The Little Things

As a young Writinggal I got excited about all the normal things kids cared about: the last day of school, going on vacation, the arrival of my Troll book order. But I remember a few occasions where I was excited about seemingly lame things:

A brown and yellow van: Our neighbors (the ones we called “the kids” even though there were just three of them) had this big, brown and yellow van. In fact, one time it got stolen and Marvin Zindler (Houstonites know what I’m talking about) helped them recover it. Anyway, you’re going to think this is really weird but I remember being at Mother’s Day Out (so I was like, less, than three years old) and my dad came to pick me up. He told me before we went outside, “I’ve got a surprise…” and when we got out there it was the kids’ brown and yellow van. Something had happened to his car so he had to borrow it to pick me up. I can’t explain to you how thrilled I was. I remember this feeling of joy, excitement, pure jubilation that we were going to get to ride in the brown and yellow van. And I kinda think I may have ridden in the front seat without a car seat. But then again, I was only less than three so I can’t be sure. I just know it was freakin’ awesome.


A screen door: Even as a “grown-up,” most of my joy comes from looking forward to things. Once the thing actually happens it’s never as much fun to me. Like vacations. I love to look forward to them and I love getting there and I love immediately being there. But then once we arrive at the hotel or wherever we’re going, I just start thinking, “It’s almost over…” I’m sort of grim like that. This is also why I like Thursday nights so much. But anyway, back to the screen door: I think this was in second grade. I was sitting in Mrs. Davis’ music class, singing something about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or the E.T. song and I was kinda bummed just because I was always bummed in Mrs. Davis’ class. I was staring at the clock, willing it to move. Then I remembered that we were getting a screen door installed on our house that afternoon. It wasn’t a total screen door; it was half glass/half screen which is even cooler. When I remembered that, I got super excited. Like I felt like I was going to bounce off the music room walls. I think I was excited because I liked the idea of having the front door open all the time. (Even as a kid I was into natural light.) So after I remembered the screen door installation, I was totally in a good mood and no one could bring me down.

I tried to think of a third weird thing that got me excited as a kid just because things are better in threes. But then I figured that being excited about a yellow and brown van as well as a screen door was enough weirdness for one day.