Memory Lane Meme
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 06:47 pmMemory Lane Meme. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
china_shop gave me 30.
I lived in Greenville, South Carolina, in the second house we ever bought. It was on Batesview Rd. I turned 30 almost 6 weeks to the day after my son (2nd child) was born. I was all aglow with stay-at-home mommyhood that year. The neighborhood had no sidewalks, but was very well maintained with a good mix of ages. Some people had built their houses, raised their kids there and continued to live there through retirement, with visiting grandkids on holidays. We had several walking routes, a Jr Olympic-sized pool at the end of the street, and easy access to a lovely city park. We were also within spitting distance of Bob Jones University, which was an island of strange in a sea of conservatism.
I drove a silver Plymouth Voyager. It was the classic minivan/mom-mobile. It's name was Ferdinand the Van. A clunky vehicle needs a clunky name, doncha know.
I was in a relationship with DH. At this point we'd been together 6+ years. It was and is the longest (romantic) relationship of my life. At this time we were still monogamous, which was a huge 'accomplishment' for me, as it's not really my nature. But it would be another 2 years before we would even come up for air, we were that smitten.
I feared... becoming a permanent stay-at-home mom? Not being a good parent? Turning into a full-blown southern married woman for sure. I was conflicted. I loved being with my babies, but I missed my professional life (and the discretionary part of the income).
I worked - At the end of my maternity leave, I was laid-off and went directly onto unemployment. I had only expected to be home for 12 weeks max. It was a crappy way to be laid-off, over the phone, by HR, instead of by my own supervisor, but my whole department was gone, and I was pretty thrilled to be staying home longer, with severence pay and then unemployment. That summer I was the President of our community pool, became a certified pool operator to satisfy new state health laws, and handled all the money, hiring, and payroll duties as well. Also anything else the rest of the board didn't want to do that we couldn't afford to pay someone else for. It paid great: I received all kinds of backward compliments, passive aggressive behaviors and downright nasty comments about allowing a daycare that also had 'coloreds' to reserve one of the weekly rental time slots that I'd set up to help earn the pool some desperately-needed revenue. This was the volunteer job where I learned that no good deed goes unpunished.
I wanted to be well-off enough to decorate my house and keep up with Miss Amy across the street. Her place was like a House Beautiful spread, but most of the stuff she made herself or got second-hand, and her husband was a hobby woodworker, so he'd do whatever crown and base moldings or whatever else she wanted. She was my best friend at the time too. I knew I had to go back to work eventually, but I absolutely wallowed in happiness the 15 months I stayed home. I even ironed DH's dress shirts every week! I hate ironing!
Want to meme? Tell me how old you are, and I'll pick a random age for you to remember.
china_shop gave me 30. I lived in Greenville, South Carolina, in the second house we ever bought. It was on Batesview Rd. I turned 30 almost 6 weeks to the day after my son (2nd child) was born. I was all aglow with stay-at-home mommyhood that year. The neighborhood had no sidewalks, but was very well maintained with a good mix of ages. Some people had built their houses, raised their kids there and continued to live there through retirement, with visiting grandkids on holidays. We had several walking routes, a Jr Olympic-sized pool at the end of the street, and easy access to a lovely city park. We were also within spitting distance of Bob Jones University, which was an island of strange in a sea of conservatism.
I drove a silver Plymouth Voyager. It was the classic minivan/mom-mobile. It's name was Ferdinand the Van. A clunky vehicle needs a clunky name, doncha know.
I was in a relationship with DH. At this point we'd been together 6+ years. It was and is the longest (romantic) relationship of my life. At this time we were still monogamous, which was a huge 'accomplishment' for me, as it's not really my nature. But it would be another 2 years before we would even come up for air, we were that smitten.
I feared... becoming a permanent stay-at-home mom? Not being a good parent? Turning into a full-blown southern married woman for sure. I was conflicted. I loved being with my babies, but I missed my professional life (and the discretionary part of the income).
I worked - At the end of my maternity leave, I was laid-off and went directly onto unemployment. I had only expected to be home for 12 weeks max. It was a crappy way to be laid-off, over the phone, by HR, instead of by my own supervisor, but my whole department was gone, and I was pretty thrilled to be staying home longer, with severence pay and then unemployment. That summer I was the President of our community pool, became a certified pool operator to satisfy new state health laws, and handled all the money, hiring, and payroll duties as well. Also anything else the rest of the board didn't want to do that we couldn't afford to pay someone else for. It paid great: I received all kinds of backward compliments, passive aggressive behaviors and downright nasty comments about allowing a daycare that also had 'coloreds' to reserve one of the weekly rental time slots that I'd set up to help earn the pool some desperately-needed revenue. This was the volunteer job where I learned that no good deed goes unpunished.
I wanted to be well-off enough to decorate my house and keep up with Miss Amy across the street. Her place was like a House Beautiful spread, but most of the stuff she made herself or got second-hand, and her husband was a hobby woodworker, so he'd do whatever crown and base moldings or whatever else she wanted. She was my best friend at the time too. I knew I had to go back to work eventually, but I absolutely wallowed in happiness the 15 months I stayed home. I even ironed DH's dress shirts every week! I hate ironing!
Want to meme? Tell me how old you are, and I'll pick a random age for you to remember.
