Story the First

In a nearly perfect world almost a half century ago, there was a smiling, beautiful southern lady who fell in love with a brave, handsome southern man. They had a big, fancy wedding with all their friends and family members, then made a cozy, sunny home in Pensacola Florida on the US Navy base.
It wasn't long before this newly married couple received orders to relocate to another Navy base, in a faraway land which was then called Formosa (now Taiwan). Well, the smiling, beautiful wife was understandably distressed over this news. She was a true homebody, and had reservations about starting their little family way over there. The brave, handsome husband was thrilled - you see, he was an adventurer at heart. The idea of being practically immersed into an entirely foreign culture was highly exciting to him!
So, off they went. The darling wife (let's call her 'Gwen', ok?) and the dashing husband (shall we call him 'B.Q' - and no, I don't make this stuff up!!) settled into their home on the base in a town called Kaoshiung, Taiwan. The sweet wife, Gwen, surrounded herself as much as possible with familiarity, retaining a teaching position at the American elementary school on the base and thus involving herself fully with the community there. The more-adventurous husband, BQ, contented himself with working on the base during the day, and finding exotic shops and restaurants during his free time. He worked diligently on his Mandarin language skills, and practiced on locals whenever possible. 
Thus, life went on for a very short while. The baby they were planning for became a reality. Gwen was re-assured that there would be no concern for her medical care during the pregnancy or delivery, as there was a wonderful hospital in the nearest big city, Taipei. That was the Plan, anyway.
Baby (we could call her 'Susan' since it was in the 1960's. Apparently there was a law to name your firstborn daughter with this name) had other plans. Baby Susan began to make herself known about 4 weeks earlier than was expected, and was dismissed by certain male members of her immediate circle as being nothing more than indigestion caused by too much Italian food.  After a few arduous hours and lots of discomfort on the part of Gwen (the maybe not-so-smiling wife) it was determined that perhaps just maybe there was a baby in a hurry to get into the world. This audacity on the part of said baby caused poor Gwen to have to give birth in a local convent infirmary instead of in the nice, familiar, antiseptic hospital as was planned. The convent full of German nuns, who were in turn full of Unfamiliar Ideas about birthing and recovery. Gwen found all of this rather disheartening, as she was of the belief that babies should be extricated while mom-to-be relaxes in a drug-induced sleep. Further, these particular nuns were quite insistent on the benefits and virtues of breast-feeding, again controverting Gwen's wishes and instincts.
After several days of being 'bossed around' by these well-meaning nuns, Gwen was finally well enough to be sent home to the base. She boiled up some bottles, made a mixture of baby cereal, milk, jello-o pudding and who knows what else to put into the bottles and little Susan was on her way. There were helpers hired, all Mandarin speaking, and all truly lovely people. Gwen went back to teaching, and Susan thrived under the care of these three caring, warm local people. Their names (as it has been told) were A'jean, Wong and Tater. Under their influence, little Susan grew and became a babbling toddler, fluent only in Mandarin (which her mother could not understand). Susan was exposed to quite a variety of local culture, customs and food, and welcomed all of it. 
One day, when baby Susan was about 16 months old, Gwen came home from school a little early.  On her way home, she passed the local garbageman (cousin to Wong) and his water buffalo with his smelly, bulging baskets of refuse. She waved at him, as she always did. At that point Gwen realized there was a baby riding on the back of the water buffalo, wearing only a cloth diaper! She immediately thought unlovely thoughts about the appropriateness of an unclothed baby riding on the back of the garbage buffalo. These thoughts left her as she arrived home and prepared to greet her own sweet child. In coming into the house, she noticed that there was a noticeable absence of 'Susan noise' and that the babysitters were looking alarmingly guilty. After much complicated communication between four people speaking two different languages, it transpired that Wong's cousin was giving them a break from the 'Susan noise' and had been doing this every afternoon for weeks. (Thus explaining the mystery of the deepening tan lines on baby Susan's body.)  Gwen was initally mortified, but deep down, she understood the need for a break from the constant monitoring of a toddler.  She did insist, however, that any future trips with the garbageman must include a hat and clothing!
This is the end of story the first, although there are many stories which come before it. It's challenging to know where to start, but most people agree that it's best to start at the beginning. This was the beginning of me, baby Susan. Affectionately known as the 'made in Taiwan' China doll, although most people call me Susie these days.

Once upon a time there was this mommy-girl who had so much to say about so many things. She was slightly shy, but given the right circumstances, she could talk and talk and talk. Sometimes her audiences were less than receptive (they were usually of the smaller variety of person) but sometimes, when the stars aligned, there were occasions of actual interest in her thoughts, words, and imaginings. This mommy-girl gathered amazing treasured friends everywhere she lived, and many of these people (mostly of the grown-up variety of person) continually insisted that she should share her stories, no matter how silly, sad or serious. These mostly grown-up people believed that her stories could bring a measure of 'twirly-ness' to the world, which apparently is direly needed.

Thus, twirlymama the blog is born today. I am your humble storyteller, delighted to share my adventures with you, whoever you may be.