Homemade Bikini Top? heck yeah!

So, I have another blog that I write basically for my family only.
It's about my memories--
some are from my wild childhood,
some memories are about my children, specifically,
that only they would find amusing, interesting,
or are too personal to share on this big ol www.com.

I decided to stuff my pride in an unmarked box
and share a couple stories.

I grew up in Florida,
mostly Miami, but for three years,
our family lived in Titusville, Florida.
The closest cousins lived in Merritt Island--
about a half-hours' drive from us.

My cousins, Shari and Coleen,
were a little older than me--
Shari being about 3 years older
and Coleen just a little over a year.

When I was about 9 years old,
I got the invitation to go stay at their house
for a whole week during the summer.
I was thrilled!

Here's the story:

Homemade Bikini Top

...The summer vacation I spent with my cousins, Coleen and Shari, left me with an experience I have to smile about every time I think of it.

Growing up in Florida, we owned many swimsuits.
I don't think I owned more than 2 pairs of socks in my childhood,
Sunday socks, actually,
because we mostly ran around barefoot,
(except for sandals we wore to school)--
but swimsuits, I had many.
I wore them constantly, even under sundresses and shorts.
You just never knew when a chance to go swimming was going to come along.
So this summer in Merritt Island was no different,
we swam most days either in a pool or at the beach.
One morning, Shari got the bright idea of a 7th grader that
each of us could make our own swim tops--
two triangles and four strings
is all one really needed for
a fun top to wear
over a handmade lava lava
and our bikini bottoms.
So she got out the fabric & scissors
and needle and thread,
and we got to cuttin and sewin.
We were done in less than in hour.
Man, I wish someone had taken a picture of us,
cuz I am pretty sure we looked fabulous!

Now, I had no shape at 9 yrs old.
None.
My mom used to say
"Stick out your tongue so we can see you, Dawn."
I was a stick.

Anyway,
we put our creations on,
and headed out the door to go to a friend's house to show off our wares.
This is what I looked like:

 

But I thought I looked like this:

Fabulous, right?

We'd scarcely left the house,
all 3 of us modeling our new handmade bikini tops and lava lavas,
when we saw two "mature" boys riding their 10-speeds toward us...
one especially was looking my way and SMILING big time.
In my little head, I was thinking:

"I must look pretty cute in my little bikini top. That older boy seems to think so."
I nudged Coleen,"See that boy looking at me?"
 I was smiling my BEST smile.
Then Coleen let out a yelp in my direction,
declaring loudly,
"Where is your TOP?"
My what?
It's it's it's ..wha??? Where'd it go?
It had fallen off my body and I did not even notice it was gone.
I covered what I could with my 9 year old hands,
which honestly, covered what needed to be covered,
and set about looking for my fly-away top.
We never found it.