Do you remember learning how to swim?

I never took lessons, so I don't really remember a specific process of learning to swim. I always loved being in the water. We swam in lakes and canals and in the ocean at Family Reunions...sometimes in a pool...I just remember loving to float. And I could do the "doggy paddle." If I ever got worried that I wasn't going to be able to "swim" I would flip over to my back and just float.



In my sophomore year of high school (at Juanita High School in Kirkland, Washington) I did take a swimming class in PE. I learned some very basic techniques, but I don't think I do any stroke the "right" way.

Do you have any "treasures" from your childhood?

I don't have many things left from my childhood. But I still have some school journals that I wrote and they are fun to read ~ if you ask me about them, I might share them with you. They are in a box under my bed.

When we were growing up our Grandma Sackett gave each of the grandchildren a set of dishes...it had a dinner plate, bowl and cup. Each of us had our own character...mine was Holly Hobbie. She also gave us a fork and spoon with our initial engraved on them ~ I thought the fork and spoon were very fancy and I didn't like to use them because I didn't want them to get dirty. All of the other things are long gone, but I still have the Holly Hobbie bowl.

One other "treasure" that I remember is a crystal vase that my mom gave me when I was probably in 1st grade. Grandma sold Princess House Crystal, and after one of her home parties, she asked me to look at everything and pick something I wanted to have. I remember looking and looking and looking, trying to make up my mind. I finally chose a beautiful cut crystal vase...I thought it was so big and pretty. I don't know what happened to it over the years, but I think it went missing in that same box as my spelling trophy.

Tell me about learning to ride your bike without training wheels.

I actually talked to both of my parents about this recently. Neither of them could ever really remember me riding with training wheels, and I can't either. I must have ridden with them for at least a little while, but Grandma says that I was a stubborn little girl who wanted to do same things as the big kids in the neighborhood. Grandpa thought I was probably 4 (the same age and Malcolm and Aubrey) when I first rode without training wheels.

Did you ever win a trophy? If so, tell me about it.

I only won ONE trophy while I was growing up (well, I have a special plaque, too, but just one trophy).

I won 3rd Runner-Up in our 3rd grade spelling bee at Sandy Elementary School in Sandy, Utah in 1978/79. I think there were 4 classes in the spelling bee. The trophy was silver and it said:

Missy May

3rd Runner-Up

3rd Grade Spelling Bee

I was upset when I missed the word: o'clock. I said "o hyphen c-l-o-c-k" instead of apostrophe. I cried, but not as much as I cried in 5th grade when I didn't even make it to the school spelling bee ~ that was a horrible day in my school career.

Shortly after I won the trophy, the name plate got scratched. I don't know how it happened, but every time I saw it, I would cringe and try to rub it out.

Daddy and I have moved 6 times. During all those moves, we only lost one box...and I am pretty sure my poor trophy was in that one box...along with a few other treasures.