What did you want to be when you were a kid?

I was completely enamored with those change belts that people wore at the gas station or a drive in restaurant. They were the kind that had slots for the different kinds of change and you would click the top to release the pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. I told my mother I wanted to grow up to be a curb girl at The Blue Circle (a lower class Krystal). She looked like she was about to have apoplexy so I said I would be a curb girl at Louie's (a local Italian restaurant with a curb service). That didn't seem to help much. Anyway, I never got to use one of those handy dandy change belts. Bet I could find one on E-Bay.

So what was your childhood dream?

...what I wanted to be when I grew up. My answer? "A boy".


lol

Go figure. I was always a tomboy.

-------

Actually being in the Arena Football or Canadian Football league would be great alternatives.

Now I'd like to teach political science.

John Glenn preparing to go into orbit; wearing his fancy spaceman outfit, getting on the 'bus', and driving to the rocket, where he went through the capsule ingress process ...

I marvelled through every moment, every aborted attempt was a serious heartbreak ...

Now: To put this in perspective ... Here is a paraphrased conversation with my mother just afterwards ....

Mom: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Me: "I want to be an astronaut!"

Mom: "You dont want to be an astronaut: you want to be a priest !"

Me: "But I dont wanna be a priest ma, I wanna be an astronaut and fly in rockets !"

Mom: "You dont want to be an astronaut: you want to be a priest !"

Me: "But MOMMA ! .. I dont WANT to be a Priest ! ... I WANT TO BE AN ASTRONAUT !"

Mom: "NO: You dont want to be an astronaut: you want to be a priest !"

Me (Now sobbing uncontrollably): "But MOM ! ... I DONT WANT TO BE A PRIEST !" ....

ehem ...

That poor women ... that poor italian, roman catholic women was SO distraught about my dreams not including joining the Priesthood ...

I was 'apoplectic' by the very thought of being a Priest ...

At age 7: "NOT just no .. but HELL no !" ...

Chuckles ....

Later in life: I got a job at Rockwell International on the Space Shuttle Program; first as an electrical assembler, than as an electrical installer, then as a circuit tester, then as a space vehicle technician

Never quite made it as an astronaut, but I DID sit down in the CMD/PLT chairs on the Space Shuttle flight deck, and wore a COMM headset, and tweaked knobs and dials, watchin the purty lights turn on and off, watching the doors open and masts extend ... trackin down faults and fixing them ...

I did what astronauts did, except blast off into space ...

I became Atheist soon after my catholic confirmation ...

I have not entered the church in worship ever since ....

I was fascinated by that roomful of guys running things on the ground, looking at computer screens and punching buttons.

Now, I look at computers and punch plenty of buttons, but I don't have anything to do with the space program. I'm just an electrical controls guy for a company that makes these big industrial pressure cooker thingies that cook everything from Starbuck's Frappucino to military MREs...

I was strange

The lack of funds kept me from achieving that goal.

Why not do it now?

As for me, as a kid I wanted to be a teacher.

(Dad was a fighter pilot and career naval officer.)

Loved space. Still spacey though.

I wanted to be a doctor. Then from age 13 to age 17, I wanted to be a professional masturbator.

Then I took a few accounting classes and yadda, yadda, yadda, I'm not an accountant.

and a pianist. :) Yes, all at the same time.

... I guess I had even less ambition as a kid than I do now.

Then I realized I'd never be able to put an animal to sleep.

Hell, I would still like to be him!

I could not wait to grow up and go to college and then go to law school. I could never have imagined that I would not be a lawyer when I grew up. But oh well, it was the 80s and LA Law was popular!! Television probably made a lot of kids want to be the things they seen on TV!

Although i would still like to be a lawyer when i grow up!