Top 10 Most Influential Moments in My Life Episode Three

Dog in a Strobe Light

This one is slightly out of order. It should come before I settled down…still while I was ‘the littlest hobo’. But it makes more sense after the previous explanation of my living situation during those early years. So I was living with my aunt and uncle and my two cousins at the time. We just happened to own a small, portable strobe light (I’m not sure why…maybe they were a household staple in the 70s??). So sometimes my aunt would get out the strobe light and turn off all the lights and my cousins and I would dance around in the flashing light (you could vary the speed of the flash too…and create all kinds of effects like slow-mo and fast-mo). We would laugh like crazy at each other’s robotic-appearing movements. My aunt got the idea one strobe-light-night to bring the dog inside for the fun (we had a German shepherd named Lobo). She came walking in with Lobo and he was all excited and hopping around happily wanting to play, and we were rolling on the ground at the sight of that dog all strobed out like the world’s most furry disco dancer. Man that was hilarious. That was seriously about the most happy and carefree I ever felt between the ages of 6 and I’d say…39. There were lots of similar moments when I was living with my aunt. Although I always felt a little like an outsider, living there felt more like what a good childhood and good home were supposed to feel like. We did lots of normal stuff. We had fair chores. We had schedules. We played like maniacs. Got swatted with the fly swatter when we needed it. We walked down the street to Sunday school on Sunday mornings. Did our homework at the table in the afternoon. What it was…and what I think back fondly on…was this small time during my childhood that I felt like I really knew what to expect. I had something I could count on. Rules that made sense. And when there was something unexpected…it was usually something fun and maybe even hilarious like Lobo getting to dance with us in the flashy lights. Things were about to get very serious and a lot less light-hearted, and I didn’t get much more childhood after that. I am grateful every day for my aunt and I love her like a mom.

You can get your own strobe light and have this fun, too.
http://www.amazon.com/Cornet-Strobe-Light-Color-Filter/dp/B003KWNA98/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1303147590&sr=8-8