MEME
Well, I've been tagged again.

Top 5 Childhood Memories

1. Laying in my room every night, watching the light cast on my ceiling from Mr. Butcher's driveway below. Mister Butcher, for some reason, would go out to his garage every night at about the same time (9-ish). On his way out, he'd turn on the area light, then go on back. He was old, so he walked slow and worked methodically, at least as far as I could see. I'd see him head out there, and then head back to his house about 10 minutes later, and the light would go out. Strangely, something about that routine made everything seem alright.
2. Laying in my other room (other side of the house), watching the searchlight on Rocky Butte swing around every night until it hypnotized me into slumber.
3. Spy Club with my friend, Aaron. Huge GI Joe geeks, we would pretend that we were powerful and skilled covert operatives. Attempting to fashion weapons out of common household items, agreeing on who was to be deemed good and evil, and relentlessy torchering Aaron's little brother, we (at least felt like we) owned the neighborhood.
4. Getting caught shoplifting. Actually, getting caught after shoplifting. As a kid, I was a little bit of a klepto. Once, I somehow managed to secret away a pack of dominoes from Fred Meyer's. Later, my mom saw me playing with it and asked where I'd acquired it. I tried to offer a good lie, but she wasn't biting, and I couldn't hold up in my youth to her scrutiny. She drug me back to the store, where I had to hand the dominoes to the horrified cashier, as I blubbered away and bawled to the point that I couldn't blurt out my pre-scripted admission and apology. My mom promised if she ever caught me with stolen items again, she'd send me straight to JDH. And I believed her...
5. The death of my dog. As a kid, I had a dobie named Abraham, who looked alot like my current dog, except with boy parts and a bobbed tail and redder fur. He was bought, I'm pretty sure, to be my step-dad's dog, but there was no mistaking that he was mine. We were fast friends, and we were inseparable. But he got some sort of cancer, and eventually one night my mom had to take him for one last trip to the vet. The kind he wouldn't be returning from. I remember standing out on my front lawn, crying and staring at the stars, asking God why my friend was being taken away. It was sad, but it's one of those things I won't be forgetting. It's the one thing that almost kept me from taking on the new pup...
   

Now I'm s'posed to tag 5 people. Dot, OC, Betsy, Denise, and JLowe, you're up...