Remember That Time

Taking this free one day online class with UCLA, the instructor's prompt in writing poetry 

from memories was:      I Remember

Here is my version from childhood-

I remember now-or-laters in the Summer when momma would give us a nickel to go to the store

I remember popping wheelies and makeshift ramps

I remember building go-carts and stilts

I remember going behind bushes, up trees, and into thickets

I remember laying down in the bed of the orange Ford Truck around dark staring at the sky

I remember pulling the tail off a lizard with my brother

I remember snails, lighting bugs and red ants

I remember the sounds that came from my mother's tummy when I laid upon her lap

I remember asking my mother lots of questions

I remember not liking her to ask me a lot of questions

I remember telling her, "why are you asking me? You the grown up!"

I remember putting clothes hangers on our heads and pretending to be aliens

I remember exploring the attic by why of scaling the bathroom wall

I remember fitting in the back bathroom tub with my sister and having plenty of room to go under water

I remember my brother riding his big wheel in the house going from dining room to living room

I remember piling clothes on the bed to keep warm during the winter

I remember dead thistles from the Christmas Tree and glowing orange, red and blue lights

I remember the smell of baking bread from the factory 10 blocks away

I remember when me and my sister wet the bed

I remember hiding the sheets after the first whooping

I remember going to the wading pools they use to have in the park

I remember going to all six public pools in our town

I remember the speakers from the drive inn theaters of the Big Bear and the Big Joy

I remember the bombarding first smell of chitlins as we came running into house

I remember digging a whole in the yard to try to reach China

I remember drinking from the water hose and being refreshed as we tossed it to the ground

I remember going to every thrift store, garage sale, and laundry mat in town

I remember Piggy Wiggly, Safeway, and the Green Stamp Store

I remember Sundays in the park and the cars rolling around in circles and the roar of the motorcycles

I remember selling snow cones and shelling bullets of their copper

I remember the smell of the first rain and the fresh mowed grass

I remember stick ball, pig meat, and throw em up eat em up

I remember the penny candy store

I remember the 18th Street church bells ringing on our walks to school

I remember rainy days as water flowed down curbs

I remember jumping repeatedly into them on our walks home from school

I remember Red Light Green Light, Mother May I, and Hide and Seek

I remember 4 square and two square

I remember sucking the dust off only a certain type of rock from our driveway

I remember sitting on my curb with a tomato when I had asked for an apple

I remember my 8 year old neighbor asking me for the tomato

I remember that moment for me was adding insult to injury