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LITTLE MEMORIES
ABOUT MY OLDER SISTER AND THE CATEPILLAR
I have a really rad memory. BUT I don’t exactly know, if it actually happened. I need to ask my older sister. Me and her went for a walk. I was 4-ish, she was 10-ish. At that point she seemed very mature and extremely cool. (Though, not much has changed). So, we were standing on a sidewalk at the school’s courtyard, which was on our block, and we saw a caterpillar. It had not been smoking hookah, obviously, but it was huge, turquoise, and had circles down it’s back. Just like in a cartoon. Nothing out of the ordinary, of course, but it’s been 30 years since then, and I loved it!
ABOUT THE SNOW
My first memory of the snow was very clear. It wasn’t the first snow I’d ever seen, as I was acutely aware of what it was. However, just like all kids I didn’t know what time of the year it was. I had happened to look out the window, and everything was white, even the cars. Yesterday there was no snow at all, and today it was everywhere. For whatever reason, I loved that. It was a fantastic surprise. What a wonderful day to be 5 years old.
ABOUT LEAF BUDS
This is a very simple little memory. But so precious to my heart. Me and my mom went somewhere. Then suddenly she stops near a bush and says: “Look! See those little green thingies? Those are leaf buds. Leaves will grow out of them later. If you can see the buds, it means that the spring had come and everything has been awakened by it”. It’s still a mystery, why I liked it so much. Mom says I was the only one of her children, who was so impressed by the leaf buds. You never know what will impress your child. I tried to tell my older son about that magical thing. I think he wasn’t impressed. Oh well. I will try later with my younger son.
ABOUT APPLES, VHS AND PORN
A very precious little memory. Lots of people have cutesy memories of snow, leaf buds and stuff like that, but this one is unique to me and my older sister Anya. We had a weekend morning ritual (I think those where weekends, since I wasn’t at preschool, and Anya wasn’t at school). I used to wake up and would go to my sister’s room, still groggy, with my eyes still closed. I would say: “move over”. My sister would pull up the blanket without even waking up. I would lay in her bed. She then would put the blanket over us. We would sleep for a while longer. Then my sister would bring two green apples for me and for herself. And she would put on one of the two VHS tapes that we had. The first one had two films on it: “Deathstalker 2” a terrible half porn-half fantasy that I loved anyway. Another one was ‘Firewalker” with Chuck Norris, before the “Walker, Texas ranger” times. The second vhs tape had: “Indiana Jones and the temple of doom” and “Gwendoline” - another erotic fantasy from the director of “Emmanuelle”. No matter which video cassette we would choose, we always ended up watching porn in the morning. The funniest thing is that I never liked green apples. But those movie sessions felt so good and the apple was an inextricable part of the experience. Now I have the soundtrack from “Deathstalker 2” as the ringtone for my sister.
ABOUT DOUGH
A little memory about beauty.
My mom is a rare kind of woman who becomes more fabulous as she gets older. When she was my age, she was full figured, with huge glasses and a few golden teeth. I guess she (just like me) didn’t fit into someone else’s beauty standards. But until you go to school you don’t know that you should or shouldn’t look a certain way. When I was little I didn’t think of my mom as of a beautiful or not beautiful woman. My mom was a phenomenon that I liked. And especially I liked that she was so big. And my favourite thing was to watch how her big hand shook a big chunk of dough (that was until my dad saw it once and bought a mixer). Not to mention that a dough is a good sign. It means that something tasty is coming up.
ABOUT THE LETTER
A recollection of my dad in Israel. My dad isn’t a big talker, but he would say something interesting and memorable on occasion. For instance, we were walking somewhere, and I saw the fluff that comes off from the trees and flowers. There are no poplar trees in Israel, but there are dandelions. Then suddenly my dad said (which in itself is unexpected): “You’ve got mail!” Me: “huh?” Dad: “Thus fuzz is someone’s letter for you. Now you should take it in your hand and blow, so someone else will get a letter from you. And just like that all people will be sending letters to each other”. Isn’t that amazing?! Since then, I always blow the dandelions, thinking how they will fly to someone else. I also love sending and receiving postcards.
ABOUT THUGS AND THE FIRST KISS
First of all, I would like to explain that my older sister Ania was very strict with me. Those who have an older sister will understand. She was a tough lady even when she was a little girl.
Soooo, we went around the block as usual. I was riding my three wheeled bicycle. It was all black. Really cool. (“side note” later on my sister broke my tricycle and I remind her of that till this day). Ania, as she was (and still is) the coolest person in the world, was SKATEBOARDING! Suddenly, we were attacked by some older bullies. There were like 5 of them! They tried to steal my bicycle and Ania’s skateboard. But let me tell you they suffered a humiliating defeat! No one messes with us. But Ania fell of her skateboard and got scraped up. So, there we were after the war. Ania was on the ground, her knee was bleeding. So, I came over to her and started to blow on the wound. As I was blowing I said to her: “it’s going to be o.k. We are going home. Mama will put some iodine on it…” Anya, sitting there, was looking at me with her trademark smirk. She made a gesture with her index finger, which meant “Come over here”. I came over, and she hugged and kissed me.
It may not have been the first kiss Anya ever gave me but it’s the first one I remember.
ABOUT GULLIVER
A teen little memory about a big thing. We were in the Amazonian forest with my parents about 20 years ago. Even though, the forest was extremely dense, you could see the sky so crystal clear. Oh,God, that sky! (since it’s Equator and in the middle of nowhere). There we were on a night tour. I looked up, and there was Milky Way in its full glory. I became transfixed on it. My mom asked, if anything was wrong. And I said: “I am Gulliver”. Unfortunately, the romance was abruptly seized by something flying and buzzing that flew by past me and bit me though the jacket.
So, we had a video game system. (I think it was Nintendo). Our mom is extremely strong willed. If she has her mind on something, the only thing that can stop her is tsunami (which are not very common in Moscow). Every night my mom would go to our room and complete one stage of Super Mario. My mom is the only person I know personally, who beat Super Mario. During the very final level my mom got to the final boss and beat him. At that point Mario lost all of his power-ups (the spits and the height). Finally, he got to the Princess in a pink dress. Hurray, Victory! However, my joy was tainted – I asked:” How would he marry a princess, if he’s so small?”
ABOUT SUPER MARIO AND THE WEDDING
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
We’ve been living in different countries with my dad for almost 30 years. It just happened this way. Sometimes we would come visit, sometimes he would. My dad has always worked a lot. But on top of that, he, would support all of us and still does to this day, while our family keeps expanding. Nonetheless, I assume that he enjoyed (and still enjoys), when we all were together. When there were only four of us, on weekends my dad would announce “Let’s go deliberate!”. After which the following would occur: we would all gather in our parents’ bed and put on a movie. My dad didn’t watch though, he slept with the pillow over his head. The rest of us would honestly watch the movie to the end. Our mom would even let us go to bed a bit later, due to special circumstances. (She was quite strict with this. Bedtime was 9pm sharp). And even if our mom tried to make us go to bed, then my dad asked her to release us from our regular bedtime, just this once. A little trivia: guess which film we are watching in this case?
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