Sandy and Her “Formative Years”

Sandy Rettschlag

4 years ago

formative years Who am I? I am a middle child of three. I grew up in a middle-class family, and have lived in the same town all my life.

What I have been told, and what I remember is that I was a rather curious, spunky, and mischievous child. I don’t remember ever being bored with life during my very young years. I was always out there looking for fun and excitement much to my parent’s dismay.

One of my first memories was when I was about four or five, we lived in the upstairs of an apartment house close to downtown. My mom had to go to the basement to do laundry. The other tenant’s son who lived downstairs from us had rabbits which he kept in the basement. Well, you got it, they stunk. My mom would complain to me because I was usually with her as not to get into trouble, and she would complain that she didn’t appreciate those rabbits being down there. So, being the cooperative child that I was, when no one was around I went down to the basement and let them all out. I don’t remember how many there were, but it seemed to be excessive. I must have had a reputation because while sitting on the steps out front of the house with one of my friends, the owner of the rabbits, sought me out and scared the crap out of me. For some reason, he just knew that I had to be responsible for this. Imagine that.
Another thing I remember while living in that area, which by the way was next to a parking lot. I encouraged my girlfriend to join me in getting in people’s cars and pretend that we were driving. In those days they didn’t lock cars, so we had our pick. Well, unfortunately, we got locked in one and couldn’t get out. The downstairs renter (the same rabbit owner) saw us in the cars and saved us so to speak. I, of the two of us, got yelled at and was punished!!! As I said, I must have had a reputation not to be envied.

I have had many experiences since I was just plain “me”. I used to stand at the post office door and open the doors for people. The post office was located just down the street from us. Imagine kids doing that today. I don’t think so. I also used to use my dad’s business envelopes, stuff them with a scribbled letter, tinker toys, papers clips, etc., putting numerous stamps on top of each other, and I mailed them out. Luckily, there was my father’s return address on the envelope, and the post office notified my parents of this strange mail. Again, I was in trouble.

Since we lived a block from downtown I had easy access to explore interesting places. At four years old this was probably not a good idea. My mom found me riding tricycles in a hardware store after she spent the good part of the afternoon trying hysterically to find me. Being a bit overactive, and a bit of a problem, my mom actually tied me to the outside railing with a leach. My older sister and her friends would taunt me by barking at me and generally harassing me.

I can say that I had a great childhood that I will continue to write about as there are quite a few fun, as well as interesting, memories that I like to share. I usually keep these to myself as I now have grandchildren and want them to think that I was a perfect child and someone they would like to look up to and relate to.

Like I said, I was never bored!!

Until the next memory