An Odd Child

I was an odd kid. My childhood home was near railroad tracks --- we were so close that the house would shake when the trains rolled past. You get used to it. Our back yard was huge and you could walk up to the ditch that separated the property from the tracks. There was no fencing at that time. Anyway, there was a very small hill near the ditch. I loved to run up and down the hill for hours. I would sing and act out various stories I had seen on TV or at the movies. The trains were quite loud so I would do my strongest singing when they would be rolling past us. Sometimes I would just sit and contemplate. I would dream up these elaborate scenarios for myself.

One such elaboration came up after having viewed "Play it Again, Sam", "Sleeper" and "Love and Death" on TV. I was convinced that I was the secret love child of Woody Allen and Diane Keaton. I would try to think of ways I could establish contact with them so that they could come get me and bring me home to New York. I used to sit on the hill and try to figure out why Woody and Diane would not want me. I would act out the moment I finally confronted them. Such fun melodrama! Now, it is important to note that I was about 7 or 8 at this time. By the time "Annie Hall" came out I had surrendered my fantasy, but I still loved their movies!

Most of the kids I knew were into HR Puffinstuff or lame cartoons. I, on the other hand, had very different tastes. When I was 5 my parents decided to take me to see "Bambi" which was, I guess, in re-release at the time. I remember this quite vividly. It was playing at the newly-built General Cinema -- which had 2 movie screens! Anyway, "Bambi" was sold out, so they decided to see What's Up Doc? which was playing on the other screen. I entranced when Babs starting singing and my mom later explained she was a singer. I demanded to be taken to K-Mart where I got my first record. I selected the LP that had a picture of a little girl on the cover. It was called My Name Is Barbra. I became a huge Barbra Streisand fan from that moment on. In other words, I was a total flamer at 5. Now, there were some very brief moments in elementary school when I was perceived as cool because of my Babs obsessive behavior. I was the only one at the school who had been allowed to see A Star Is Born. This is a movie that people make fun of now, but it was a pretty big deal back in the 70's.

Believe it or not, I was not considered a nerd or odd by my fellow classmates. Never really got teased more than anyone else. Kind of amazing considering all of the above and that I was in Texas. Ok, that is my walk down memory lane for the day!