#SOL18 3-27-18. Where did you get your imagination?

Where did you get your imagination? If you had to guess what would you say?” -Lynda Barry, Syllabus: Notes From an Accidental Professor 

The little girl with the yellow plastic pigtails and Fido the dog lived in the Fisher Price Little People Playhouse with: a working doorbell, window boxes, two fireplaces, a braid rug, shutters, and a Dutch door. Just down the street, you could find a circular parking garage ramp, and a family farm barn with sheep and horses. Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo kept me company. My imagination came from pretend.

64 Different Brilliant Colors with New! Built In Sharpener, the Spirograph, and walking alone carrying my transistor radio. Fairy gardens and club houses. Jump rope rhymes and chants. Pages and pages of perfect cursive spirals. My imagination came from creating.

Hiding below the bleachers at practices in all four seasons, staring at hairy white calves. Loud, smoke filled bowling alleys. Dark Shadows. Getting lost, repeatedly, at TG&Y and finding a cashier to have my mother paged. My imagination came from being alone, shy, and quiet.

Sitting on the library kiva steps, lights out, on a snowy afternoon while the teacher read Call of the Wild. The wardrobe, where the sidewalk ends, and my little book of prayers. Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales- The Princess and the Pea & The Little Match Girl. Grandma Sam’s hymns, Woody Guthrie folk songs, and tales of the old west. My imagination came from stories.

Grandma Joy’s house, every drawer and shelf rich with treasure: books, keys, jewels, indian head nickels, and Avon. Iwo Jima, with black rabbit fur for hair, silk pajamas and a nose ring. A purple Crown Royal bag filled with silver coins. My mother’s black lacquer treasure box from Chinatown. The change dish and Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum on top of the china closet. My imagination came from snooping.

Alone and cold in the near-dark on the concrete steps in front of our townhouse. Accidentally locked out one winter afternoon when dark came early, not knowing what time it was or how long I would be waiting. Strangers coming home to other doors while I looked away trying to make myself invisible. My imagination came from being scared and unsure.

Long drives at night through the desert, stars obscured by highway lights, The Adventures of the Thin Man, The Shadow, Lights Out, or The Whistler, telling tales via the cassette player. My imagination came from creating images in my head.

“Where did you get your imagination? If you had to guess what would you say?”