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Dutchess_III's avatar

What are your 10 first memories?

Asked by Dutchess_III (46811points) March 24th, 2017

1. Meeting my little sister for the first time. We lived in Seattle. I had just turned 3. Dad picked me up so I could look in the bassinet. I remember thinking, “It’s just a baby! What’s the big deal?!”

2. Sitting on the floor in front of my dad, around the same time. He was putting on my socks. I was waiting for him to get a sock bunched up and in the meantime I kept putting one foot up, then bringing it down, then the other foot, alternating until he said, “OK, stop. I gotta put your sock on.”

3. Climbing up a wall in the house we lived in in Seattle. I was about 4½. It had slats on the wall for decoration and I’d climb up them like a little Rhesus monkey.

4. Going to my best friend’s house. Her name is Geri. She lived next door. Her little brother, Randy, used to watch TV laying on his back, head toward the TV, watching it upside down. “Silly wabbit! Trix are for kids!”

5. Sitting in time out when I was 4. I was “reading” Prince Bertram the Bad, except I couldn’t read. I had it memorized. And I was “reading” it back wards, in order, beginning with the last word of the book. Mom came and sat down beside me, asked what I was doing. I showed her and she said, “How interesting.”

6. Going into a house my folks were thinking of buying in Florida. I was about 4. Walked into the living room. There was a huge book case that didn’t extend quite from one wall to the other. To my delight you walked around the end of the book case to get to the bedrooms! It was like hidden rooms. Also, flipping a “light switch” that was by the sink or somewhere. It was a garbage disposal. I had never heard a garbage disposal before and it scared the bjebus out of me! To my disappointment and relief, they didn’t get that house.

7. When I was in kindergarten the teacher assigned each of us a cute little animal, and when that animal came up it was your turn to change the calendar. I was a cute skunk. I got so excited when that skunk came up.

8. Recess in kindergarten in Florida. It had flooded after a hurricane and was still really soggy at the far end. We were cautioned not to go there because of water moccasins.

9. Learning to braid on the playground by using pine needles. Chinese jump rope. Swinging on the monkey bars.

10. Putting on a neighborhood hula girl show for all the parents of all the neighborhood girls who had practiced for a week before hand. I was 4.

All of these were before I was 6. They’re just off the top of my head, and there are a thousand more popping up as I type. They’re just random memories. Trivial.

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36 Answers

Berserker's avatar

Sitting in the back seat of a car in one of those baby seats, trying to reach my mom’s sowing kit. Her and another woman were sitting up front, smoking cigarettes.

My dad taking a piss on me when he was drunk. Once he also pissed on my mom’s cushions and she was pissed off, but this is a way later memory.

Catching crickets and putting them in a basket, and they all just jumped out all the time. Fuckers.

Sneaking outside at dawn to go play on my swing set. This is the first memory I have of contemplating the sky, I remember it being so…blue.

Again, sneaking outside at dawn, but my uncle busted me as I was pushing a chair to the door to get the latch off.

Sneaking outside yet again, trying to pick up a huge rock, then this time my grandpa busted me, he picked up the rock, hucked it in the neighbor’s yard lol, picked me up and brought me inside. At least he didn’t throw me in the neighbor’s yard.

Mild fire breaking out in the kitchen, then some guy with a lumberjack vest grabbed me out of bed, I’m like wtf, he goes, no worries man and I just fell back asleep in his arms lol. After that I was standing outside on the other side of the street with my parents while the firemen came, and some lady gave me chocolate. I don’t remember any fire though, but the ceiling in the kitchen was darkened, and I remember being afraid of the stove pipe the fire was in after that.
I don’t know, or remember, why some random guy took me out of bed instead of my parents, or who the hell he even was.

Not wanting my dad to go to work, and he said he’d be back soon, but when you’re little a whole day is really long.

Going back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, and taking sips of cough medicine every time I got to the kitchen. I remember it tasted super good. Got brought to the hospital after that, but this I do not remember.

Pissing myself in the kitchen, and then trying to clean it up with these hollow toy blocks I had. It didn’t work.

Not entirely sure of the precise order of these, I’m going by the first two places I remember living in.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Some were sad and some were hilarious @Berserker. “then some guy with a lumberjack vest grabbed me out of bed, I’m like wtf, he goes, no worries man and I just fell back asleep in his arms” LOL!! Thanks for sharing!

I remember the bed shaking in Seattle. I didn’t say anything to my Mom, for some reason, until about 30 years later. She said it was probably an earthquake. Oh.

My dad’s friend was building a house in Florida. We went to check on the progress. We were rampaging through the unfinished house. Grabbed a wall to swing around the corner…and my hand sunk into the wall! It was plaster that wasn’t dry. Ooops!

