Dallin L. Green
The Golden State Kid
Dallin grew up in the central coast of California, mostly in Atascadero, right on the edge of Santa Margarita, which is a tiny town that sales live bait on the main street. When I sat down with him, he decided to outline a typical weekend. This consisted of being woken up at 7am by the voice of a cheerful Erban bellowing "Rise and shine!" "Up and Adam!" "Burnin' daylight!" to which all six children would get up and then have a nice hot breakfast waiting for them at the table. This usually consisted of pancakes with warm maple syrup as well as a creamy vs chunky peanut butter debacle amongst the kids.
Following breakfast, the family would scurry off to do jobs aka chores. A little sidenote, as Dallin was telling me about these jobs he realized his mom used skills to make her children feel like they were choosing to do chores, when in reality they were just choosing which chore they wanted to do; not doing them was not an option. These jobs included Dallin putting the hose on the back of the Shop-Vac and blow the dust out of the garage and consider that cleaning it out and sweeping the space. Such a cheater. They would also each have a section of flooring to clean inside as well as a section of weed pulling. He is quite good at pulling weeds in our garden, gets right down to the root on the first try, every time.
His best friend/neighbor, Matt, was his go to buddy. They would call each other on the landline (he was excited to share that they used landlines), and then spend the day together until dinnertime. Some of their favorite activities included playing "army" in Matt's pool which consisted of the boys hiding under water whenever a plane flew over...good survival tactic. They would also play baseball with the nieghborhood kids in the field between Dallin and Matt's houses, just to give you a mind's eye view of where Dallin grew up. He also had a goat pen, which he loved cleaning once a year (said with sarcasm). Video games were also a favorite pasttime, specifically Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or rather TMNT as I found is the lingo.
One of the more detailed stories he shared about Matt was when the two of them got into his mom's fake injury kit for boyscouts and created a fake cut with blood. He was quite proud of this creation. They then went to Matt's mom and told her that Dallin fell off his bike onto a big nail which, obviously, elicited a bit of panic from Ms. P. She returned from collecting numerous first aid items to two boys laughing mischievous little laughs. He also recalled a time when they were playing at the creek by his house and his brother threw a rock at Matt's head, causing it to bleed. When Dallin went to look at it, blood "squirted" out and Dallin ran home, crying, leaving his bleeding buddy behind. Guess a doctor was not in his future career path.
Some other memories he talked about were playing nerf wars with his siblings as well as cops and robbers and boxing, gloves and all. He also has fond memories of his dad on his exercise bike with short shorts, a t-shirt that read "Damn Florida Seagulls" with pictures of fake bird poop while reading a gun or hunting magazine. Don't worry Poppa Green, he claims he did not understand what the shirt meant until well into middle school.
To finish off Dallin's interview, we will end with his weirdest experience as well as his thoughts on growing up in California. He did not hesitate to tell the story of the "Bird Lady" when asked to recount his top bizarre memory. Dallin would take his bird, Nicole, to her to get her wings clipped. Her house was filled with birds all shapes and sizes. Naturally, Dallin was chirpping at one of them when the lady turned around and "Gave him a switch" (his words exactly) followed by a stern "Stop doing that!" Crazy lady scared the pants off poor Dallin, almost making him cry.
Overall, Dallin enjoyed growing up in California, said he would not want to trade his upbringing for anything. He loved the weather, the openness, the rain, the small town feel and the people. I enjoyed hearing some of these stories and hope you all did too!
Kelli K. Green
The Napa Valley Girl
Kelli K Baldwin was originally born in Colorado. Colorado was her home until she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico when she was six years old. As she talked about her memories of growing up there, she truly let me in on some choice stories of her childhood and adolescent years. Just a sample of the stories that she related to me was how she used to help her older sister Nikki on her paper route in Albuquerque. While Kelli was riding her bike between houses she would sing at the top of her lungs, bike dance moves were also thrown in the mix, in hopes that some Hollywood producer would drive by, hear her angelic voice and make her the next Whitney Houston. I have heard her sing...at least the girl had dreams. In Colorado, snow sculptures of Sesame Street characters were more common then the average snowman.
Albuquerque was hot and dry. Due to this weather, thunder storms were not uncommon in the summer time. If her younger sister, Lexi, was annoying her, or Kelli just wanted to be, well, mean, she would tell Lexi that the "thunder" was coming to get her. Lexi was young and naive and believed her older sister and would run off to mother Baldwin for comfort and care. Got to love the older siblings. She also recalls jumping on the trampoline in thunder storms...
During the cooler months, seeing her favorite hot air balloon (the witch shaped one) overhead was highly anticipated. They would also make an annual visit to the balloon festival in New Mexico, getting up at 5:30am to go get their mini-cinnamon rolls and see all the hot air balloons inflate and launch. Listening to her stories made me think just how funny it is that certain things stick out to you while growing up. Seeing a hot air balloon now wouldn't cause me to pause, think, and wonder like it would have back in the day. But, it's these special memories that are important to us, regardless of their plainness.
Another pastime in her New Mexico days was gymnastics. This resulted in her wearing spandex shorts and baggy t-shirts as her main choice of attire, along with slicked back ponytails that could not have one single bump. Needless to say, this OCDness with her hair resulted in a few breakdowns while getting ready for school some mornings. Kelli enjoyed gymnastics thoroughly, but once it became more of a way of
life rather than a fun extracurricular activity, along with the stricter foreign coaches she met with in California when she moved there, she decided to let it
go.
At twelve-years-old she moved to Napa, California. She spoke to her Dad only when necessary for 2 weeks for making her leave her friends in Albuquerque. Her first friend in Napa turned out to be a little too familiar with the law. Or, I guess I should say that the law was too familiar with her what with cops calling or just showing up at the house because the friend had failed to tell her mom she would be there. Kelli decided that this probably was not the only friend she could have in California and found other ways to make friends and socialize. One of these activities included running track. She would compete in the long jump and the high jump as well as the 100 and 200 meter sprints. She was never amazing, although some were impressed at how high her short little self could jump, but it was a good way to socialize.
Kelli was somewhat accident prone while growing up. Her first accident occurred when she broke her leg at 9-months, followed by a visit to the hospital at 6-years-old when she was riding her "circus bike," as her family named it because it was a little pink bike that was 3 sizes too small for her, got mad at her friend down the street because he chose to play with another girl, zoomed off, hit a curb, flew over her handle bars and split her chin open on the asphalt. Her thought after this accident occurred? "He made me get blood on my favorite blouse!" This, along with "The month of dread" at the end of 7th grade when she
broke her arm in a batting cage, scraped up her face while trying to
attempt to go off a bike ramp with her cast still on from said broken
arm, as well as a bad at-home hair highlighting experiment, built
character.
Weekends would be spent at the movies, with friends or at the high school sporting events. Kelli had no trouble making new friends, despite her choice in fashion which consisted of jeans and a baggy sweatshirt with the occasional overalls over a tank top up until her junior year of high school. One of her favorite memories from high school is driving around Napa, bumping "I'ma Playa" by Tech-nine in Thelma (the 1993 civic). I can just picture it now.
I am grateful for all of the memories that we have both had and I look forward to the new ones that we are making for our future together.
Up next: Kelli's short Cali trip and camping in the Uintas.
Up next: Kelli's short Cali trip and camping in the Uintas.
this is so funny! love it guys!
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