I could probably write at least 100 blog posts on my memories from the ages of 2 and 3 but, frankly, most of them aren't particularly interesting. I suppose some day I might feel like mentioning that the basement door was locked with a red horseshoe magnet stuck through the hasp (I guess I just did) but for now I'll try and stick to more entertaining topics. Today I'm going to talk a bit about frustration. At that age it was the emotion that seemed to crop up more often that any other.
BTW - To appreciate what follows you need to keep in mind that I grew up during the mid 50's to mid 60's. That was before society started trying to take 'natural selection' out of the equation. Terms like 'child proof' and 'choking hazard' had not yet entered the popular lexicon.
Furthermore, seat belts were a rarity and car seats were non-existent, as were crumple zones and safety glass. Dashboards were made of cold hard steel with lethal decorative protrusions. Cars had hood ornaments that punctured wayward pedestrians. Playgrounds were made of iron and asphalt. Stupidity and carelessness had real (and harsh) consequences... Ah yes. Those were the good old days... But I digress...
First off - what is it with coins and electrical outlets??? Coins were clearly made to fit in slots (or else they'd be spherical) and the openings in (American) electrical outlets are clearly slots, but I could never find a coin that would fit in one of those slots... Lord knows I tried (early signs of OCD?). Every time I found a coin I'd head for an outlet and try and shove that puppy in. Of course, I had to be sneaky about it because my mom seemed to have a problem with that particular line of experimentation. I didn't understand why until I was 5 years old and plugged in a lamp while holding the prongs. I ended up on my butt about 3 feet from the outlet thinking "Oh... So that's why... That kind of sucked..."
Next on the frustration list - there's that period of time when you think you can talk but (apparently) you can't.
One day I was playing with my favorite marble and it rolled under the upright piano in the dining room. (Choking hazard? Not during the 50s...) I was pretty upset and went to the kitchen and asked my mother to retrieve it for me, but she just looked puzzled. I finally got her to follow me into the dining room and pointed at the piano while telling her over and over again that my marble was under it (I was really upset and crying by then). And all she did was check my diaper and give me a bottle of juice... It's no wonder I thought adults were stupid :-)
Finally - I don't really know how to classify this one so I'll just tell the story:
One summer day some family friends (the Rings) were visiting and we were all out in the back yard. The grownups were over by the barbecue and the children (myself included) were by the swing set. I was sitting there (minding my own business) in a folding lawn chair when my big sister Kathy and the Rings' daughter Kathy (the 2 Kathys) decided they wanted it.
I was unwilling to voluntarily relinquish possession of said lawn chair so the 2 Kathys proceeded to shove and pull and otherwise attempt to forcibly eject me from it while I held on for dear life. And all of the aforementioned shoving and pulling caused the chair to fold up, smashing, lacerating and otherwise injuring the fingers on my left hand.
My screams of pain finally drew the attention of the adults (who had been completely oblivious up to that point). They ran over and asked what had happened and the 2 Kathys (apparently relying on the fact that I was crying too hard to say anything) concocted this story:
They had been innocently playing on the swing set when they noticed me messing around with the folding chair. Sensing that I might be in danger they ran over and attempted to save me but, alas, they were too late. Their noble efforts had failed - I had already folded the chair up on my own hand.
I'm still not sure what I was the most upset about - the injuries themselves, the fact that the 2 Kathys caused them and lied about it, my inability to tell the adults what had happened, or the fact that the adults had not even noticed the 2 Kathys trying to drag me out of the chair in the first place. But I do clearly remember how extremely frustrating it was.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I think you were just upset about the injustice of it all. That's my interpretation, anyway, based on the fact that I think I inherited an extreme disdain for injustice. I think, from a very young age, it feels as if justice should prevail, and it's really a downer when it doesn't...especially when the failure of justice can be attributed to carelessness, obliviousness, and deceit. Very frustrating, indeed.
On the natural selection topic, I was just thinking about this the other day. There was some bit on the news about a toy recall and my immediate reaction was to say "so some dumb kid probably did something ridiculously stupid and, in consequence, none of the smart kids get to have any fun and natural selection won't be able to do it's work on future dumb kids. Plus the dumb kids and smart kids alike will only get dumber since they're being deprived of the opportunity to learn from unpleasant experiences." After which Craig gave me that I-can't-believe-you-said-that look and then said, "Wow...that's really harsh. But totally true."
Yeah - there will more blog entries about my sensitivity to injustice as I get around to my school years.
I'm sure you know my rants about 'natural selection' are largely tongue-in-cheek, I mean I really hate to see anyone get hurt.
However, there are countless examples of people winning large jury verdicts for doing things so patently stupid that we secretly hope (for the good of mankind) that they are unable to reproduce. I DO have a problem with that :-)
Amazing that you can remember so much from being so young, though (before being able to talk). Mind you, I do have early memories of being ABLE to talk (i.e. around 5 or so) and STILL failing to get the adults to understand or do the right (just) thing by me!!
I'm going to try to be more sensitive to what small children seem to be needing. Not to mention small dogs...("Go away, Lassie! Stop pulling at my sleeve! I don't have time to play.")
I was probably about 9 or 10 before I discovered that most people couldn't remember very much from before the age of 5. I have no idea why I can and others can't (must be something in the gene pool).
Of course, given how upsetting some early memories are it's probably one of nature's defense mechanisms :-)
You are probably right (about defence mechanisms). Mind you, your early memories become interesting simply because you DO remember them. Why you, and not others--but also, why certain memories and not others, you know? I have a vague memory of a yellow enclosure which felt faintly claustrophobic. I think now it was the inside of the hood of my baby carriage (what we called a pram, for perambulator). Apparently I loathed the thing, and screamed when I was in it. So that makes sense. But it's more of a mood memory than anything as specific as that red horseshoe magnet.
My rant, in regard to children, was also fairly tongue-in-cheek...but there's maybe a tiny grain of truth to it. I think kids require a degree of supervision that they don't receive and that inattentive adults are probably more to blame than stupid kids. The world is not child-proof and kids need a bit more guidance than they get to learn what is and is not safe to do. Kids playing with safety toys only leads to adults without a healthy understanding of cause and effect. What kids really need is gentle guidance through that learning process. It's pretty cool, for example, that kids in Montessori school learn to handle things that are breakable...they actually get to understand how things really work. Video games are a big contributing factor to adult stupidity, too, I think...kids spend insane numbers of hours doing crazy stupid things virtually and I really think they start believing they're invincible...
I could go on and on...
Post a Comment