meet me at the dock: and tell me a story
When I was younger, I really believed that inanimate objects, were anything but. I was certain that every single thing had feelings. Sticks, cars, gum, toys, blankets, stones...they each had a heart.
As a result, I was inconsolable when a tree was chopped down. If a storm was moving in, I would run around frantically collecting sticks and stones, making sure they had a safe place to hide. I would choose the bruised and mishaped pumpkin during Halloween because I didn't want "him" to feel unloved for the way "he" looked. I would freak if another kid was recklessly pulling out grass because I just knew the earth was feeling like its hair was being ripped out. And I can't even tell you how I responded when my beloved Mrs. Beasley doll "accidently" had her head torn off.
Luckily, I grew out of this way of thinking early enough to prevent any permanent damage to my psyche, although I still get a little choked up at the sight of unchosen pumpkins laying in the fields.
Did you have an odd little habit as a child? Did you have something that you really believed in and no longer do? Did you have a quirky ritual? Please share your story! Don't leave me here thinking I was the only one who was an oddball kid!
xo,
jen
P.S. Here are a few goodies for you to enjoy...
STOP: Maya Stein
LOOK: Valerie Hammond
LISTEN: The Honey Trees
FEEL: Tattly Fun
| TW | FB |
| EM |
|
|
|
|
Comments
oh yes. i was the same. i took every single stuff animal i owned with me on family vacations or excursions because if i only took one or two the others would get their feelings hurt. i would feel extreme sadness and guilt over leaving "anyone" behind. if i accidentally dropped them or hit them on something, i was certain they felt the hurt.
quirks quirks. :)
Oh Celisa, I can just see you as a little girl doing this! How about trying to get them all in the bed with you, only to wake up and find one poor thing left on the floor!!! xo
At bedtime, I made sure my feet were NOT touching the footboard because I thought I wouldn't grow if they were. I'm 5'3" and the tallest woman in my family on both my mom and dad's sides. Proof that my caution was right, huh?!
My stuffed animal bunny (that I've slept with since i was 6, and still do, every night) had to be facing outwards when I fell asleep: 1) So that he could protect me (if he's facing inward, how would he know if something bad was coming?) & 2) Because I was a little afraid of the Bunnicula story and feared that my stuffed bunny would come alive and bite my neck. Ummm. I allow my bunny to sleep face in now. No bite marks.
Crissy, your story cracked me up! I love that your bunny could not only protect you but also had the power to bite you in the neck!!!! Oy! I have my stuffed dog that I still sleep with at night, and he's officially 40 years old. I would love to see a photo of your bunny ! Load it on the flickr site maybe? http://www.flickr.com/groups/squamdock/
thanks of sharing this!!!
xo
j
Oh, Jen! I had so many childhood quirks! Most have slowly dissipated but I still have a soft spot for pretty much any living creature. As a kid I had frogs & salamanders as well as the normal host of suburban kid pets, cats dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters. I once brought a mole to the mall in my plastic purse when I was about 7.
Jill, I have a feeling you are the only one in the world who consciously chose to bring your mole to a shopping mall! So damn funny! (and very very sweet) Im with you on the suburban kid pet list. Just throw in girbils, endless gold fish, a hermit crab, and a gardner snake or two.
Goodness!
Should I be checking your purse at registration this year??? :)
xo
jen
I promise to to bring any pets there but you never know what I might go home with ;0 You know, Liz Taylor had a chipmunk...so at least we're in good company:
http://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Taylors-Nibbles-Me-Taylor/dp/0689853343
I also believed that my dolls and stuffed animals had feelings and always wrapped them Christmas and birthday presents. Also believed the reflections in the mirror were an alternate reality and tried to catch them moving as I stepped out of sight!!! Today that translates to a healthy respect for everything in nature and for property that has value to someone other than myself. I'm still labeled quirky but now ok with it, actually I am learning to love and express that inner magical child. Thanks for giving us a safe forum to out ourselves. LOL Andrea
I think a lot of my childhood "quirks" were actually undiagnosed OCD. I worried a lot and was fairly anxious and obsessive about a lot of things, like making sure ALL the light switches were completely off because I worried our house would burn down, every night, and I'd heard that when switches weren't fully up or down it was a fire risk. The year my older sister spent her junior year in England I worried every single day. I think I thought my worry kept her safe. I still feel this way, really, when my husband travels--it takes so much mind energy to keep him safe, especially when he's overseas. (The Australia trip nearly did me in!)
Your pumpkin story reminds me of the Ziggy Thanksgiving special when he tried to save all the turkeys--do you remember that one? I cried, watching that. It still bothers me to think of it. I was very empathetic as a child--my oldest is the same way.
At Easter time my aunt Helen (really great-aunt) would give my sister and I each a large Russell Stover chocolate egg while my twin brothers would receive chocolate bunnies. Although I was certainly not going to pass up chocolate because, hey! chocolate!, I worried that it would hurt the bunnies as the boys nibbled on their ears, feet, etc. As a result I insisted that we snap the heads off quickly so that they were 'killed' humanely and didn't suffer. This policy quickly extended to gingerbread people, animal crackers, and pretty much any animal-shaped foodstuff up to and including Peeps. I taught all the women in my freshman dorm to eat animal shaped treats this way and to this day all my friends, family, nephews and my niece know the right way to eat an Easter bunny.
I was the same as a child. I never wanted to eat chocolate easter-bunnys (or father christmas - do you have them?) and played with them until they melted and my mum took them secretly away. When I was about 8 I did eat them, but I pulled off the paper very very gently and then put another material inside the wrapper (like cotton-balls). We always coloured eggs on easter (with paint that was in a glass). One year one turned out very ugly brown-green, I felt so sorry for the egg - because my sisters and mother said it is ugly - that I put it into my dolls-bed and talked to it. Later I hid it in my sock drawer that nobody could throw it out. We found it because of the smell eventually and I had to bury it. I also tried to put a hole into my rubber because that was in fashion at school and stoped cause I felt so sorry for it - thought it might hurt the poor thing - so I build a little house for it and put it to bed to recover from the injury ... (sorry about the mistakes, english is not my first language, just learned it at school)
I took my pet turtle on vacation with us into a National Park area. He was almost confiscated, because the rangers thought I had found him in the park, and of course one could not take living creatures out of their habitat.
I've posted on my blog other thoughts about this topic and a photo of my teddy bear that I got for Christmas when I was one year old...I may make my DDD ten posts yet!
I was the same my love...I would bring home all my lunch garbage from school as I didn't want it to be lonely in the garbage at school.
Me too, Jen.. i find it interesting that alot of us had the same feeling.
I still feel it a wee bit...
As a good a thought trees were magical. I would hide in the willow tree behind our apartments and pretend no one could see or find me, that tree was my friend and protector..I still feel the same about trees, they call to me.
xo
KAren
deldino