First Performance

My earliest memory is from when I was four.  I suppose there could be something prior, but I know this one specifically because I happened to be singing a song about being four.

My friend Lindsey was my backyard neighbor.  We were the same age, we both had blonde hair, and we often strove to have matching outfits.  This was one of those matching kind of days.  I remember we both had dresses that were white with some kind of random splashes of color and for whatever reason we were absolutely THRILLED about our lives.  We were on the top of the world.  It was a beautiful early summer day, we had fantastic dresses, and we were four!  

I'm not sure who initiated the performance, but it would make sense if it was me.  Since I spent the better part of my years from grade school to high school memorizing and performing choreography for ballet, tap, jazz and modern - it wouldn't be a huge surprise if I had the itch to start early.  Except, I've never had much of a singing voice, so maybe it was a joint effort - me with the choreo and Lindsay with the music. 

We were in my backyard where there had been a ditch dug to bury a telephone line underground.  Enough time had passed that the grass was coming back, but the line in the yard was still evident; this was our runway.  The sun was shining bright, the sky was blue and the grass couldn't have been greener.  We began with skipping side by side along our pathway, but after a minute this wasn't enough to express our pure joy - we needed more!  Let's sing about ourselves, of course.  And maybe if we hold up one hand with four fingers up and our thumb tucked in?  (It wasn't enough to be four, we had to show people) YES!  Wait, let's put our other hand on our hip WHILE we skip and hold up four fingers!  YES, YES!  

"We are four!  We are foooooooouuuuuurrrrrrrr! We are four!"

I desperately wish I remember more of what we sang, but there's also the chance that we kept it simple and that was it.  They do say that brevity is the soul of wit.

Sometimes I wonder if this was one of my happiest days.  Instinctively, as a kid I always knew that childhood was the best part of life.  By eleven I was already sad about growing up.  Even though it was still two years before being dubbed a teenager, I knew it would be different from then on.  And I was right!  But that's another subject for another day.  For now I should probably incorporate more skipping into my daily routine.