Sneki95's avatar

I don’t know. I can’t remember.
Maybe I have a few of them, but surely not ten.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Surely you have 10 memories Sneki! Just share the first 10 that comes to mind.

I wonder why some people remember and some don’t? The ones I listed were barely a drop in the bucket of what I remember.

I remember drowning in a pool. I remember it clearly. I couldn’t tell which was was up or down and I was just flailing and spinning. Dad rescued me (probably saying wtf! Lol!) and 10 minutes later I knew how to swim.

I remember going to the beach in Florida. OH! I remember tracking down some kids who were on a pier (we lived right on a man made canal that came from Tampa bay) and they were catching jelly fish and putting them in a coffee can. “Don’t stick your hand in there! They’ll sting you!” I remember looking into the can and seeing mostly water. I ran home and got my own can. I put water in it before I caught any jelly fish and the kids said, “No, you don’t put water in it! Just jelly fish.” It was so weird how the jellyfish just looked like water.

Sneki95's avatar

Berserker’s story reminded me of a flash memory of my dad throwing a dog in the neighbour’s yard. I don’t remember how old I was, but I remember small, yellow dog flying.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Oh! I’m so sorry. Do you think a lot of your memories were bad? Could that be why you don’t remember them?

Sneki95's avatar

^ No, I just have horrible memory. I don’t remember it as bad. It was kinda funny. The dog surely didn’t like it.
I do have some bad memories. I remember them, but they happened when I was older.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

My father backed over my tricycle when I was three.

They bought me shoes that I hated and refused to wear when I was three.

I had to go to a doctor umteen times to get a huge birthmark frozen off my face with dry ice when I was three. His office was in a skyscraper on Canal Street in New Orleans. My mom says that I would scream everytime we entered an elevator for months afterward.

I remember fishing with my father and brother on a pier on Lake Pontchartrain. It was unbearably hot. I thought I was going to die. When I was three.

We went to visit my grandfather in the Sierras when I was four. There was snow on the ground. I’d never seen it before. Against my mother’s warning, I went out and played in it and had a lot of fun until my feet began to freeze. Jesus, I thought I was going to die.

I tied my puppy to the bumper of my dad’s car one morning to take a pee when I was five. I forgot about the puppy and went into the house. My dad took off for work at a secure facility. When he got to work, the guard asked him what he had tied to the back of his car. It was my puppy.

When I was five, I got a superman costume for Christmas. I promptly jumped off the roof of the barn. Went to the hospital. Mild concussion.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I have some bad memories, too. But mostly good ones. I think I was lucky.

@Espiritus_Corvus did it hurt?

I was born in Texas but we moved to West Seattle when I was 6 months old. Both of my sisters were born in Seattle. One is 3 years younger than me and the other is 4 years younger. We moved from Seattle to Florida when I was about 5. Lived there till I was about 8, when we moved to Kansas.

I remember that in Seattle, as I was falling asleep, if I started, like, spinning down, down, down in the dark it was a warning that I was going to have a nightmare and I could wake myself up and start over. One time I just let it go for the hell of it and had a horrible, horrible dream, which I remember. I was 4 or so.
Also had a recurring dream about being in the garage in Florida and there was a tiger prowling the street. My nightmares always had a theme running through them that I was responsible for my sisters and I had to keep them safe.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

^^The dry ice treatments? Hell, yes. I have no idea why that guy didn’t use a local anesthetic, but he explained it to my mom. Back in the day, man. You had to be tough.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

I think people are more apt to remember the things with the most emotional impact, whether they are good or bad. I was a well-loved child, but that couldn’t compare to the pain a kid can feel when they aren’t used to pain at all. So, most of my early memories were ones dealing with pain, but they are still fond memories because I always was comforted by my parents—except for those fucking shoes. I hated those shoes and my parents showed no mercy by forcing me to wear them.

Dutchess_III's avatar

LOL! My mom once bought me some gawdy, orange tennis shoes and made me wear them. I was about 12. We were going to my aunt and uncle’s lake in Oklahoma and I guess they figured it was a big enough deal that I should wear shoes while we were there. I never wore shoes in the summer!

Of course we remember things that had a big emotional impact. Lord. My dad took us to see the Weeki Wachee Mermaids when I was about 4 and talk about impact! Oddly enough I don’t remember actually seeing them, but I was one from that moment on. Still am. I just can’t hold my breath for 3 days any more. When I grew up I taught my kids how to be Weeki Wachee Mermaids. My daughter says she remembers me teaching them, too! Now I have grandkid Weeki Wachee Mermaids.

