memories.

People are often amazed and slightly weird-ed out by my memory. I can remember the CRAZIEST things... sometimes meaningful, sometimes random. It's not just the event that i remember it's the details that make up the event that make people turn their head sideways and wonder how in the World i noticed, much less remember what "so-and-so" was wearing at the event or occasion.

I was thinking about how sad it would be to lose all these crazy/amazing/wonderful memories and not be able to tell the stories in full detail... *light bulb*.... write about them on my blog and then they are recorded somewhere! Brilliant idea! So this is me... starting the first of a random series of blog post called 'memories'. They may be meaningful or just a simple memory of a far off time... but please enjoy them and pass them around... especially if they make you laugh!

memories #1. circa 1993(ish)

One of the most brilliant and vivid childhood memories i have is playing "Jesus of Nazareth" in our backyard with my siblings. I have 3 memories of repeated events in that backyard; Football with Dad, 'Jesus of Nazareth' and swimming. Those 3 things seemed to happen all the time. In my mind it's like a movie. A brilliant picture. We grew up in the Puyallup WA area and there is an Amphitheater that every Summer puts on a show, much like the stage version of the JESUS film... except sometimes slightly more dramatic! My brothers Gregg, Jeremiah & i LOVED going to see this amazing event...Mom & Dad graciously took us a few years in a row! After the "God fights the devil" scene that got a little cooky and out of hand they told us we weren't coming again. I only remember being slightly sad about this news.... I'm not sure if we had already started our favorite afternoon activity and or if it just wasn't a big deal.

We loved to dress up. We had a HUGE dress up box/bin. Hats, dresses, scarves, gloves, pants, shoes and our favorite; Mom's old "Brownies" uniforms. We never really new what "Brownies" was, but the uniforms made the BEST "bible cloths" ever!

Carissa, Lindsey and Josh were little which meant that they could play "Jesus of Nazareth" with us, but we got to pick who they were... Mostly they got the parts of the demonized child, the "dead" girl that Jesus said was only sleeping, the angry crowd who shouted "crucify him"and the leapers who he healed on the road. Jeremiah was always 'Jesus'... because when we used dad's scrap wood to build our 'cross' we only had enough to make a "small-ish" cross and Jeremiah fit best on it. Gregg was always a combination of Disciples, Pilot, Roman Solider and John the Baptist. I was any girl character we could come up with... Mary the mother of Jesus, a girl follower of Jesus, Pilot's wife...and a Roman Solider because it took 2 of us to lift the cross up against the fence.

Our backyard was 'huge' to any 8 year old and we had all the right things to pull of the most brilliant production ever. One time we discussed making posters and selling tickets to our neighbors. We had an above-ground pool that was amazing for our Baptism scenes. We built our cross. We had a swing set with a double swing thing, that we used as our boat for the disciples to go fishing in. And we had our "Brownie" uniforms for our costumes!

On this particular day of production the 3 little kids were taking a nap. Gregg, Jeremiah and I were instructed to play outside nicely. Out we went. 'Jesus of Nazareth' seemed like the logical thing to do... but since we were missing half our cast we could only practice a few scenes. The crucifixion scene needed some work. Incidentally Jeremiah wasn't dying a very convincing death. We drug the cross out from the side of the house and lay it down on its back near the fence. Jeremiah assumed the position on the cross. He put his little 6 year old feet on the small platform we had nailed to the lower part of the cross and stretched out his arms to the cross beam so we could tie him down. I'm pretty sure we used strips of fabric and ribbon to tie him there, but i remember wishing we could use "real rope". Gregg got the hammer and pretended to nail in spikes to his hands and feet. Jeremiah winced and grimaced as if in deep pain. I pretended to need to hold Jeremiah on the cross. Once we had successfully tied him down, Gregg and i would each lift a side of the cross beam and drag Jeremiah on the cross over to the hole we had dug next to the fence, so that the cross would stay standing and lean a little bit against the fence. Jeremiah would then say his line "Father why have you forsaken me?" and then he would hang his head and "die"....

well on this particular day for whatever reason, Gregg and i decided to see how long he would stay "dead" and snuck inside the rec-room to watch from behind the closed sliding glass door. Jeremiah was a champ and for sure needs a Daytime Emmy for his performance, because he stayed "dead" on that cross for quite awhile. Time and age has had it's proper affect on my life and i don't really know how long we left him there, but i'm sure it was at least 15 minutes... and for a 6 year old strapped to a cross and propped up against a fence... it must have felt like a year! Meanwhile Gregg and i got distracted in the rec-room and the next thing we know is Mom's voice breaking the silence "Gregg? Cassie? where is Jeremiah?". I am pretty sure she must have heard us in the rec-room and looked out the window....we must have responded with muffled giggles because the next thing we hear from upstairs is "Go outside and get him down off that cross!!!" Out the sliding glass door we flew, just as Jeremiah popped his head up and opened his "dead" eyes to ask "how'd i do?". We got him down and he seemed un-harmed physically or damaged emotionally.

It had been a successful rehearsal.