Friday, March 19, 2010

Great Moments In Girlhood

I think I may have been a little "confused" during my elementary school days...

When I was 5, I requested an R2-D2-shaped cake for my birthday party. The bakery called my mom twice to confirm that they had been given the right name and that this cake was indeed for a girl.

I had more Matchbox cars than Barbie dolls.

At school during recess, when all the girls would chase the boys and try to kiss them, I was the bodyguard for the boys. Even they were terrified of me.

One of my classrooms was set up in groups, with 4 desks to a group and seats randomly assigned, but you could opt to switch groups or stay where you were at the beginning of every month. I'm pretty sure I shared a group with the same 3 guys for 4 months straight before the teacher split us up because it was "unfair" to the other kids.

In second grade, I had a reputation for shin-kicking and shoe-throwing. These were mainly defensive tactics used against those who dared ridicule me for liking hockey, in general, and the New York Rangers, in particular. Remember — this was Islander territory, at the height of their grand '80s dynasty. But my allegiance never wavered, and it didn't hurt that I was actually more knowledgable about the game than my male classmates. [Confidential to Danny K.: I'm sorry I hurt your feelings and your knee, but goalies can score, and it's still 3 PERIODS to a hockey game, not 3 "halves."]

In fact, the hockey thing still persists: Several years ago, after a big family dinner at my grandparents' house, while all the female relatives were in the kitchen chatting and doing dishes, I was in the living room watching the game with the guys. When a fight inevitably broke out on-screen, I jumped off the couch and yelled, "Yeah! Kick his ass!"

My dad turned to my uncle and said with pride, "That's my little girl!"

4 comments:

  1. All good training for your future roller derby career! I wanted to be an indian and used to make my own arrows, canoes, and wig wams (I really wanted a tee-pee, but there were no buffalo skins to be found in my neck of the woods).

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  2. Oh come on Becca!
    You were not confused. You were being (here I go again) SMART!.
    Being surrounded by cool boys instead of a bunch of noisy & annoying girls?
    ;-)

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  3. Barbies were only good for riding the Breyer model horses. I stayed absolutely filthy 99.7% of my childhood. I hated pink, dresses, and anything frilly. Now, I'm a girly-girl, but I can still get dirty with the best of them!

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  4. I always had tons of dolls & toys.

    My name should have been Sid from "Toy Story".
    Dr. Mengele of toys, specially dolls!

    Should I say more?:-/

    http://quizilla.teennick.com/user_images/H/HO/HOL/HOLDme4evERiLOVEu/1137240597_nime2sid29.jpg

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