Look people, I had her first!

I can't compete with all of these amazing bloggers Lacey lined up for this week. I am in no way, shape or form quite as good of a writer as you guys are...
But I have something else. I have the dirt. I have the really ancient memories with cobb webbs and dust. I have a photo album full of black mail pictures....well mostly blackmail against myself (I wasn't a decent dresser until like last year or something...and talk about my hair- whew!). I've been friends with Lacey since she was about 5 and I was 3. I'm Lauren, here from The Daily Dose. Ask me anything. She might not tell you, but hey, isn't that why I'm here? She might hate this, but hey she asked me to post!

See, I told you I had awful bangs! Who cut those anyway? They aren't even straight...at all.
You may want to refer back to this story to give you an idea of how our friendship started. It kind of forecasts the rest of our childhood years. But wait! Not just yet..

My bangs are making a re-appearance. Can you tell that Lace was the girl you wanted to be like when you were a kid? She had a really cool older sister that kept her up-to-date in the fashion world. She also taught her about the word "duh". I was an only child. I had cats.

Being in 5th grade really blew when your bffl (best friend for life) was a junior high kid who wore awesome junior high clothes and even had a kelly green school jacket. Rollerblades were also much cooler than white roller skates (4 wheels are for babies). It was also kind of uncool when you're bffl got to wear cool jeans with a Christmas themed pullover...while you were still stuck wearing a matching polka dotted Christmas set made of some funky polyester/fleece.

Ahem...anyway

Lacey and I grew up in the best neighborhood ever. Except it wasn't a neighborhood. It wasn't the country either. It was a strange place in between. We grew up on a dead-end street. At the dead end you made the choice of going through the woods or start walking back. At the dead end, cars made a 3-point turn in my driveway. We played on that street until dark. We played in my clubhouse (that my dad scrapped together with some ply wood and plastic roofing- believe me it was not the fairytale clubhouse I dreamed of). We rode our bikes until dark. Sometimes we got to stay out late and play hide and go seek in the dark or cops and robbers with our mangey neighbors. Danny and Shane. Oh man did those guys reek. No wonder they say little boys are made of puppy dog tails and slime. My favorite was sneaking off and playing in the woods

I guess when we were about 13, we were allowed to leave our street. A few blocks away sprawled an amazing set of woods. They led straight to an old abandoned 1960's boy scout summer camp.

In it's heyday, it looked like this. When we went...ehh..not so much. It was fascintating though. A massive drippy water tower hovered over the property- acting as a landmark as we travelled there. And we went. We trampled through the woods with little more than a fanny pack to guide and protect us. Getting there was like something out of a movie. We literally had to cross a ravine using a fallen pine tree as a bridge. Who does that? Come on.

Anyway, getting there was no easy task. The last time we went, we were chased out by a pack of angry wolves dogs. We ran flailing...and never went back...or told our parents.

Too bad we never got to hang out by the swampy looking swimming pool, or the "haunted" lunch-room.

Oooo, those were the days.

I sometimes wonder how we got to where we are? How did our lives change so quickly from that to what we are now? We are responsible adults. We cook, we clean, we pay taxes. We don't play in the woods and get lost. We don't lie to our parents anymore either.

It's nice to know that however old I get, and whatever phase of life I'm in..whether it's the lost confused phase, or the grandparent phase- I will always have someone to share the childhood memories with. Some people have siblings to share that with.

I have Lacey.