. His hand got tired from all the autograph signing he did, so when he got to me, he shook my hand. I was in lurrvvee.

6. What was the first concert you attended?
Mom and I (!) slept outside for two nights in a row to get tickets to Bon Jovi and to Motley Crue (two separate shows). Man did I get pneumonia (as I had to be cute as I was parked outside and dressed in hoochie mama rock ‘n roll wear and not in, oh, a coat).

7. Were you ever in a school play or recital? What was your role?
I was a munchkin in fifth grade in “The Wizard of Oz.”

8. What was your favorite Halloween costume?
Let’s see, that would be before the razor-blades-in-apples scandal that hit when I was in third grade, I believe. So Halloween? Sucked. But I did dress up as a Hershey kiss a couple of years ago. That was the most comfortable costume ever, all soft and foamy and ridiculously roomy. Although, the hat looked like a silver version of a Klan hat. (Well, if their dunce cap had a white ribbon with “Hershey’s” printed on it. Heh. There is some irony in that statement, isn’t there?) I vaguely remember people calling me the “KKK Kiss”!

9. What did you want to be when you grew up?
Barbie. That bitch could do everything.

I have always wanted to be a novelist. I used to read all my books over and over again, and pretty soon I just got bored with them and decided to write my own. I liked spending the days dreaming and the nights scribbling by moonlight lest anyone know I was awake.

10. What was your favorite cartoon?
You mean, back when we had cartoons on Saturday mornings? “Garfield and Friends,” of course! And as I got older, “Space Ghost” and “South Park.”

One Lonely Response to Where all the trauma began

  1. Boutros :

    Hee. Thanks for this. I had to borrow for my own entry.