Toe Tagged

My Sister, the Bag Lady tagged me to do this meme, where I have to tell seven things about myself. I also have to tag 5 of my fellow bloggers in the process. I have to state the rules, which are as follows: tell seven random and/or interesting facts about yourself, then get 5 friends to play along, and put links to each other's blogs.

So here goes:

1. My sister's name is responsible for me having eaten a bug when I was less than four years old! I think it was a worm or caterpillar or something, but I was younger and so, did was I was told to do. She got me again a couple of years later, when she told me to lick the door handle of the house. I can't remember why she wanted me to do it, but I did and was then stuck there in the cold until mom got home from shopping. Of course, mom had to go in the front door (which we never used) and then get hot water to remove my tongue from the door handle.

2. I am asthmatic. Mom & Dad and fortunately my elder brother R knew this! Here I am innocently playing with a friend, running and laughing (in the house) and being eleven and pestering my brother, when out of the blue, I can't breathe! Good thing my brother knew what was going on and was able to calm me down and get my breathing back under control. I would love to blame the asthma on the bug my Sister made me eat, but alas, I think that was after they found out.

3. Treatments back then were very unpleasant, I was given a pill that a horse wouldn't swallow and the most vile green cough syrup, that made me gag each and every time. So, someone came up with the idea of wind instruments. It is a wonderful idea and we are a very musical family. Next thing I know, dad brings home a clarinet and we put it together and he teaches me to play “The Streets of Venice” by ear! This was not a good thing! When it came time to learn to read the music (which I already did a bit from piano lessons and choir), I relied on my ear too much to tell me if the note was correct. I switched to trumpet a couple of years later and did the same thing – I learned to play taps and revile by ear before classes began. By high school, I figured I had better just stick to singing.

4. I am an alto. My sister is a soprano, mom was a soprano, brother R is a tenor, brother G is more of a baritone, but he doesn't sing much and dad was a tenor/baritone. Growing up we all sang, at family reunions we sang, we sang when we traveled and when we camped. Dad and mom knew all sorts of old songs and taught us harmony by example. I took to the example of harmony like a drowning man to a life raft. There was a time when you could sing a song that I didn't know and by the second verse, I would have found a harmony for it. Growing up in a one high school town....you all get the same music teacher! I learned the tenor part while brother R was in the choir, then learned the soprano with Sister two years later. Then it was my turn, I thought I had the alto part down, but alas no...I kept drifting into the soprano and the tenor parts – in the atrium of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy! For anyone interested this link has all kinds of interesting info about the Basilica. Ah, yes, we were singing Alleluia by Randall Thompson. Sadly I can't find an online recording of it for you to listen to.

5. Hops is a vital ingredient in beer! I am allergic to it. More than two swallows of beer and it wants to return from whence it came! Needless to say, I was never a cheap drunk – back when I was drinking. Why are you no longer drinking? Well, I had a little nervous breakdown and then was on some pills and drank and my body wasn't happy and since then, I can only have one drink to be sociable. Any more and I break out in hives and itch like crazy!

6. I almost died when I was but a teenager. It would have been a messy train/pick-up truck accident. It was the dark of the moon, out in the country and we were speeding driving down a hill that had a train crossing at the bottom. The type that is just two boards in an X and a stop sign – this is the country after all, no need for lights. It was also spring and everything was covered in mud. No reflectors on the sides of the train cars, the X was so mud spattered you couldn't see it at all. I could see this flicker every few seconds and mentioned it to the driver (the country boy who knew all these roads), he said it was nothing. A minute later it dawned on me that it was in fact a car on the other side of the tracks and that there was a train there. I had to tell him twice before he would believe me! We wound up stopped in time, but we were sideways in the road and the other passenger in the truck could reach out the window and touch the train! Mud and gravel are slippery when you slam on the brakes.

7. I can whistle a tune. I have a very vivid memory of sitting over the arm of the couch and dad teaching both the brothers and sis & myself how to whistle. The oldest brother G is the best whistler in the family. R is pretty good and I can make the tune recognizable, but poor Sis. She never got the hang of it when we were kids. I practiced and practiced at it. Just like learning to lift only one eyebrow. I was a bit older then, but I remember sitting on the bathroom counter staring into the mirror and holding one brow down with my fingers and lifting the other, until I could feel which muscle to use. I can't lift the other one independently though.

So, there are seven (or so) weird things about me. I am going to be totally lazy though and not tag anyone deliberately. If you blog is on my blog roll and you have not already been tagged by someone else, you should do it. It was fun dredging up some of these memories. Give it a whirl.

Have a good day all.