I remember the day I first met my childhood best friend, Tiffany and her twin sister Sara. It was February 2003. I had lived here at this house for about seven months and was nine years old. Me and my brother were in the front yard playing in the snow/ice when Tiffany and Sara rode their bikes in front of our house. Tiffany asked us to throw snowballs at them and see if they could dodge them and we did. We started hanging out after school and before I knew it awesome memories were beginning to be made.
I met Kayla when I went up to her house and introduced myself to her mother/sister. I let them know I had moved in and wanted to play. I was a real go-getter back in the day. The next memory I remember with Kayla was when she invited me to go to her birthday party at her cousin’s apartment swimming pool. My mom was talking to Kayla’s mom in their yard and I for some reason said “God can work magic!” and as me and my mom walked back to our house she whispered “Miracles”. I was so nervous but didn’t show it. I remember looking for my two piece in the closet in the master bedroom I lived in and my mom helping me get ready to go. I rode in a car with Kayla and her sister. When we were there I felt left out because I didn’t know how to swim.
The ice-cream man was a big part of my childhood. I remember being so infatuated with the idea because I had a big imagination. One night me and my brother were in the garage with the radio recorder and I made up a fake emergency news segment that talked about an apocalyptical event that involved wild moose running down the street. This was around the time our Aunt Debbie and her two kids, our cousins Katie and Jeffery came to our house to give us some of their old clothes and things. I remember being so excited to get new things. We all sat around with the garage door open going through trash bags and containers they brought to us. One time we ordered a pizza and sat in the jacuzzi together and Jeffery climbed on top of our roof.
They also brought with them a foosball table that also had an ice hockey table when you flipped it over. We used it as a table a lot. One afternoon Tiffany and Sara were hanging out in the garage with us and my mom made us a pizza and we all sat at the ice hockey table and ate it. I don’t know what we sat on but Tiffany made a joke about not being able to reach the table because of her height and said “Hey mom, pass me a drink” and I laughed. I also remember a Blue Bell half gallon of peppermint ice cream sitting in the freezer but never eating it because I thought it didn’t taste good. Tiffany’s uncle was an ice cream man and I remember him being the best one. One time he pointed out I had mustard on my face.
After Mike and Susan moved out, Martin and his family moved in. He was soon added to our group. I remember us chasing ice cream trucks. One ice cream man was rather creepy. He was an older man and had white hair and a beard. He drove a van and we all went up to it and got ice cream sandwiches. I remember all of us standing in the driveway eating them saying how they tasted like lemon. They looked a little yellow too.
In 2003 me and my brother would go into the kitchen and unload the dishwasher and mop the floor for our mom in the middle of the night as a surprise for her. I would use one of those Swiffer wet brooms with the pads on the bottom. It smelled like lemons. I think my mom always used Mr. Clean in that spray bottle with the dark blue nozzle. We had that bottle forever. I wish I still had it. I would brush my teeth over the kitchen sink and set the microwave timer for 3 minutes.
