Fluffy Camden

I've been blogging with three fabulous women for a year and a half now and have been enjoying all the fun topics we come up with week after week. If you want to see what we've discussed in the past, check out our posts here.

This week, Moma Rock picked the topic: We've all heard of creating your own "stripper name" based on this equation: Your first pet= first name. Street you grew up on= last name. What is your stripper name? And, tell us about that first pet and the street you grew up on that inspired your name.

Before reading ahead, first see what everyone else had to say on this topic:
Froggie
Mom of Many
Moma Rock

My stripper name is Fluffy Camden, as stated in my subject line.

Fluffy:

When my parents were in the early stages of their relationship (can’t remember if they had just gotten married or were newly engaged), my paternal grandfather, Papa Morrie, gave them a dog. He actually rescued the dog from being hit by a car. She looked like she was mistreated. Eventually, the dog’s owner came after him and they fought over the dog in court. I think the owner just gave up after a while, so my parents got to keep her. She was a West Highland Terrier and they named her Fluffy. I came along a couple of years later, after she was already established in the family. We bonded right away, as she was a sweet dog and not jealous at all. Really, she was always very easygoing, from what I remember.

When I was seven years old, Fluffy was already 13 and her age was showing. She was starting to deteriorate. As kids, we liked to celebrate Christmas because our non-Jewish cousins did. So our parents would leave us presents to find on Christmas morning. This particular Christmas morning, in 1983, I had come downstairs to find my gift and was all excited to show it to Fluffy. However, I found her laying very still on the carpet followed by a trail of excrement. I thought she was sleeping, so I screamed at her to wake up. My sister eventually joined me in the screaming ritual until our parents got up and figured out what had happened. I still didn’t really understand death at the time, even though my maternal grandfather had passed away that previous spring. To me, Fluffy was just sleeping and didn’t wake up. I’m sure my sister, at age four, was even more confused. Since Fluffy’s passing, we’ve had many other dogs, as well as some cats. However, she’s known for probably being the least insane of all the dogs (and some of the cats). Whenever I see a Westie, I always think of her.

With Fluffy when I was a baby

Camden:

The first home I truly remember was at the corner of a cul-de-sac on Camden Court, in the subdivision of The Crossings, in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. We moved there when I was about two years old and had the home established by the time my sister arrived a year later.

What I remember most about living on Camden Court were the friends on my street. There was a group of us, at one point, that all hung out together. In the summer, we’d play on the swing set in my backyard or run around at night playing Ghosts in the Graveyard. On Halloween, we’d all go trick-or-treating together. We'd go to each other's birthday parties. Every summer, our street would have a block party, and when the kids got older, we’d put on talent shows.

On one side of our house, there were three girls, somewhat close in age to us, one in particular is S.G.. Two doors down on the other side was where one of my book blog partners, M.P. eventually lived for a while. Next to her house was another family with two girls around our age, B.A. and K.A. And next to them was a family with a girl a year younger than me, whom I was close with for a while, J.W. Two doors down from us in the other direction (next to S.G.'s house), there was a family with a guy around my age (J.S.) and his older sister, who dressed like Strawberry Shortcake for one of my birthday parties. After they moved, a family with kids my sisters' age and younger moved in. I would babysit the youngest of the three sometimes, after I was the right age for the job. There were a couple of other families with kids around our age, as well. Some eventually moved out of the neighborhood though.

J.W. and I used to hang out all the time and I always thought she was really nice. I think we even had the same middle name, which was just so cool to me at the time! Then she moved a couple of streets away. We didn't get to see each other as often after that. We’d eventually have classes together in high school and college and then run into each other at The Cubby Bear, finding out that we worked nearby each other. We reconnected on Facebook, as well. There was another family further down the street, whose house my sister and I would go to after school when we were still too young to be home alone. The mom was really nice and the daughter had the same first name as my sister (they were also close in age). We’d hang out in their family room watching Heathcliff cartoons and eating freshly baked cookies. I think they had step-brothers who would come to visit in the summer. They were both pretty cute and fun to hang out with, as well.

S.G.’s family, as well as B.A./K.A.’s family eventually moved out west. The year after they moved, M.P., her sister (A.S.) and I coordinated a block party talent show. We even made programs for it. It was a fun summer bonding with them over this endeavor. My sister even helped from time to time. The first half of the talent show involved cheerleading routines that A.S. taught us. Then we all did our talent acts. The finale was the lift from "Dirty Dancing" with A.S. playing "Johnny" and my sister playing "Baby."

The following year, a new family moved into B.A. and K.A.’s old house. They were considered “white trash” and some families wanted nothing to do with them. Then I went and befriended the girl who was closest to my age. She was nice though. Her brothers were nice too, when they weren’t getting into shouting matches that would send the police to their house. Still, our block wasn’t the same after that. We didn’t have block parties anymore and some of the younger kids put together this gossipy newsletter eventually.

Around the time I reconnected with M.P., I also found some other neighbors through her Facebook page. The first was S.G.. She was very friendly and remembered me right away. I asked her if she still was in touch with B.A. and K.A. and that’s when she delivered the blow….B.A. had been killed in a car accident a few years prior (as of now, it’s been 7 years). I hadn’t seen her since I was 12, so I had no frame of reference for her being an adult. To me, it was like losing a childhood friend all over again (the first time was when she moved and we didn’t stay in touch). I got insight to her life from M.P., but haven’t seen any pictures of her. She was 29 when she died; at the same time, I was still getting to know my newborn son. I still think of her a lot and wonder what she would be doing today, had she lived. Would we have reconnected and become friends again? I know her sister is on Facebook, but I haven’t tried to contact her. I don’t know what I’d even say to her. All I know from M.P. is that she named one of her kids after our street.

All in all, it was a cool street to live on. I spent my childhood, pre-teen and teen years there, before we moved out after I graduated from high school. (Some friends of ours live on a nearby street now, so it was strange to be back in the neighborhood, even just to visit them. At one point, we were a few feet away from my old house.) Since then, thanks to various moves, the street I live on here is the first street I truly feel at home on and it reminds me of my street growing up.

Courtesy of Google Maps ("A" is my old house)