I got tagged!

My friend Kim tagged me, so I guess I'm it! This is a cool blog-game. Here's what is supposed to happen. You remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1. the stories of a girl
2. Write on Right Now!
3. One Over-Caffeinated Mom
4. Blerg
5. Three's Company

Then you're supposed to select new friends to add to the pollen count. But here's where it bogs down a little for me, as I don't know of any other friends with blogs! So we'll skip over that part and go straight to part three, which is were you add your memories. (But do check out those other blogs, especially Kim's, which is #4 on the hit parade.)

Five things I miss from my childhood:

1. Sunday afternoons in Jamaica - All of my cousins would come over and there would be tons of food: either Chinese dishes homemade by my grandparents (early childhood) or Daddy's famous BBQ on his big homemade brick grill (later childhood). We'd eat and then play tag or hide-and-seek in the yard until way after dark.

2. Honing my competitve edge by playing board games or cards with my mom, grandmother and siblings on rainy afternoons, or playing rummy with Daddy. We still talk about how Dad would never ever show us his hand, whether he was winning or losing, because he didn't want us to figure out his "strategy." Now I think the fact that we were so fixated on seeing his hand that we barely paid attention to our own was his strategy.

3. Early morning swim practice. We had to be in the pool by 6:00 a.m. Good thing we lived in nice, warm Florida, huh?

4. Making up silly songs on car trips. And saying "Mooooooo" every time we saw a herd of cows.

5. Ohtahiti Apples from the tree in our backyard. Ohtahitis are pear-shaped, bright red Jamaican apples. They have juicy, snowy white flesh and a sweet-tart flavor. Absolutely delicious and the only apple I ever knew until I was about 11. I haven't had one since about 1987, but I still remember the taste.

Go check out those other blogs. And if you get inspired and start one of your own, let me know and I'll list it.