1976 -- What Shaped Me?

We started writing our memoirs with this year. Reading your post reminds me of so many things. It's all jumbled up in my mind. I'm just going to toss out some things I remember and then maybe we can sort them out later. I remember the white house and many things about it. I also remember living in an apartment at 14th & Garrison. I'm pretty sure that we moved from the white house to those apartments. I also have some vague memory of us living in two different units in the same complex, but maybe that is my imagination.

Anyway, at the white house, I guess I was ten. I remember Becky being my friend because I remember us creating a club house in the big closet in our bedroom upstairs. We both had mood rings. That was one of my most cherished items and somehow I lost it one day. I don't honestly know if I lost it or if Becky stole it, but I never accused her because I didn't really think she would do something like that. I just could never understand what happened to that ring.

Anyway, that was a great house to live in. I have some strange memories around that house too, like the time a snake got in the house. We were sitting in the livingroom on the couch, got up to leave the livingroom and there was this huge snake curled up next to the couch. Fortunately it was dead (I think). I don't know how or why it died.

Then of course, bunches of people were over there all the time. Claudia, Becca, and Marcy were living there with us for a while. Beth, Becca, and I would sleep outside in the tent. That was fun. We created a club house in the big apple tree, complete with a shower, but one day, Marcy and I were taking a shower out there and Marcy got shampoo in her eyes. She was screaming and crying. Claudia ran outside and we got in trouble. After that, we weren't allowed to have the shower any more.

I remember Claudia's two huge beastly mutts. I didn't like those dogs. I've never been fond of dogs, but those two were just too much.

Something strange happened when I shifted from fifth grade to sixth grade. Becky was no longer my best friend. Instead I hung around with Val and Carrie mostly. I think that was because Val and I now lived close to each other, so we would walk to and from school together. (Before I had lived only a block away from Becky.)

Anyway, I'm trying to think of things from that year that may have shaped my life. I think EST had a powerful effect on me. Tom did too. These were my first exposures to spirituality (rather than religion). I learned to "just get it" and even to this day I often remember those words when things aren't going my way. "Just get it." It's a powerful teaching because once you "just get it," the blocks in your mind dissolve and you just go with the flow.

I also had experiences with meditation, visualization, spiritual healing, telepathy, and other things of that sort. I thought the EST teachings were good. I always wondered why it got so popular and then just faded away. Now you hear jokes occasionally about EST, like it was a big scam. I always wondered what happened to Warner Ehrhart and the Hunger Project. Hmmm?

Oh well. There were some things I remember about this time in my life that are pleasant, some things not so pleasant. I think that was mainly because I didn't have must self-confidence. I had a low self-esteem because I thought I was ugly. I think that probably shaped me even more than EST and the other spiritual experiences. Life is strange.....