Excerpts from Memoir Class - Part 2

Another 5 minute prompt - no idea what we were supposed to write about but this is what came out - I think I was working on descriptions-I am not good at details.

You know the song “I wish we all could be California girls”.  Well, I am a California girl.  Never mind that I was technically born in Oregon and moved to Wisconsin at age 13.  At heart, I belong in California.

I spend the ages of 1-13 in the heart of Northern California.  Home of the redwood trees, the Pacific Ocean and the mission hills.  I have no idea if I have romanticized my time there but my memories tell me that I always loved it.

Yearly visits to Half Moon Bay for the annual pumpkin festival, waiting in a line of cars spiraling out of the valley for hours just to crawl among the pumpkins attempting to find the perfect fit.  Weekend visits to the Redwood forests to walk and hike among the towering trees.  Craning your neck so far back it hurt – trying to see the top of the 100 foot trees -straining to wrap your arms around the trunks wider than the car.

Summers filled with camping trips that included early morning clamming parties.  I never could quite dig fast enough at the bubbling sand to catch the fleeing clams – but I was good at pointing them out to my dad.  Wading in the tide pools, finding smelly starfish, shells and other creatures I just had to bring home with me despite my mother’s protests – only to be thrown away when I lost interest shortly thereafter.  The fun was in the finding- not the keeping.