Cross Country with My Teddy Bear at My Side.

So I found a list of writing exercises I’m going to tackle in an effort to improve myself as a writer.  And since I have a spot on the internet where I like to post such nonsense, this is where it will land.  I’m enjoying updating this space on a fairly regular basis and hope to continue to do so.

Try to identify your earliest childhood memory. Write down everything you can remember about it. Rewrite it as a scene. You may choose to do this from your current perspective or from the perspective you had at that age.

It’s a fairly dark room with two beds in it.  At least, that’s how I remember it.  The television is on in the corner of what I will later learn is a hotel room at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada.  My cousin Regina is there with me, babysitting.  I’m two and a half years old.  Regina lives about a block away with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Renee.  Today we’re not on that block, though. We’re actually on a road trip.  She and I, along with my parents, are driving across a big chunk of the country to go visit family in Wisconsin.  As far as I know this is was the first time I ever traveled outside the borders of California.

The reason Regina, a teenager, is babysitting is because my Mom and Dad are out exploring the casino floor.  Things are a bit misty, but the door opens and my parents reappear.  Mom’s carrying something behind her back, but it’s too hard to really figure out what it is.  When she pulls her arm out that’s the first time I set eyes on him.  It’s a big, brown teddy bear.  But not just any teddy bear, it’s my teddy bear.  It’s a koala bear that, with the help of my mom, I named Aussie because koalas are Australian I am a very uncreative child.  It turns out the Circus Circus has a selection of carnival games to match their theme of a casino under the big top.  Mom spent a bit of money trying to win that stuffed bear and now he was mine.  Instantly, we are thick as thieves.  This bear accompanies me on the rest of the trip, as well as the rest of my childhood.  When I’m in my room alone, he becomes the friend I play with and talk to. Aussie became the one prized toy I never let go of.  The fact is I still have him now, 27 years later, in my apartment.  We don’t hang out as often as we did but I am happy that, should the time ever come where I have a child, I will be able to pass on my childhood teddy bear.

I don’t really remember anything else from that trip.  I’ve seen millions of pictures in various photo albums and I even have a picture of myself, my mom, and my dad taken on that trip on the desk I’m sitting at right now.  That one memory, however, will never disappear.  And that makes me smile.