4 posts tagged “childhood”
When I was in the 1st or 2nd grade, my parents gave me and my brother a record entitled Gee, Our 1st Album! Produced in 1982 by Showbiz Pizza (which later merged with Chuck E. Cheese), it featured Billy Bob, Mitzi, and the rest of the Animatronics gang (aka The Rock-afire Explosion) interpreting various hits from the 1950s to what was then the present day.
The track list on this gem paid tribute to some of the best rock and pop artists ever. The Rock-afire Explosion covered everyone from Elvis ("Little Sister"), Paul McCartney ("My Love"), and Billy Joel ("You May Be Right"), to The Yardbirds ("For Your Love"), The Doors ("Light My Fire"), and The Rolling Stones ("Satisfaction"). They also delivered a moving rendition of "Unchained Melody," by The Righteous Brothers, before rocking the house with a fab Beatles medley.
My brother and I listened to this album over and over and over again. It introduced us to an amazing era in music—and left a deep impression on my musical sensibilities. It may sound silly, but I really cannot overstate the influence this record had on me. (Would I still be obsessed with The Beatles had I never owned this album? It's scary to even think about it.)
I do wonder, however, how the Showbiz Pizza folks ever thought that some of these lyrics (such as "I can't get no satisfaction" or "Remember how I found you there, alone in your electric chair? I told you dirty jokes until you smiled") were in any way appropriate for their target demographic. Is it wrong that I nevertheless plan to introduce my future kids to this masterpiece as soon as they can operate a turntable?
Everyone has a favorite childhood toy or two, and one of mine was the Bata Bata. This humble contraption consisted of a small hoop connected to a thin rubber tube with a small ball at the end of it. To play with it, you would put the hoop on one ankle and then use that foot to swing the rest of the Bata Bata around in circles, close to the ground, while your other foot skipped over the rubber tube. Because the ball at the end of the tube was weighted with beads, the Bata Bata made a fantastic rattle when in motion.
My best friend and I each had a Bata Bata, and we would compete against each other to see who could do the most skips without tripping on the tube or running out of breath. Of course, keeping count while skipping requires a concentration that we hadn't yet developed, so we'd often lose count and have to start over. Our big dream was to invent a Bata Bata that could keep count of our skips for us (little did we know that this "invention" of ours would soon be a reality in the States!). We would do the Bata Bata until our legs gave out.
Since leaving Uruguay and becoming an adult, I've often waxed nostalgic about the great times my best friend and I had with our Bata Batas—and I've secretly longed to own one again. So when I finally happened to spy a Bata Bata in Meijer today, there was no way I was leaving the store without buying it!
My new toy doesn't have a counter, but it's still way fancier than any real Bata Bata I ever owned. I tried it out as soon as I got home, running into a small snag when I quickly discovered that you cannot do the Bata Bata with jeans on. (I guess I always did the Bata Bata in the summertime before!) After rolling up my jeans, though, it was like I'd never stopped doing the Bata Bata. I only counted up to 100 before deciding that was enough for my first time back on the Bata Bata, but I broke a sweat well before then. I do believe that I've discovered a great way to burn some calories while watching TV!
Now if I could just get my childhood best friend to fly out from California for a good, old-fashioned Bata Bata contest ...
Linguists assert that most families have a private language, or "familylect." Words in a familylect are usually (1) made up and (2) understood only by that family's members.
Someone asked me today what the meaning is behind my screen name. "Guycita" comes from "guycitos," which is a word my dad came up with at some point during my childhood. The root word is—yep—the English noun "guys." The Spanish suffix -ito (or -cito) indicates small size and/or affection. Therefore, "guycitos" is Spanglish for "little guys"—or even "little guys whom I love." It was my dad's special word for me and my brother when we were kids.
When I left home, I realized that the word "guycitos" was probably unique to my family. Perhaps it will be the special word I use for my children someday—or maybe we'll come up with our own familylect.
My father is Peruvian, and my mother is a native Hoosier. I am at once both and neither.
A friend recently referred to me as "mixed." This term does not offend me in the least, but I prefer to think of myself as "mitad mitad" (which is Spanish for "half and half"). That's because the concept of "mitad mitad" is about more than race or ethnicity: In my mind, it evokes the experience of having each foot in a different culture, in a different world.
The people who study these things would call me a "TCK" (third culture kid). The idea is that kids who grow up with the daily influence of two cultures create a third, hybrid culture of their own. I reject the label "TCK" for myself, however, because I grew up as a missionary kid in Uruguay, meaning that I had the daily influence of three cultures. The culture of my own making would then, logically, be my fourth culture. But I think being known as an "FCK" would sound (and definitely look) borderline vulgar.
So I'll just stick with "mitad mitad."
