30 Things- #20

20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.

1. This may sound strange, but one significant memory from my childhood is when I was about 8 my sister's extremely abusive alcoholic boyfriend came over to the house. He was really mad and was yelling at everyone. My dad would not let him in the house so he was just yelling and swearing at my dad from the front door. My dad was calm and kept telling him he needed to leave. I remember my sister was in her room crying and upset. Me and Ash were in our room trying to go to bed (I distinctly remember is was school night). My bedroom window at the time was right by the front door, and my bed just happen to be right next to the window. I remember being SO scared. I remember whispering to my sister Ashlee and begging her to come let me sleep in her bed. She finally agreed. It was pretty traumatic. I remember worrying he would try to get into our house through my window. The funny thing is I had no idea what it meant to be drunk or that he was the one hurting my sister and that the reason she was crying because he had hit her, but  after that day I hated him, and I knew that he was a bad person. I am grateful that my little brain did not comprehend what was really happening. I wonder to this day what I would have done if I really would have understood the situation (or why no one called the cops on him). I am grateful for the insight I have now, and to be able to look back on this incident and no matter how much of it I understood, I knew I did not want to have that kind of chaos in my life, and I did not want to date someone who treated me (or my family) the way he did. I honestly consider that night a pretty life changing night. It was the night I knew I would not allow someone into my life that brought that much chaos, anger, and created so much fear. I am scarred from, and grateful for that night for so many reasons.  

2. I remember having the most fun in the summer time. All of the neighborhood kids would get together and play games, go to the swimming pool, have popcorn and punch sales, walk to Little Nisson's and get treats, build huts in the weeds, run through the sprinklers, have sleep overs on the tramps, and get into lots of trouble. I feel like I had the best childhood summers. I don't think I could have asked for a better situation: plenty of friends, lots to do, and freedom. 

3. During the summers as a child I loved to go to the horse races. My grandpa raced horses and I remember loving to go and cheer and bet on them. The smell of cigarettes, beer, horses, and cooking hamburgers will always be extra special to me. Here's one of my favorite pictures to prove we were die hard fans: 

That's us picking out the horses that would win in the other races (we obviously always picked my grandpa's horses on the races they were in).