I’ve always been a tomboy. As a kid, I loved mudpies, treehouses, four-wheelers, t-shirts, and baseball caps. If I wasn’t inside drawing, I was outside – dirty, grass-stained, and happy. In keeping with this pattern, I wanted to cut my hair short. Short short. I don’t remember why… But, I remember that I did. And, from the back, most people thought I was a little boy. It took me twenty-five years to cut my hair short again.
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when i was in the third grade (i was a tomboy all my life, too), i seriously begged my mother to let me get a boy hair cut. kinda like one of those bowl cuts…
looking back, all i want to do is hug my precious mom for saving me.
also…once i pretended to ‘run away’ (like tom sawyer or something) with a bag of girl scout thin mints and a package of ramen noodles. i think i lasted about an hour.
I NEVER ran away. We lived in the country… And by country I mean KUNTREE – wild dogs and dirt roads and pecan groves and alligators in ponds. We lived in a lot surrounded by meadows/trees/forest, and literally can’t see any other houses from my parents. So, yeah, running away was a scary thought!
So… How far did you get? & did you just walk back in the house? or climb in your room?? & do your parents know you ran away? This is all so fascinating!
lol. i don’t know if it actually counts as running away. but i read a novel when i was like in fourth or fifth grade called ‘homecoming’. these four kids had to kinda find their own way to some aunt’s house or something across the country.
it all seemed so romantic! so i thought i’d try it. i think i prolly only made it about a half mile through the woods behind my house before i had already eaten all of my cookies AND the entire package of ramen noodles…uncooked. it was then that i decided i prolly didn’t have what it takes to make it. it wasn’t exactly the journey my little adventurous self was going for…
and i don’t think my parents even knew!
“Romantic,” I’m learning, has multiple meanings. So does “sexy” nowadays. For instance, some guy called my laptop sexy recently. Um. It’s thin. Slightly curvy. But only has one apple on it. Go figure.
(I’m sorry. Did I just throw this off topic?)
Oh yeah. ‘sexy’ does have a whole new meaning. My manager is likely to term almost anything ‘sexy’ — wine, a proper silverware roll, a straight tablecloth … it’s like he thinks it means ‘the bomb.’ haha. Yeah, I guess ‘sexy’ is the new ‘bomb.’
sexy is the new ‘bomb’. i’ll buy that.
I think “sexy” bombs as the new bomb. Why do I want to have my mind turned to sex in casual conversation like that?? It’s quite disturbing for me to hear some random guy/man describe something completely non-sexual in a sexual way. ugh. Now, if my husband stepped up to me and said something like that, THEN I think I’d like it. But for most guys? They just bomb…
My bio prof always used to refer to the “sexy stuff” the brain does. I bet you didn’t know the brain was so sexy.
As I mentioned before, that would make me highly uncomfortable.
I thought Elmer’s Glue paste tasted good?!!! OH bother
I did however have the best sounding bike with my dad’s brand new playing cards in the spoke.
Had the biggest marble collection.
Oh yea, I helped Freddie blow up Barbie once or twice.
Tom boy ALL the way!!
GLUE DOES TASTE GOOD!!!
And we had GI Joes that could dive off the porch with parachutes, but Barbie wasn’t allowed to have a parachute. muahhahaha
I used to think glue and soap were one in the same. I used glue as soap many many times. Oh, kindergarten. (At least I was “washing” my hands, right?)
P.S. Thanks for helping me procrastinate tonight.
We do what we can! Now go study!!! Just because you’re on the quarter system, doesn’t mean you can procrastinate much longer…
Ugh. FINE…
I was always being mistaken for a boy when I was little. I liked to climb trees and had a pixie hairstyle. And it didn’t help that I have a deep, raspy voice…even as a kid. So yeah…I get it.
Today I’d rather have my hands in the mud than a sink of soapy water. But you know, I can be the girliest girl sometimes. Dressing up is kinda fun.
I’m a walking contradiction.
I’m the same. 9 out of 10 days I’d rather be in jeans & a t-shirt… But every so often I get this bug to play dress-up, and I LOVE it!
gotta go shopping for a dress tomorrow, and I think you’re helping motivate me!
Happy to oblige!
As a child my hair was always cut short. As a teenager crew cuts, and flat tops, keep straight by Butch Wax, gave way to the longer DA’s, keeped in place with Brylcreem. I never liked the longer hair, pony tails, and long side burns that came in to vogue in the 60′s. Now I wish I had enough hair for any style but the wide part.
All I remember from kindergarten was having fun with finger painting. That was before my OCD personality kicked in.
Finger painting may be the most expressive style of art I can think you. I am sorry I ever gave it up. The next time it rains I should go play in the mud with the neighbor’s kids. 
Our house was the first one built on the street, in 1949, except for a farm across the street. It was mostly woods. I did see some deer, but no alligators. I got bite by a dog once and had to have rabies shots. Perhaps that is where my fear of needles came from.
