Dog Poop Soup

 Did other people say this to their children??

Or was my family the only one to threaten us with eating dog poop soup for supper?

Sammy the Snake.

Sammy the Snake was a Sly creature. He Slithered around Slurring his Sentences. “Ssssay now…”

In a sneaky way to tickle us or make us laugh my moms hand puppet was called Sammy the Snake. This wasn’t something that I forgot about but the other day I was reminded of Sammy and was thinking how this was something that was mostly between my mom and Joey. Sometimes mom would use Sammy to tickle me, but mostly Sammy and Joey laughed about things.

I am older than Joey, so I went to school while he stayed at home for two years. Neither of us ever went to much of a day care or pre-school because my mom worked part time and my dad farmed and they were able to watch us. (I still think in this aspect we are some of the most spoiled children ever).

But I just was thinking that during the time that Joey was at home he was building two years of memories that I don’t have. It’s extremely selfish to not notice things like this before, but I think it’s an overall human flaw to not realize that other people directly around you are still essentially on their own. I don’t remember a time before Joey, and he never had one with out me, but I still have memories that exclude him at home. He must have many more from his childhood. Sammy the Snake, is one of them. I just never thought to think of it that way.

I was sitting at my kitchen bar, and for no reason what so ever, my memory was jogged. I had the feeling of remembering a very crucial part of my childhood; things that feel like a former life and also like I could reach out and touch them. And I thought, how could I have ever forgotten that in the first place?

When Joey and I were little we kept a large, flat board stored between the couch and the wall. It slid behind the back, concealed from view. We used it to color on when we were in the living room, which was carpeted. I think it originally came around as a mat for play-doh so we wouldn’t get crumbs in the carpet. But once it was there we used it for lots of things. It was such an important part of our play when we built forts or set up hot wheels. It was the starting point of many imaginative days.

One side of the board had small ridges on it that made it uneven to color on, but when you’re laying on the carpet the smoothness of your strokes don’t really matter. It also had a small chip out of one side so it wasn’t an even rectangle. There were marker lines drawn across it and play-doh stuck in the cracks.

The last time I was home I had to check to see if the board was still stored behind the blue couch. Mom said she’d just recently moved it. I’m not sad it’s gone, it wasn’t an actual toy, but I really did get such a tranquil peace of mind remembering it. I simply felt transported back in time thinking “Remember how we used to color on that board…”