My Nickname
Dad called me Sadie as far back as I can remember. One day I asked him why.
He said that when I was three, I would go up to women and yank on their skirts
and tried to say "hey lady" but it would come out "hey sadie."
As I grew older, my nickname was shortened to just Sade. And THAT, as they
say, is history.
Storm Trauma
I remember a storm when I was about 5. It was a day storm with wind and
thunder. We (Linda and I) wanted to go outside and play in the rain. Sometimes
mom let us if it was a light spring rain. This wasn't. Anyway....after the rain
stopped, we went out and played in the deep ditch in front of the house
pretending to swim. Well, a little farther down in the ditch from us, where
there wasn't much water, we saw a snake. A very very large one - 6 foot or so
and very big around. We screamed and ran in the house to get daddy. He came out and
killed it. We never asked to play in that ditch again.
First Time Watching the "Soaps"
I must have been around 5. Mom was watching her soaps. I looked at the TV for
a few minutes and then got down on my hands and knees and crawled around on the
floor. Mom asked me what I was doing. I replied, "I am Searching for
Tomorrow."
New Bikes
I don't remember how old I was, but I remember that I was in school, so I
would guess about 6 years old. I looked out the kitchen window in the back of
the house and there were two brand new shiny Western Auto bicycles. My sister
and I had learned to ride on a couple of older small bikes and we were SO
excited.
Bicycle Accident
I guess the first one is when I fell off my bicycle when I was 6 years old. I
was trying to turn the corner staying on the sidewalk like I had seen Linda do,
instead of walking my bike around the corner. As I saw the ditch coming toward
me, I guess I panicked and kept going straight instead of turning. Next thing I
knew, I was in the ditch with the bike on top of me. I started to move, then I
saw the blood on my leg. I started screaming, even though I don't remember it
hurting. There were some ladies across the street sitting on a bench and they
came running. One of them, Toby Daniels, picked me up and carried me to my house
one block away. Mom was 9 months pregnant with my brother at the time. Dad drove
us to the doctor's office, while mom held me on what lap she still had. She put
a cold wash cloth over the gash in my leg to keep the blood from spilling out.
The gash was 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The doctor put me on a table in
his office and proceeded to put four staples in to pull it back together. With
no anesthesia, that was the worst pain I can ever remember.
Mushroom Hunting
Dad would take us mushroom hunting when we were little. I guess I must have
been about 7 or 8 years old. Didn't have a clue WHAT we were hunting for but it
was great to walk around in the woods with him.
Fishing
I remember a fishing trip when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Wasn't much more
than a creek and I caught this really big fish. Well, it looked big to me
anyway.
Dad threw it back and when I asked him why, he said it was too old to keep.
Hmmmm, I accepted that because "dad said", but I really don't know to
this day WHAT the "real" reason was. :)
Going to get permit
Dad let me drive to GET my driver's ed permit. The people at the License
Branch were teasing me. They asked if I thought I could drive. Dad said,
"well, she did a pretty good job on the way over here." They looked at
him and said, "she isn't supposed to drive until she has her permit."
Dad just shrugged his shoulders at them. It was great!
Hitting dad's truck with mom's car - ouch!
My brother, Steve, and I had gone to the grocery store, I think. When I
returned home, we had company but they had left enough room for me to parallel
park between dad's truck and the visitor's car. I pulled up close to dad's truck
and asked my little brother how much room I had. He said I had lots of room, so
I pulled up further. Then I heard the metal scraping as the car chrome strips
were moved back as I pulled forward. Dad used a small hammer to "tap"
the chrome strips back into place without much effort, BUT I was grounded from
driving for a month.
Earrings
When I was seventeen, August, 1970, mom let my sister, Linda pierce my ears,
although dad had strictly prohibited it. Dad was going into Sullivan to have the
oil changed in the car. He left and we prepared to begin. The ice was ready, the
potato was cut in half and the needle had been sterilized.
My right ear was frozen with the ice and Linda had the potato placed behind
the ear and the needle was about halfway through. Then DAD came back!!!!!!!! I
ran to the bathroom with the needle half through my ear and waited. He had
forgotten the checkbook and it wasn't but a few minutes that he was on the road
again.
I went back to the kitchen. Linda put the ice back on my ear to re-freeze it
and continued. We finished up and put in the cheapo earrings that we had bought
the weekend before from the Five and Dime Store (remember those stores and those
earrings weren't much more than that). :)
Everything was just fine for a couple of days. Then on Thursday evening, two
days after the piercing, I was sitting on the opposite end of the couch rubbing
lotion on dad's tired, aching feet (my usual job in the evenings after his
shower), when he sat up and brushed my hair back from my face., Uh oh! He saw
the earrings! He said calmly, "what is this?" I said. "I got my
ears pierced." He laid back down and didn't say ANYTHING. I mean ANYTHING
for over 24 hours. Then on Saturday morning, he said, "Sade, come with
me." I thought - uh oh...... We drove to Sullivan to Brown's Jewelry Store
and he bought me a pair of earrings. He said, "As long as they are pierced,
you are not going to wear those cheap things!" It was GREAT and I knew that
he had forgiven me for going against him about the piercing.
I'm sure that mom told him all about it, but we never talked about it or her
part in it. At Christmas that year and every year afterwards, I received a pair
of earrings that mom said that dad picked out for me.
A few years later, mom had HER ears pierced. :)
