Old thoughts

I am both entertained and saddened by a diary entry in a long-lost journal of mine that I just found tonight.  I will reproduce it here in its' entirety and possibly also post a picture (maybe later.)

July 30/1997 age 9
Dear Diary,
I hope that when I am 27 there will still be Rinos, pigions,. TIGERS, and other animals that are endangerd and threatened today.  I hope PEOPLE will quit polutIng and cutting down Trees. I hope that the murder of Lauren K. Smither will be caught and punished but won't be killed.  I hope murders will be little. won't be often and maybe quit.  But most of all I hope people won't be cruel Dumb! or cruel.


Now, I am entirely unsure why I thought pigeons were endangered and/or threatened when I was nine, but apparently I've never liked people.  Lauren Smither was a girl in my sister's Girl Scout troop who was abducted and found dead some months later.
A later entry:

"7/20/98
This night was a scary one.  Mom might have gotten killed.  (She was in a car wreck.)"

Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't write more.  Maybe that's because nobody bothered to tell the kids what had happened until both parents came home four or five hours late.

"June 10, 2000
Commendable won in 2:00 10/3 sec in the Belmont Stakes, 10 lengths
Aptitude 2nd
Unshaded 3rd."

I guess I found the horse races on TV one day?
I'm thinking maybe my childhood was a little strange.  Then again, I also wrote "Wow! 94" in the bottom of my desk drawer, so who can tell?