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Wed Jun 07 00 / 3:36 PM

I was lying in bed last night, doing the drowsy thinking before sleep, when this memory suddenly bubbled up.

It was the winter of grade five, I think. Grade five was a good year for me; I had sleepovers every weekend, nobody cared too much that I didn't like boys yet ... true, my parents split up that year, but it hadn't happened yet.

Mandy Lavallee had slept over, and it had rained and then dropped below freezing that weekend. The park around the corner from my house was all ice and hills and empty. We played there all day in the manner of any two girls who feel they might be a bit too old for slipping around in snowpants, but have abandoned themselves to the fun because nobody else is around.

At some point we found a shopping cart in the park and were trying to push it up a hill. It was clearly not working, but who cares? I don't even know what we were going to do with it at the top. However, when a young Siamese cat with a red ribbon around its neck ran by, we gave up on the cart and chased after it.

Mandy and I followed the cat into the wooded area of the park. The park itself was of a substantial size; it took about ten minutes to walk across. The forest was no small stand of trees. The cat disappeared up a hill, we followed.

What did the cat lead us to? Not what I was expecting, to be sure. Halfway up this hill, embedded in ice, lay a black flourescent lamp with the bulb intact, and a leatherized case. Since neither artifact would budge, I came back in the spring with a paper bag and left with the finds in hand. The lamp worked, and the case held a Polaroid black and white camera from the late 50s or so, complete with attachable flash and timer, developing plate, and instruction manual.

That's really all there is to the memory. The lamp is probably in a box somewhere in Renfrew, the camera I think was sold at a garage sale or given away. It was probably the weirdest thing I've ever come upon in the middle of the woods after following an interesting cat ...

</>

Lisa Higgs

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*snapshot*
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latest archive about email links yearbook japan photoblog wish list	Wed Jun 07 00 / 3:36 PM I was lying in bed last night, doing the drowsy thinking before sleep, when this memory suddenly bubbled up. It was the winter of grade five, I think. Grade five was a good year for me; I had sleepovers every weekend, nobody cared too much that I didn't like boys yet ... true, my parents split up that year, but it hadn't happened yet. Mandy Lavallee had slept over, and it had rained and then dropped below freezing that weekend. The park around the corner from my house was all ice and hills and empty. We played there all day in the manner of any two girls who feel they might be a bit too old for slipping around in snowpants, but have abandoned themselves to the fun because nobody else is around. At some point we found a shopping cart in the park and were trying to push it up a hill. It was clearly not working, but who cares? I don't even know what we were going to do with it at the top. However, when a young Siamese cat with a red ribbon around its neck ran by, we gave up on the cart and chased after it. Mandy and I followed the cat into the wooded area of the park. The park itself was of a substantial size; it took about ten minutes to walk across. The forest was no small stand of trees. The cat disappeared up a hill, we followed. What did the cat lead us to? Not what I was expecting, to be sure. Halfway up this hill, embedded in ice, lay a black flourescent lamp with the bulb intact, and a leatherized case. Since neither artifact would budge, I came back in the spring with a paper bag and left with the finds in hand. The lamp worked, and the case held a Polaroid black and white camera from the late 50s or so, complete with attachable flash and timer, developing plate, and instruction manual. That's really all there is to the memory. The lamp is probably in a box somewhere in Renfrew, the camera I think was sold at a garage sale or given away. It was probably the weirdest thing I've ever come upon in the middle of the woods after following an interesting cat ...
	</>
Lisa Higgs
.