Most of my memories seem awfully trivial though. Dancing around a may pole in Kindergarten. Being the skunk. The whistle blowing at recess when it was time to come in, and I acted like those kids in the Ravioli commercial who came running. Playing Catwoman on the playground in 4th grade. Many of them have no special emotional significance. Maybe that’s why the last few memories of a couple of things I remember from my first marriage, and subsequent divorce, that I’ve posted as questions were taken so seriously by some, and I was advised counseling to get over the “trauma.” I guess they didn’t understand that I can remember things that aren’t necessarily traumatic.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

@Dutchess_III LOL. The Weeki Wachee Mermaids. They’re still there sucking on those hoses last I checked in about 2012. That place got so corny that it is cool again. I think it produced a couple of Miss Floridas. I sailed those waters for years. Good fishing and clear water upriver from the Cypress Hammocks.

What town in Florida did you live in?

tinyfaery's avatar

No way I can make a list, but I have the following memories of early childhood. All events took place before the age of 5.

Being about 3 and spilling a drink and running to my mother because I was scared of my dad hitting me.

Being forced to eat cow tongue while my father stood over me as I cried.

Thinking the R and L that my grandmother knitted on mittens was for my name and my sisters name; my name starts with an R and hers with an L.

Sitting in the boot of my aunt’s VW Bug because there were 5 kids and we didn’t all fit. I was the youngest and the smallest.

Having a breakdown going to dance class because I didn’t want to wear a leotard I wanted a my name “tard”; my sisters name is Leah so I thought the leotard was for her. Get it? Leahtard. I always laugh when I think about this.

Honestly, most of my childhood memories revolve around me being scared of my dad. :/

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

@tinyfaery That is so sad. I’m sorry you missed out on having a good dad.

tinyfaery's avatar

@Espiritus_Corvus I had a pretty shitty mom, too. I can’t say I’m over it, but I deal with it.

Dutchess_III's avatar

That sucks @tinyfaery. You managed to come out to be a fine person in spite of it.

Leahtard! LOLL!! When my son was about 5 he was invited to dinner at a friend’s house. His Mom called and said Chris seemed to be afraid of the food! I’m like, “What?” I asked what they were having, and she said “Fish stix.” I asked her to put Chris on. I said, “What’s up?”
He said “She asked if I wanted retarded sauce and I didn’t think I should eat that unless I asked you first.”
I rolled! Smart kid. ;) I told him it was OK to eat tarter sauce if he wanted to.
“OK!” he chirped!
In some ways that was a little humbling. The trust he put in me.

cookieman's avatar

Climbing out of my crib. Likely trying to escape. :^)

Going to my parents’ bedroom door one morning and it was locked. I was told to go away.

Napping in the back window of our old Barrecuda as we drove along.

Having broken a favorite toy of mine, I asked my father (oddly, through a closed bathroom door) if he’d replace it. “Sure”, he said. “Promise?” I said. He’d did, but he never did replace it.

Flying from the backseat of that same Barrecuda and smashing my head on the pointy radio controls because my father had to stop short.

Demonstrating a dodge ball move called the “Gertrude Stretch” to my grandmother and breaking her toe as I jumped up and landed on her foot.

My mother hurriedly asking that we pretend we weren’t home just before my grandfather came to our front door yelling and trying to kick it in.

Tagging along with my father as we searched the local bars for my missing and alcoholic uncle.

My father and his motorcycle buddies smoking pot on the front stoop after my mom had left to work the evening shift.

One of those same biker friends, “Johny the Whale”, pulling a huge gun out of his boot to show my dad.

gondwanalon's avatar

I’m 66 years old now and still have many hazy memories of when I was a toddler. Here’s just a tiny few.

1. One day after Mom changed my diaper she was putting on one of my shoes onto my foot. I started screaming. She said “what’s wrong?” but I was too young to tell her. She took the shoe off and I stopped screaming so she put the shoe back on my foot and I started screaming again. She took the shoe off and looked inside the shoe and found a diaper pin was inside the shoe and it was being forced right through my foot. Later in life I suspected one of my older sisters of having something to do with that. HA!

2. I remember being in the hospital to get my testicles lowered about age 2 or 3. I remember the nurses holding me down to get blood specimens from my arm and thinking “Why are they so mean to me”. I can still almost feel them jabbing my arm with the needle fishing for a vein. Needle going this way and that way. I noticed that one little kid was allowed to walk around the ward seeming unattended. I thought why don’t I go for a walk too? So I escaped from my crib and just went walking around the ward like the other kid was doing. A nurse saw me and quickly put me back in the crib. They had to put a net over the top of the my crib to keep me in. I also remember Mom picking me out of the hospital and wheeling me out to the car chair on a cold Winter day.

