Indiana

What activities made you happy as a child? Could you list them right now? If so, do they bring a smile to your face? I started thinking about what made me happy as a kid this past weekend when I came across this picture of me on my Dukes of Hazzard Big Wheel.

me on my new Big Wheel

I LOVED Daisy Duke. She was just the epitome to me at the time of what I would now call a badass. We did not have a TV growing up, so I would live for the chance to watch Dukes of Hazzard at my grandma’s house each week. I remember a local store (I think it was called Zayre’s) had a photo signing by Daisy Duke herself. I do not remember if I actually got to meet her, but I was so proud of that photo with her signature. In my mind she was famous.

I also loved the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Hey, I am from Indiana. You can take the girl out of Indiana, but you cannot take an Indiana childhood out of the girl. Enough said.

As you can tell from the above picture, I obviously loved my Big Wheel too. It looks like it is brand new and I do know that I am riding it in our living room (flip flops and all). Somethings do not change, I still check the temperature in April to see if I can wear my flip flops yet, and in October to see if I can continue to wear them or if I will freeze.

What I love most about this photo is the absolute glee and happiness on my face. This is my inspiration this week. That I can approach life today with as much excitement and joy as I did on my Big Wheel version of the General Lee.

Are you with me? What Big Wheel riding, Dukes of Hazzard moment of your childhood made you feel like a badass and you smiled from cheek to cheek?

As a child, when I fell down or hurt myself my dad always told me to get up and buck up, that I was strong, and to brush it off.

I remember one time that I will never forget (and yes this story might sound strange). We were shucking dozens and dozens of ears of corn. I grew up in Indiana and yes the vegetable of Indiana is corn. Lots of it, everywhere. So the one fresh vegetable we always had in abundance was corn. We had a freezer in the garage that housed frozen corn and Icee pops (remember those)! Corn was at the time my favorite vegetable, considering that I disliked all vegetables with a vengeance. Now, things have changed and I rarely eat corn. I kind of think it just goes through you and does not do much for nutritional value. I like the darker, green, leafy vegetables at this stage in my life.

I digress. My sister and I were sitting on the front porch shucking corn ears. We had been through dozens of ears, when I felt a sharp pain in my thumb. There was a piece of glass in the ear of corn. How it got in the corn under the husk, I will never know or understand. I ran inside to put my bleeding thumb under the kitchen sink to clean it. I then passed out and was on the floor of the kitchen.

My dad comes into the kitchen where my sister has let him know I have passed out. When I came to I was completely freaking out about my thumb. It hurt a lot and was still bleeding and there was still a piece of glass in it. Once my dad gets the glass out, he sort of yells at me to stop being a baby. I think I always felt like he was yelling at me, and maybe he was, but now I wonder if he just wanted me to be strong. Compared to his capacity for pain as a contractor (nails in fingers, fiberglass, etc) this was nothing. To me it was such a big deal. To this day I dislike shucking corn.

So dad, while I did not appreciate it then, I appreciate your constant urging to be strong and to not cry over spilled milk or some blood. Although still to this day I pass out if I see too much blood. Some things never change, but some things do make us stronger.