In The Beginning ...

I think it all began long before I have any clear memory of my childhood. That "horse" thing. I read in a baby book my mother kept that somewhere around the age of 3 or 4 "she loves Mr. Ed, the talking horse on the t.v show. He is her favorite". While other neighborhood girls were busy taking tap dance and ballet lessons, I was busy prancing my plastic horses around on the floor, on the table, across the stereo - anywhere I could. A walk to the cemetary with my grandmother, meant a chance to feed that pony pastured next to it a sugar cube. And I couldn't wait for a special occasion to add to my collection of glass display horses - you see, back in the early 1960's if you were a little girl and you loved horses, that's what you collected.
But it never progressed beyond that. We lived in the "city" and had no land or money to keep a horse or even take riding lessons. I guess by today's standards we would be considered "poor", but I didn't think so back then, nor do I now. We always had food on the table, a roof over our heads, clothing on our back, and a gaggle of kids in the neighborhood to raise a ruckus with. Summers seemed longer and hotter than they do now, our mothers were always home to mend a scraped knee, we walked to the supermarket, and most of us were one car families. And as I grew older, thoughts of horses faded from my mind.



Oh, by the way, remember those girls from the neighborhood? The ones who took the tap and ballet lessons? Today, 40 years later, they aren't dancing in Ballets or Broadway shows .... but I've got my horse .... and I'm riding. Hmm, funny how things turn out.