Why can’t I remember things from a long time ago without a little mental poke? It seems like some stuff is a lot harder to retrieve than others.
I don’t remember much of 2nd grade through 5th. School friends, teachers, church…all foggy, faces that don’t come together. I have vague memories, but I remember army time in first grade much more vividly, and junior high on. Much of elementary school is a big blur. I sort of recollect telling my teacher in third grade that I had a twin, but he didn’t go to school with me because he was in an accident and had to go to a special school instead, with nurses…. But for the life of me, I can’t remember what any of my classmates looked like, or a favorite teacher. First grade was amazing. Mr. Adams, the teacher was tall and skinny, with thick, short black hair. He was an Aquarius like I am, and he showed me how to tell if it was raining outside by looking at puddles (through the window) for ripples from the invisible raindrops.
I remember telling my little brother that the yard behind ours was an African Game preserve,(reminded by that from mention of my sweetie’s fear of an African statuette as a kid) filled with gazelles, zebras and such… but we couldn’t go over there because the lions would eat us… maybe later, when dad would let us have bb guns, we could go. Instead we went out further back to the undeveloped woods and built tree forts… played army and threw pine cone grenades at one another. Those things scratched badly, and made amazing bubbles when hydrogen peroxide was poured over the cuts. (we were lucky not to have gotten each other in the eye…) Fall came, and tiny propeller seeds would fall like helicopters in the wind… dozens… maybe hundreds would come down at once in the woods.. it was amazing. Fireflies would come out at night, but we never really did the “capture them and stuff ’em in a jar” thing. it was just amazing to see lazy Christmas lights floating in your back yard… I would love to have a screened in back porch one day, and have them breed inside a contained space like that… so beautiful. We did capture frogs, and put them in mayonnaise jars with a stick and some leaves… salamanders, too.. but my dad had us let them go after a day or two, because it was cruel to keep them longer than that. (Later, as a sadistic little boy, I would throw frogs into boiling water to hear them scream. I’m glad I outgrew that phase… the memory of that sound still pierces my mental eardrums now.)
Animals I took care of as a boy-
Lilah, a laso-upso moppy dog. Sweet thing, it’d bark at all non-family.
Bear, a German shepherd that was as big as a house, and solid as a tank. super loving, and very smart.
Betty and Archie – A pair of mastiffs… like great Danes with shar-pei faces. stupid, yet lovable, they weren’t mine, but a friend of the family’s who traveled quite a bit.
Thor, Odin and Loki – gerbils, they were more trouble than fun
Mitzi (later Freya), adopted Ferret from a friend who moved away, and couldn’t keep her. My first experience with a hutch animal.
Nutmeg the box turtle. I didn’t think it was slow, just tired. (we painted his shell) My last hutch animal.
Many, many white mice from when I was in boy scouts, and going for my merit badge in genetics.
Julius Squeezer, a rainbow boa.
I and O. a blue and a red hermit crab, respectively. (my first pets in my first solo apartment living on my own. I miss them! They were set free on the beach when I moved in with James… I should’ve kept the HC’s, and not hung with him.)
We had to give up on indoor fur-bearing animals, because my little brother was allergic… I didn’t mind too much, but I did miss Lilah when she went to live with my aunt and uncle.
Well, time to go to work…it was sort of fun, rambling.
