Life Book Lesson 46 – Glorious Childhood Tales with Violette Clark.
This was such a fun lesson! Violette showed us how to make a beautiful cartoon/story board of our happy childhood memories. And I had many indeed!!
At home I went by my nickname “Licha” because my mom’s name was Carmen and my aunt’s name was Carmen. Licha is for Alicia.
When I was going through the introduction I was really eager to start because I remember so many fun things I did growing up in Mexico. I was a precocious child; always asking questions and wanting to know the why, where, and whens of everything. You would find me reading in the car, on the floor, in bed, while visiting my parents friends, at the bull ring, you name it, I had a book in my hand. (Yes, you read that right. The men in our family were bullfighting enthusiasts, but I hated watching!)
I had very curly hair and mom would comb it in ringlets or “bouclettes” for the French influence in Mexico. Sometimes, she would get tired of my hair being so messy and she would wet it with lime juice and pull it so tight to make tiny pony tails or braids, my eyes looked Asian, LOL!
Life now a days is so different than when I was growing up 50+ years ago. We would stay out late playing with the neighborhood kids until it got too dark to see the ball or whatever we were playing with. And we really entertained ourselves without television. Since there were very few girls in the neighborhood, I often played by myself. My fondest memories are when I would play “grocery store.” I would grind up the red bricks for red chile, the dirt for cocoa, and the sand as flour. I made my own scales and weighed everything out and put it in paper cones for the “customers” to take home.
With the boys I learned to play tops, marbles, and ride bikes, much of which mom hated! I went to a private school where we were made to act very proper, so most of the time during recess I would play Jacks. And in my quiet time and at school my favorite pastime was to draw and color.
I loved paper dolls and spent many hours playing with my sister. Mom was very crafty and made more dolls, clothes and the furniture out of match boxes. The clothes were traditional clothing from different regions in Mexico. The big boxes were the beds and then she would make chairs, and dressers with the small match boxes. I never got bored!
When I was seven years old my dad finally bought an RCA television. And, that’s because he caught me watching the neighbor’s TV through their window after paying them .25 cents to watch. He felt so bad, the very next day he went and bought us a black and white set.
That’s when I came in contact with the English language because dad would watch American television programs.
In Mexico, we didn’t have a lunch period. Dad would pick us up and take us home to eat a warm meal mom had prepared for us. After lunch, he would relax by watching The Secret Storm, The Edge of Night, Days of Our Lives and other nightly program.
There you have a story board of my childhood memories. By the way, that’s my little sister hurrying me to go play paper dolls with her.
Here’s my tag and spinner!
My favorite snacks in the summer were the “raspas” or cherry flavored snow cones.
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy creating!!
Carmen
Visionary Art by Carmen Alicia 