1) What’s DA’s & Brylcream?
2) Why can’t you return to fingerpainting??
3) Um. Should’ve been a fear of DOGS ~ not needles, Ed!!
I suspect your are trying to make me seem old, which isn’t hard to do since I am.
1) They still sell Brylcream which is kinda like glue for hair, if you use enough of it.
The Duck’s Ass hair cut look’s like what it is named after:
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/ducktail.jpg
2)Nothing stops me from fingerpainting, except it would be like Det. Monk trying it. I would probably want to stop and wipe off my hands every time I stuck them in the paint.
You’ve given me a new challange. If you can try hip hop I should try fingerpainting again.
3)The needles hurt worst than the dog bite. I did learn to stay away from stray dogs.
ED!!! I’m not trying anything. I’m simply asking innocent questions, sir!
Sooo… A DA = Duck’s “tail” eh??? wow. Those were cool looks. I’ve seen ‘em before, but didn’t know that was the name!
Well, I still think you should fingerpaint. It’d be a GREAT way to pass a Saturday!! Can’t wait to see what you come up with.
HaHa, I blogged about this one day. In fourth grade my mom lopped my hair off even with the bottom of my ears and cut my bangs straight across and short. I looked just like the Dutch boy on the paint can. Guess what all the kids called me… Yep, Dutch boy. That was a bad year. My hair has never been cut shorter than just below my shoulders ever since. Just in case you’d like to see a picture…
http://bsidethesea.blogspot.com/2009/03/bad-hair-day.html
At least you didn’t ASK for it to be like that, right??
LOVED the pic. Thanks for leaving a link.
When I was in kindergarten my teacher – Mrs. Tuttle used to bop us on the head whenever she wanted to get our attention. I am pretty sure that isn’t allowed anymore in the public school system.
True true. But it might be legal in South Africa!
I’ve always been a tomboy too. I tried to hide it for awhile, but that just doesn’t work for me.
9 out of 10 days I AM in a t-shirt and jeans. But I do like dressing up occasionally.
I’ve always preferred the sports more often linked to guys–baseball, martial arts, etc. I tried gymnastics once. I lasted 2 weeks.
While I did play with Polly Pockets and such, I spent a lot of my time outside with my brother playing Cowboys and Indians with cap guns.
Towards the end of 8th grade, one of my aunts convinced me to cut my hair SHORT. I left it that way until about my senior year, mostly because it meant very low maintenance. But I don’t think I would do it again.
I tried running away once. But it was actually from my aunt’s house. She wasn’t exactly good with little kids. Then my brother and I realized we would miss our parents too much, so we went back. Only made it to the end of the block. For some reason, I seem to remember that being the same day I fell (while on skates) into a rose bush, but that can’t be right.
Skates & a rose bush?? Isn’t it interesting how our memories get all screwy & stuff…?
Haha…rose bush day was definitely the same day that I got a black eye from falling on those skates, managing to hit my eye on a support pule of a small wooden fence.
This is why it came as no surprise when I walked right into a tree a few weeks ago.
It is…I wonder if those two events are even remotely close to each other. Probably not though.
Hm. You may be the only person I know who likes to walk around with their eyes closed!
Granted, I like to run with my eyes closed, so we’re a match!!
Haha! Walking with my eyes closed is actually pretty relaxing…until that tree branch or pole (I spelled it right this time!) comes along.
In kindergarten I went to a school that made me wear skirts/dresses everyday…..Never left the house without a pair of gym shorts under them!! You can’t have fun on the playground in a skirt. I used to tell people that my name was Angela Lea Ramsey, Tomboy and wanted to be a truck driver!
That is AWESOME!! I don’t know if I would’ve survived in skirts/dresses everyday. ick!!! Yeah. Wouldn’t have been a good idea…
In kindergarten, we HAD to wear gym shorts underneath our skirts or dresses. There was an incident…
But all around, it just made much more sense. We could all easily have fun on the playground that way.
When I was in first grade, I went with my Granny to the beauty parlor. This was not unusual – it was actually a regular thing for us. But this one time, she let me get my haircut – after picking out a haircut from a book. A BOY HAIRCUT. I don’t remember, but I think my mom must have wanted to kill Granny. She didn’t. But I had to suffer through that boy look for a long time.
Wouldn’t you think that going to a place called a “beauty parlor” with my Granny would be more likely to result in curlers or a permanent (as the old ladies call it)? Nope. Just the boy cut. *sigh*
Do you have any idea what your Granny was thinking??! Seriously. How in the world did she think it ok? or were you just so dang cute that she couldn’t resist??? wow…
I was so mad in first grade because I had long hair and mom had it cut into a Dorothy Hamill thing… then I had short hair pretty much all the time until college. I love short hairstyles, but the longer works better with the curls.
i was a roly-poly chubber back in Kindergarten…