Natalie Thinks

I grew up always feeling outside or other.  Some of these reasons were: Being an only child – it’s a lot more common today, but in the ‘70s it frequently meant I was viewed differently and excluded from the mystical world of sibling-hood and the classic Cosby family picture.  Also, we didn’t have a television.  My parent being avid readers and viewing themselves as somewhat bohemian, intellectual sorts; decided not to buy-in to the TV culture which was sweeping the nation in the early 70s – this not only led to frequent questions of, “Are you poor?”, but it left me outside the chit-chat and copycat games of Charlie’s Angels, Pop Shop and The Bold and the Beautiful .  And then just to put the cherry on the cake, we lived in a brand new suburb where schools had not yet been built, which meant that physically I was also an outsider from school, where it seemed that everyone else was in walking or cycling distance from one another. Then we come to the end of Grade ...