Yikes, I cringe sometimes when I read back on my Calendiaries from the early nineties. Why did I have to be so weird as a teenager? I was homely, well at the very least plain jane. Rarely had a boyfriend. And it seems my life was made up of really boring, ordinary instances.

I have three years of daily entries from ’90-’92 and each year in October I would remarks that “the Americans” or “the hunters” came and left. I’ve explained in a prior post about who they were.

Quick recap in case you missed that post. The Americans, as we called them, were a group of guys from mainly Michigan/Indiana who came to stay in my parent’s yard for one week each fall beginning in the 1970’s to hunt geese and ducks. One of them, the ringleader you could say, we called, Uncle Jim.

Uncle Jim started coming to our place before I was even born and he continued to come faithfully each fall until I was in my 20’s. He started bringing his son Richie when he was 15.

I was probably 11ish but I clearly recall the first time I met Richie. He was adorable. Blonde hair, blue eyes and that crazy sounding (at least to little old Canadian me) southern Michigan accent.

He also came year after year and so seeing him each fall was always something to look forward to.

Anyway, this one time Richie came down with the flu. He was too sick to even go out and shoot geese, so you know he was really really sick. Mom, my sisters and I had gone to town for groceries and brought home a pizza. Mom decided we should go out and offer Richie a slice of pizza.

He was staying in a tent out in our yard. It was raining and chilly. I was probably 13 or 14.

My sisters and I all felt too shy to go out there and ask him if he wanted pizza but of course when it came down to it, it was me who was the bravest.

I ventured out into the yard, feeling so nervous I felt sick.

How does one knock on the door of a tent? How was I to signal my arrival? I think I called his name. “Richie?”

He answered “who’s there?”

Like an absolute idiot imbecile I replied “me!”

How was he to know who me was? Ugh. He went silent, probably had no clue who was actually outside the tent.

I think he unzipped it and checked. Anyway that was that. One of my usual stupid and embarrassing moves.

Something else I found interesting in my Calendiaries was from October 26/92. I was 14.

People voted today for a referendum called the Charlottetown Accord. They say it’s important and will make history but we’ll see.

Oct 27/92

The “no” vote won in the referendum so who knows what will happen. Had a French quiz, got 12 out of 12.

I had to just Google what that referendum was all about. Made me laugh that I was writing about things like this at the ripe old age of 14. It had to do with the province of Quebec wanting autonomy and other amendments to the Canadian Constitution.