Recently I received one of those emails with a list of questions geared to get to know your friends better. The questions range from 'what are you listening to right now' to 'what jobs have you had in your life', etc. I exchanged answers with my two best buds from college. It was a trip down memory lane. After 3.5 years of living with 1-2 miles of each other, 2 years in which were on the same dorm floor, I was reminded of things I'd forgotten (like how S has a repulsion to food on sticks) and yet learned new things about them as well. Which is only logical, since we first met in 1989.
One question which took be down memory lane asked the popular question - what did you want to be as a kid. I wanted to be a puppeteer. A puppeteer in a cool way - not like John Cusack in Being John Malkovich. I had a collection of puppets, from a real Miss Piggy & Rowlf from The Muppets to a knock-off Kermit, and a bunch of other anonymous/non-commercial characters. I had one of those oh-so-70s plastic shelving set-ups (I think it was branded as etagere, very swanky, very puke yellow) in which I displayed my collection of puppets. I even had a few marionettes. The homemade bird - made with fishing line, styrofoam balls, orange feathers, and those hobby store eyes that rattle - was a good intro marionette. Very simple construction so that even if you managed to tangle it up, it could be undone without parental intervention.
My heroes in the world of puppetry were local. They still have a studio and perform throughout the area. As a child they were my rock stars. They lived upstairs above their puppet studio, went to my church, even came over for dinner once in awhile. I actually got Christmas cards from them, and had been backstage to see them work and create from scratch their characters. I loved it. It was a magical time.
As all kids do, I had many career aspirations throughout childhood, adolescence and now even - in my 30s. I still don't know what I want to do (write?), but it's still amazing to dream and explore options . . .
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