Retrospect: Pawlet 1980-1985

I'm turning 30 in a few days. I'm fine with the 30 thing. But certainly a lot has happened in 3 decades and so I think this is a good opportunity to take a look back. I did a little digging to see what pictures I could find. There weren't many from those early days! But I did find a few that bring back great memories.

Wow, I've led a pretty nomadic life, with my family and then later on my own. From humble Pawlet, Vermont to Paris, France, I've lived in more houses than I can count on two hands.

I'll start with humble Pawlet. Here's what I remember:

• Here's where I grew up from 0-5 years. I was the youngest of three little girls.
• In the winter, the snow was always above my head.
• My mother might say I had issues as a small child. I got into naughty things like pills and rat poison. But somehow made it through ok...
  
• When I was less than 2, my mother took us girls back to England to live while my parents' marriage was on the rocks. Luckily, Papa got a grip, he and Mummy patched things up and we moved back to good old Pawlet.
• We started going to church—all the way in Glens Falls, New York!
  
• Our house burned down. We lost most of our belongings. But it meant we got to build a shiny new house! While the new house was being built, we stayed in our friends the Winpennys' sugar house for the summer.
  
• I loved leotards—I wore them all the time.
• I loved the color purple.
• I loved drawing and still remember what I got for my 4th (?) birthday: a carousel filled to the brim with Crayola crayons. I will never forget that.
  
• My best friend Aura Joy lived next door. One day I cut all of her hair off. Her mom was mad.
• I liked to cut my own hair too. That's why I always had short hair.
• I fell off the rope swing behind the house. It knocked the wind out of me.
  
• We had sheep outside. When our sheep Jemimah gave birth to a little lamb, my parents let me name him. I named him Butt Lamb because he would run after you and try to butt you like a goat. Butt Lamb was dirty white with a black face. I loved him. Whatever happened to butt lamb?
• In 1985, Papa got offered a job preaching at a church in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. So, we packed up our belongings and, on my fifth birthday, we upped and moved away.