What Was Your Favourite Age?

For the past few months I have been organizing some photos and making scrapbooks for the kids. And when I say some photos what I mean to say is sorting through thousands of photos…. Not including the four hard dives full of digital photos that I have. I have sorted – resorted and tried my best to arrange the books in chronological order while also trying to group by person by group by…….uggg it is an overwhelming task. Needless to say I have been revisiting many times in my life while viewing the memories I have managed to capture. If anyone knows me well; they know that there are very few things in my life that I cherish more than my pictures. In fact, if my children or husband find me wrapped in my blankie looking  at my pictures they know that I either I am depressed or they are about to get a trip down memory lane with me. 

Most times Pat will stand and sigh at me as it is one of the things he hates to do the most…..(it’s a guy thing) his famous line is “I know …I was there…I took the picture.” Even worse for him than me showing him a picture is asking him to watch our wedding video..haha 

Side bar- funny story. We had 2 students from South Korea live with us for 2.5 months. One night one of the girls asked if he had any scary movies that were popular in Canada.. I turned to Pat and said “oh honey go grab our wedding video”.. when no one was looking he shot me the middle finger… ha ha ha

Funny enough I also ask him if he wants to watch the greatest “Triumph” movie known to man…he always falls for it.. I then go in for the kill…”ok come watch our wedding video while it is rewinding…then you can watch you take the ring off my finger and see me run backwards down the aisle and get the hell out of the church” and that also involves me getting a bird flipped at me…

Ok getting back to photos… not only do I like to look  back upon the girls and all the memories we created I also love to look back at photos of my family. I love more than anything to look at my parents and my sisters and brother. My dad had an 8mm film movie camera and he took a lot of great footage of my siblings and my all-time favourite event as a child- The Levesque Family Picnics!

 For Christmas last year, my husband bought me a device for my computer that allows for me to transfer those films onto my computer and capture the images as photos. I have managed to capture some incredible pictures. I now have pictures ….that were never taken. Pictures of my mom,& dad and  pictures of my siblings with my mom and of all us kids together. My grandparents on all sides of the family have all passed on now, so it is delightful to be able to have captured images of them.

When I was really young I had beautiful blond curly hair. I truly adored my golden locks; my dad used to call me his little "Shirley Temple". I also enjoyed entertaining my family and depending how you see it; it was also referred to as torturing them. I loved to sing and dance and perform shows for them. Hard to believe…… but I was always …constantly looking for ways to make them laugh. Not only did I sing and dance but I tried to entertain them with jokes and silly antics.
 Hard to believe eh? Lol

All my brother had to do was laugh once and that was the fuel I needed to seek further praise.  He enjoyed when I re-enacted all the TV commercials, his favourite was “We need more Calgon- Ancient Chinese Secret eh?” he would almost split his sides when I squinted my eyes, placed my hands on my hips and said that. But with John I knew I had a one commercial daily limit or he would beat me. My dad use to love it when I would twist my legs together and my arms above my head and lay on the floor and yell “ I am Jerry Lewis”…he would fall apart. So I did it as often as I could…. 

Oh and then there was the little “dance floor”… the laundry room at the back of the house that I would  “tap” dance on with my shoes. My dad taped pennies on the bottom of my shoes once….oh God I slammed my little feet as hard as I could. In my mind I was Shirley Temple…feet slamming, curly hair bouncing……….. it wasn’t long before my dad picked me up and tore the pennies right back off my shoes and told me to “knock it off”…hahahahaha The fireplace in the living room had a beautiful ledge that I could stand on and perform, but I usually reserved that spot for “serious performances”.. oh my poor family.

If I could choose a year or age to say was my most favourite …age 5. I loved her. I look at pictures of that little girl and find myself envying her; as if she were my hero. I know that I was a huge pain in the ass back then…I tried really, really, really hard to be. I was on ALL the time and wanted to be. I drove my family bonkers! Family vactaions/road trips were probably horrible for my siblings, as I would sit in the front seat and pretend to be their teacher and speak French……..my “French”  for HOURS… according to my family I never shut up, even in  my sleep I talked…. Good thing I am not like that now eh?????????

Sidebar-  Pat- “Christine I can’t fall asleep…can you talk to me, it always helps me pass out”

Whatever- I want that little girl “Chrissy” to be here with me right now.  I love her and miss her desperately. I want her to dance for me and make me laugh; like they did. She didn’t have fear; she was a very courageous confident little thing. She absolutely adored her family; she wanted them to smile and know that she love them. She always wanted them to be happy. She strived for that. Even when they were beating her or begging her to stop….she tried harder to make them laugh. Yup this ass has been spanked more than any other child in that household! Ha ha! Oh fudge just thinking about what I did to all of them makes me smile ear to ear! My face hurts as I am recalling these days….. Also my tears are dripping off my chin as I wish I could have even a moment to go back and do it again.

Truth is she is still in there; somewhere. I will find her. Since I am mourning the loss of Miss Shirley Temple…the little girl I dreamed of being someday. I will in her honour be that little 5 year old “Chrissy”. I am going to put on my bestest twirling dress and dance,sing,and tap dance all day today. I will just make sure that I am done before every else gets home.

~Christine~