Living the life of Lupe'

     I have gone through many events and life changing circumstances throughout my short life, and when I discuss these moments or accomplishments with my peers they seem to always come to the same conclusion.    "You should write a book"....well I am not such a good book writer, it is a huge step to focus on chapters and chronological dates and times, and when I look back at it somewhat overwhelming.  So I've decided to break it down,  in a much smaller scale and go through memories one by one a much more focused way about doing things then what my brain can handle.

I chose to do this through blogging, little by little working through my life's experiences and perceptions to not only give myself a sense of order, but to share with those who may find a piece of my life similar to theirs.  It may be helpful, it may be brutal, it may be stupid and useless, but it is me and all those adjectives have described my life in some shape or form.  I hope you enjoy, or just find it interesting to read, and for those of you who choose not to read, well , your not reading it, so I have nothing to say.

I have to start with one of my earliest memories, it goes back to early childhood when I was about 3 or 4, somehow, I got the biggest bedroom in the house.  Sharing the upstairs with two older sisters, Jennifer and Anna...Jennifer was the oldest  6 years my eldest, then Anna, 4 years older.  I had a queen size bed and Jenn and Anna shared twin beds down the hall.   I think I was always envious of them in a way.  The nights seemed long to me, I was afraid of the dark, still am. I could hear them chatting when it was lights out, giggling secret giggles which I strained to hear but could just make out muffles.  We had no upstairs bathroom, and my parents  fearing that we may fall down the stairs in the middle of the night, would place a childs potty at the top of the stairs silhouetted by the night light that gave us comfort.  One night, as I lay alone in bed, watching the stars out my bedroom window, I realized I had to go.  I tiptoed quietly to the top of the stairs to use the potty, and was startled by my older sister demanding.."Laura, what are you doing?!"
I was obviously irritated that she had noticed my stealthiness, and responded with a most melodical, " I HAVE TO GOOOOO TOOOOO THE BATHROOM", which thus set off an outburst of laughter from my sisters prompting my not so enthused father at the time to open the door to the upstairs and require what we were up to.. Hunkering down on the potty, I shyly told him my goings on and he tenderly chuckled and told us we needed to settle down and go to sleep.

I don't know why that memory sticks out in my mind so well, as it does in my whole family, they love telling the story at gatherings or events where new ears are listening...I guess the tone, the way it was sung, and the giggles that persisted have made it memorable...odd but amusing to this day.

I see a lot of myself in my youngest daughter Berkeley, she sings those responses to questions and often contorts her face in the same mannerisms, I have a feeling I am in for a ride with this little one.

My family consisted of 5 members, Louis, Beverly, Jennifer, Ann (now changed to Anna) and myself.  We lived in a beautiful town outside of Middlebury, Vermont.  It was a pleasant place to live, due to the closeness of Middlebury College and the picturesque green mountains up our road, I found it to be one of the most amazing places to grow up.  My father, taught at the local High School, English and then became the librarian, he was one of the longest working facility members and highly respected amongst his peers.

My mother, worked at Middlebury College as a school nurse, she was nurturing, loving and devoted to raising her children.  After finding out that her first meal to cook ever, came from a can of Campbells Chicken Noodle soup, where she forgot to add the water and served it straight out of the can to my father when they were dating, goes to show you how love conquers all.  A meal at my mothers house now is one of those memories people discuss for decades.  She as well as my father know how to throw down a meal.  It is one of those traits that has carried on in all of their children...we know how to cook!

We lived a strict life.  Cleaning our rooms, house chores before play, no swearing, no jeans ( to school),  we were told to do our homework after school until it was done, then we could do other things if time permitted.  We had chickens, ducks, horses, and the occasional animal off the street to mend and feed and foster.It was a good childhood.
    Our house was known as the "Animal Hospital"...cats that were caught in fan belts, woodchuck babies whose mothers had died were raised and released, probably only to be killed by our German Shepherds.   Song birds were fed until they fledged, and baby raccoon's were bottle fed until they could live on their own on the Otter Creek wildlife preserve.  I'd have to say, if you know me, this is where it all began with my addiction of trying to fix things that are broken.  My parents were very open minded and nurturing when we walked in the door with a new critter.  I am very thankful to them for this, it has dictated my life and the life of my children.
     I think the greatest childhood animal I raised was that of Patches and Nipper.  Our friend Rose who was the animal control officer, stopped by to ask my parents if we could help her raise these two raccoon's, whose mom was hit by a car and they were too young to survive on their own, laying by their dead mother on the side of the road, waiting to get hit themselves.  My parents accepted, Rose had already had 4 other baby raccoon's to bottle feed every 30 minutes and these two would be the end of her sanity.
My father made a makeshift pen in our chicken coop, placing the predator with the prey now seems weird to me, but it was where we had space.  Raccoon's amaze me.  They are clingy and frisky.  They are clean and wash all their food before eating it.  Their hands grasp yours like a baby would, and they love white teeth and playing with your hair.  We came to find out about these characteristics as the coons grew in size, eventually we had to ween them from their human keepers, and adapt them to their outside pen...this proved harder then we thought.  They learned to climb out of the pen, scurry to the tree near our bedroom, climb out to the branch that touches our window, and scratch until one of us would open it.  There were several occasions when the morning hours would bring sunshine into a bed with two snuggling raccoon babies and a child.

It was heartbreaking when on one particular Saturday afternoon, as we sat for lunch at the dining room table we noticed a truck stop out front, then speed away.  There are times when you just know what you are going to find when you go outside, and this was one of them.  Our house was close to the road, my father built a beautiful stonewall to protect us from the people who were suppose to be going 30mph past, but often went much faster.  When we got to the walk way that led to the street, we saw a blood stain that was fresh and clear that it had just recently happened.  Across the street huddled in the weeping willow clung a frightened Nipper.  Patches was no where to be found.  We assumed the person stopped and picked up the pelt, but who knows, what mattered was it was my first tragic experience with death, something I had raised, loved and given life to, had just been taken away from me and my family.  It was not the last time I would see death, nor would it be the last time I would experience the sorrowful look on another animal species dealing with death and confusion, but I think it was what shaped my mentality.  I would dedicate my life to caring, protecting and helping those see the wonders and beauty of wildlife and nature, even when it meant losing a bit of myself so others could experience something wonderful.

Nipper was released in the Otter Creek Wildlife Preserve the following day.  We would often call the caretaker and check up on him.  On one such call he had informed us that Nipper climbed the electrical pole and had gotten electrocuted, he fell to his death.