1976 – 1977

We had my birthday this year at Woolorock — I’d been here a few times before. It has a lot of Indian artifacts (*using Indian rather than Native American because I’m writing in a period voice) as well as a stuffed buffalo named “Buffo” who “eats” your trash. There’s actually a vacuum hose inside his mouth, so you just bring your Lik’m Aid wrapper to his mouth and he sucks it up. Like everybody from Oklahoma my dad’s grandfather was married to a Cherokee Blackfoot woman who was supposedly related to Pocahontas. (*popping out of period here again: I kind of get how Warren thought she was part Native American — if you grew up in Oklahoma you were almost certainly told this as a child.) I’m more into being the Indian when we play Cowboys and Indians because they have much cooler costumes. Also, guns are stupid. Bow and arrow is where it’s at! My friend Terry was born on the same day as me so we had a double celebration. Terry’s a cool guy — he likes to hang upside down from the monkey bars. We had a lemonade stand outside his house and made thirty dollars so now we’re both officially rich.

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It’s the last week of first grade! I’m so excited for the summer. We’re going to Disney World! Supposedly I’ve been there before but I cannot remember it. Mom and dad are not fighting as much, so that’s good. Susan’s starting to get moody though. She has always been dad’s favorite but now it seems like he is not happy with her either? My feeling is like, big whoop! Who cares if he likes you or not? She just turned 10 which is so grown up! Susan got a pair of very cool wire-frame glasses. I wish I had wire-frame glasses instead of these dumb, thick plastic frames that make me look like a Poindexter.

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Not only did we got to Disney World, we were there for the Bicentennial. We stayed at a hotel that was in the park. Not the modern with the monorail going through it, but another one. It was great. Dad bought a lot of E tickets so we could go on the grown up rides. I was worried I’d be scared but it turns out the grown up rides are super fun. Not scary at all. Still, Country Bear Jamboree is my favorite of the whole park. We didn’t buy too much stuff. I have a Peter Pan hat with a purple feather and a Mickey Mouse shaped squeeze bottle that was filled with Hi-C. Mostly it’s just photos and memories. We’re not big on stuff — as a family. Maybe a thing or two but we don’t like to buy things we won’t use all the time. My mom says she likes to keep the house “move out ready.” Like if we had to grab a bag and go we’d be fine.

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Mom made an amazing dinner for company — fondue. It’s like, you have to cook your own food but then there were all these amazing dipping sauces. Plus I am obsessed with the can of sterno. Blue fire! We’re hosting a family from Iran who work for Phillips. They’re really great and so smart. I love their accents. They live in Tehran and were showing us pictures on dad’s slide projector of their house and the city. Dad says that we might get to move there. There’s been more talk about us going to another city. I would love to live in Iran! They have a king — or a Shah, I think. He’s on their stamps and money. If I went there I’d have to learn Farsi, the language they speak. Iran looks really beautiful from the photos they showed us. There were photos from an island and everyone was naked on the beach. They were explaining that everyone in Europe vacations in Iran. My mom got really nervous and accidentally kicked the cord out of the projector. I kind of think she did it on purpose, though.

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September and it’s on to the second grade. I’m in the advanced reading group which is kind of amazing considering I was in the remedial group last year. We watched a movie about bathing and they showed a kid’s butt in the film. Everyone went nuts. I discovered in carpool that if I say the word “Girdle” over and over everyone starts laughing. Girdle. It is a funny word and a really strange thing. My mom has girdles. We subscribed to National Geographic and the pictures from the Viking Program are all over my bedroom walls. I kind of would like to be an Astronaut. I know every kid says this but it’s true. I would like to be a space alien and have magic powers like the kids on Escape to Witch Mountain but since that’s impossible, being an astronaut is second best.

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We made Halloween decorations this year in class where we colored a whole page then painted it black and scratched off the black paint to draw witches and pumpkins. In second grade you get to help with the Haunted House and so I’m making large ghosts to hang from the ceiling. The haunted house isn’t scary but we do have a fog machine this year and a ‘scary sounds’ record that will add to the ambiance. Halloween is turning into my favorite holiday of the year because: costumes, candy, scary stories, scary decorations and the devil. All the stuff that used to freak me out when I was really little is now funny to me.

