E.T. and rug burns

Ca. 1988 - Playing in my bedroom, which, as I have been told, did not have any insolation, when I hear my parents outside in the front yard.  I ran to my window and saw Sister (8-9) getting out of a car I didn't recognize.  She was holding her arm and crying.  I'd learn later that she had broken her collarbone at a birthday party (going down a water slide and another girl went down behind her too quick and when they collided, it broke her bone).  I remember seeing her in pain and thinking, "I MUST make her feel better!" and turning and running out of my room, on a mission.

Ca. 1988 - Watching E.T. in my usual living room chair, and hiding behind the chair when Elliot is throwing the baseball into the backyard shed.  Scariest moment in my life as of yet.

Ca. 1988 - Yelling at my mom from the top of the stairs to come see something in my room.  She wouldn't come up, so I kept going back to the stairs to yell down.  At one point, I slipped and somehow slid down about six or seven stairs on my stomach.  It left a huge rug burn.  I remember pouting about it the rest of the day and was playing Memory with my mom on the piano bench (instead of the table??) when my dad came home and I got to show him the mark on my belly.  I still have a strange little mark on my stomach that I claim to this day is from that fall down the stairs.

Butter and fingernails

Ca. 1988 - Sitting at the kitchen table before dinner.  The table had been set but for some reason I was the only one in the room.  I climbed up to my chair and started digging into the butter.  I had a thing for butter when I was little.  Sister walked in and saw me eating the stick of butter and immediately I knew I was in trouble.  I yelled, "Nooo don't tell Mom!! Tell her I was chewing my nails!!" Yes, I have been biting my nails since around 1988.

Ca. 1988 - Watching "The Parent Trap" starring Hayley Mills in my living room.  There is that scene where one twin has to start biting her nails so her dad won't suspect anything.  I looked down at my nails and well, the rest is history.