When I Was A Kid Survey

You as a kid

Sum yourself up

Were you a good kid? Yeah, I think so.  But I definitely had my moments.
Were you quiet or noisy? Both, but probably more noisy.
Did you get along with your parents? It’d depend.
Were you raised by both parents? Yep.
Were you closer to one or the other? When I was a kid, I was closer to my dad.
Did you have pets? Always.
Who was your best friend? Dolly and James.
How did you dress? Like a tomboy.

Material Stuff

What was your favourite toy? Books, my Popples, my Ghostbuster action figures, my Ninja Turtle action figures, Barbies . . .
Did you play with gender appropriate toys? Gender appropriate? You’ve gotta be kidding me!
Did you have a glow worm? Unfortunately, no.
Did you have matchbox cars? Nope.
Did you have barbies? I still have Barbies, though I haven’t bought one since I was about twelve.
Did you have stuffed animals? How many?
Did you have My Little Ponies? Of course.
Carebears? Care Bear stare!!!
That creepy bear that read books? Huh?
Dinosaurs? Yep.
Colorforms? I had a Lady Lovely Locks one, a Ghostbusters one, a Mickey and Minnie one . . .
Ninja Turtles? Definitely!!!
Power Rangers? Ugh, no!
Batman? The figures from Burger King . . .
X-Men? Nope.
Did you get any kids magazines? Nope.  Wait, I’m wrong, I have some Ninja Turtle ones.
Did you read comics? I read the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Best, and Aladdin comics for awhile.

Games and stuff

Did you climb trees? Lol, I still climb trees!  One of the trees in my yard is called, to this day, "my favorite climbing tree."
Pretend to go to war? Pretend?  More like actually have "wars" with this guy who lived down the street.
Act out movies and such? Not movies, but the Legend of Zelda TV show.  We’d make up our own scenes and all that.
Play in a sandbox? Heck, yeah!!!  Sand castles, galore!!
Make mudpies? I played in mud, sometimes, but I don;t think I ever did that.
Have imaginary friends? Lol, when I was a kid, Egon and Darth Vader were my imaginary friends.
Play with neighborhood kids? Of course.  Me, James, Tommy, and Corey.
Play with pets? Y’think?
Did you play stupid board games when it rained? Probably.  I’d also read ghost stories, or just talk to James over a Cup O Noodle.
Did you pretend to be a grownup? When I would play dress-up.

Tough Stuff

Were you beaten up as a kid? Until I was ten, every argument me and James had led to a fistfight.
Did you have to deal with the death of anyone you knew? Only pets.
Did you have a near death experience? Nope.
Did you ever have to stay away from your parents for a long time? No more than a night.
Were you one of those kids that no one liked? I was the school’s scapegoat.  Everyone made fun of me because they knew they could.  It wasn’t until high school when I got into the Beatles that I finally figured, "You know what?  They wanna make fun of something, let’s give them something to make fun of."
Did you get made fun of? All the time.

Bad stuff you did

Did you ever make messes on purpose? Probably.
Steal anything? A couple little things from stores.
Tell lies? What kid doesn’t?.
Run away? I wanted to.
Beat someone up? Yep.
Break stuff? A lot of stuff hat used to be in the living room.
Throw tantrums? Plenty of times.
Go on the roof? Not the house roof, but the roof on my dad’s studio.
Bite people? I bit Hames once, and he actually started to cry.  I think we were about four at the time and my mom made me apologize.
Throw stuff inside the house? Yep, and I still do.
Hit your friends? Like I said, every time me and James would argue, it would turn into a fist fight.
Cut in line? Who hasn’t?

Getting in trouble

Did you get yelled at a lot? When my parents thought I’d done something, or they wanted me to be quiet, or clean my room, or whatever.
Did you get sent to your room? Yeah.
Get stuff taken away? Yep.
Sent to the corner? Nope.
Grounded? Only a couple times.
Did you get spanked? Yep.
Did you ever get your mouth washed out? I don’t think my mom ever did that one to me.
Any weird punishments? I know there’s probably something, but I can’t recall.

Family life

Did you have siblings? Nope.
Did you have to share a room? Nope.
Did your parents work? My dad worked in New York until I was around eight or so and my mo was basically a housewife, but she did work as a substitute teacher and at a Cumberland Farms while  was growing up.
Did you have babysitters? When I was too young to remember.  Usually my parents brought me with them.
Did you like them? Yeah, uh, too young to remember?
Were you close with your cousins? I think I could be now.  I didn’t have any cousins that I saw with any regularity, but Darnell I could see really getting along with.  (I can’t believe he’s freakin’ 14!!! I remember him when he was a year and a freakin’ half old!!!!)

Fun places

Did you ever go to amusment parks? Keansburg Amusement Park and Great Adventure.
Disney? When I was about ten cells old and my mom didn’t know she was pregnant.
Did you go to McDonalds and get Happy Meals? Of course!!
DZ? Discovery Zone!!  That place was awesome!!!
The zoo? The Staten Island zoo was where I saw my first ground hog.
What other places were fun when you were a kid? I went to the circus several times growing up.  That was always great.

As a kid…

What was the best thing ever? Uh . . .
The worst thing? Wanting to grow up so fast.
Did you get report cards? Yeah.
Did you do well on them? Eh . . .  It’d largely depend on the teacher and how much I liked them.
Did you get notes home from school? Yep.
Did you ever do anything creepy? Well, creepy is in the eye of the beholder.
Did you do anything that seems innapropriate now? Nothing comes to mind.
Who was your favourite person you knew? Nana.
Your hero? I don’t think I had any heroes hen I was a kid.
What did you want to be when you grew up? An actress.
Who was your favourite teacher? Mrs. Lee, Mr. Hernandez, and Mr. Barth.
Your least favourite? Mrs. Gardner and Mrs. Rizzo.

When you have kids

What will you do that your parents didn’t? I will actually do the things I promise my kids I will.  When I was about four or five, my mom priomised to make me these Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls like the onesmy aunt has that are still out in Washington. You know, I’m still waiting for those dolls.
What won’t you do that your parents did? If myself or my husband wanted to leave, I wouldn’t basically say to the kid that hey, one of us is gonna leave and not come back unless you apologize.  And I’ll never give them the double meaning things my parents tried to instill in me.  "You should never care whatanyone else thinks."  "Clean your room, what the Hell are our guests gonna think if they see this!"

How you were brought up

Were you brought up in a religion? I was raised Catholic, but ask me how much of it I retained.
Were you taught to respect authority? Largely, I suppose I was.
Were you taught to be accepting of differences? Yep, though my parents never actually sat me down and were like, "Okay, these are these people, these are those people, we’re this kind of people . . ."  You know?  It was basically an underlying current of no one is superior or inferior because of background/skin color.

In summary

Did you have a good childhood? For the most part, I think so.
Did your parents do a good job raising you? More like once I decided to be my own person, they’ve done an okay job not getting in my way.
Did you turn out like you thought you would? Not at all.  Though I’m happy being who I am.
Did you turn out like your parents thought you would? I doubt it.  I think my dad always wanted me to have my own mind, but my mom wanted me to be a submissive little girl who always fit in and never put a toe out of line.