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It’s already snowing and it’s just November. Because it’s so cold we’ve been having PE in the gym instead of on the playground. One of the things we’ve been doing is spreading out a parachute, lifting it up and running underneath it while it floats down on top of us. We also have bouncy balls that we hop around on. I like indoor PE so much more than outdoor PE. First of all, we don’t have to play dumb competitive sports. I do not understand how everyone (the boys) gets so excited about who wins or loses. Oooh you won kickball during PE! Big deal? It’s not like you get a prize, a grade or money out of it. What’s the point. I like running around and playing but when there’s all these rules and everyone gets so serious it’s no fun. Like, okay, so I’m being forced to play softball because my parents want me to. I totally do not get how it works. I don’t know left from right — so when they tell me to go play left field I just kind of wander as far out toward the middle as I can and hope the ball never comes near me. I was supposed to play football but I went to one try-out and got tackled — which shattered my “Oh Mighty Isis” necklace I’d made out of rhinestones and hid under my jersey. When those rhinestones went flying everywhere I think it embarrassed my dad — so no more football for me!!

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We’re putting on the Wizard of Oz play at school and guess who got cast as the Wizard? ME! We’re building the Oz control booth out of a refrigerator box with yellow and green crepe paper as the curtains. I’m not in the play until the very end but I am the title character — so I guess you could say I’m the most important character. It’s really fun and I’m glad I don’t have to play a tree or anything “non speaking.” I know I said I wanted to be an astronaut but now I think maybe I want to be an actor? For Christmas I’m getting art supplies and an Coleco video game system. My dad loves gadgets and so do I. I didn’t have to work hard to get him to agree to the Coleco. You can tell he wanted to get it, too.

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Happy 1977! I discovered something really crazy that I never knew before. In my classroom there is a beehive built into the wall. It’s behind a curtain. There’s this window that you can look through and see right into the beehive! They have a tube that they crawl through to fly in and out. During the winter they huddle around the queen and dance to keep her warm. Our teacher says they’re lucky because they get their heat from our classroom. So they can relax during the winter. A lot of the kids were freaked out to discover they’d been sitting next to a bee hive all year and didn’t know it. I’ve been stung before and it is not a big deal. It barely even hurts. I kind of want to open the window and let the bees fly all over the classroom. I want to look like that guy in the Guinness Book of World Records who is wearing a beard of bees. That would be so cool!

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I’m already bored of my Coleco video game system. All it does is versions of Pong. Why did I think this would be fun? It’s Valentines day and I got a bunch of cards from school. I like the ones that stand up. Any of the ones that have puppies on them are my favorite. We sewed heart shaped bean bags and put lace on them to give to our moms. We’re also learning math which is really hard. It was fine when it was numbers under 10. I just used my fingers. Now I have to add and subtract by counting up my crayons and I only have 48 crayons. So once the numbers get too big I guess I’m going to get an F. Math is the worst.

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After church today, it’s easter, we went to have lunch at Sambo’s. (*yes, we had the problematic Sambo’s in Bartelsville) I always get the pancakes. Anyhow, mom was very upset and that’s when dad told us the big news. We’re moving to Bogota Colombia this summer. Susan and I were both thrilled. This is great news because while we’re happy here and have a lot of good friends, this will be an amazing adventure. My mom is not happy about it at all. She doesn’t want to live overseas. She doesn’t want to have to learn Spanish. She doesn’t like the idea of being far away from her family… On and on and on, problems. Personally, all of those are reasons to want to move away. Her family is AWFUL! Like, okay my mom and dad are racist, but her mom and dad? WOW are they racists! My grandfather is so mean to black people — for no reason. Honestly, I don’t like him because of that. He acts all nice to me but what kind of person is mean to someone for such a stupid reason? So, yeah, I’m excited about it because of all the new things I’ll get to see and do. Plus being that far away means I won’t have to talk on the phone with or see my grandparents as often as we have. For sure they won’t go down there to visit us because they’re scared of everything!

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It’s April. We made paper daffodils in class. I love making stuff out of construction paper. I love all arts and crafts in general. It’s so great to just take paper and glue and crayons and make something. String, glitter, wax paper, pipe cleaners, paint and felt. These are the best things in the world. If I could I would just spend the rest of my life making stuff. Susan and I have started teaching ourselves Spanish. We found dad’s old text book from when he was in college. We’ve gotten up to the past tense. Spanish is pretty easy, to be honest. The do have two very weird things: the nouns have genders. Like casa, “house” is female and plato “plate” is male. They have two ways of saying “you” formal usted and informal tu. But other than that, not a big deal. I can’t wait to move to South America! We’re going to be in Colombia by August. The late 1970’s in Bogota are going to be a blast. I was hoping we’d go to Iran — where they love Americans — but Colombia will be just as exciting.