3. Also about this time my two older Sisters loved to gang up on me and torture me. They’d dress me in their girl clothes put lipstick on me and tickled me until I about passed out or vomited.

4. I remember my Dads strong voice and song hands that directed “the little boy” where and when to go. To the breakfast table. To the shower and out of the shower. To the toilet. To take a nap. To take a walk. To the vomit bag on an air plane flight.

5. My Dad’s dental office and the cases human teeth that he had.

6. I remember stealing small toys from my friend. Knowing it was wrong but doing it anyway. And the fear and regret that I had when I almost got caught.

7. The cats in my Great Grandmother’s kitchen and how they kept just out of my reach (smart cats). And the fire in her wood stove.

8. Riding my tricycle on the thin ice of a lake and fallen in and an older boy pulled me out.

9. My Father’s funeral at age 4 (my Dad was 32). Mom told me to not touch him. I saw him laying there with flowers all around. I didn’t understand what was happening.

10. The 4 day cross country trip from Wisconsin to California in the back seat of a 1950 Studebaker. Found a gigantic grasshopper along the way. I can still see him. HA!

ragingloli's avatar

my conception and my 9 first cell divisions.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I was 5 the year JFK was shot. I came running in to see the funeral. My 2 year old sister came running in behind me and when the screen door snapped shut it cut the tip of her pinky off. JFK’s funeral is a haze of the flag wrapped coffin, horses, screaming and blood! I also remember finding the pinky tip still stuck to the frame, about two weeks later.

Pandora's avatar

Slip being put on by my mom, uncles wedding, beautiful dress, mean ugly girl, feeling like a princess, appendicitis, Hospital needles, severe fever.

Dutchess_III's avatar

In Florida I was playing “with” a pepper bush that was by our back porch. I was pretending to eat the peppers. Suddenly my face was ON FIRE!! OMG, that burned so so bad. It was a reaction to putting them up to my face, even though they never touched my face.

I remember moving chameleons from wood to leaves and watching them change color. Florida was just cooler than hell!

Sneki95's avatar

I fell on a cactus once when I was a kid. My neighbour and I were playing in his yard, and he had several big cactuses in his garden. I slipped and fell in them. The pain…..
On another occasion, I was playing hide and seek at another friend’s house. She has cows. I decided to hide in the garden, by going through the barn. A soon as I opened back door to go to the garden, I stepped right into the….um….cow dung. She washed my legs with garden hose and laughed her ass off.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Oh ow. I grabbed an electric fence once. I was about 15. It wasn’t live when we went through it. Didn’t think to check again on the way back out! BAM! It was like getting hit by a sledgehammer. Then I blacked out for a second and when I came to I was flat on my back.

Sneki95's avatar

I got hit with electricity a few times too. Quite a feel.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Glad we’re all still alive!

ucme's avatar

Water, lots of water, surrounded by tons of water.
Muffled noises, think it was The Beatles
Performing mime by placing the palms of my tiny hands on the amniotic sac
Shit, what the hell is happening now…
Turning headlong into a ridiculously narrow tunnel
Light at the end of the tunnel
Crying, lots & lots & lots & lots of crying
Milk, finally something other than bloody water
Mammy
Daddy…

Dutchess_III's avatar

I remember the first time I got the wind knocked out of me. I was playing on a swing set singing “She Loves You Ya Ya Ya!” and the next thing I was on the ground and couldn’t breath!
I remember the neighborhood kids trying to make a pulley system with some ropes thrown over a tree. The idea was to pulley our selves up into the tree instead of climbing it. I think I was 6.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I remember practicing and practicing to teach my self how to tie my shoes. I was 5. Happy when I mastered it.

Seek's avatar

My early life involved quite a few moves from one apartment to the next, so it’s pretty easy to catalogue memories by age. The following are all from the first apartment I remember, so all before the age of 4½.

1. Watching Jeopardy from the sofa. I was sitting next to a brass lamp with a glass shade, and there was a rotary telephone and an ashtray on the table.

2. My little brother was just learning to walk. He had a wrapped up diaper in his hand and was going to throw it away. His foot got stuck under the refrigerator and he cut open his toe and he was bleeding. (I’m told he had three stitches).

3. We’re at the doctor and my brother is getting a shot and it takes two nurses to hold him down. I got a shot but it didn’t hurt and they gave me a lollipop. I picked green.

4. I’m laying in my bed and talking to my gerbils and Daddy comes in to read. We’re reading The Hobbit. The book is paperback, has a black cover, with fat Bilbo on the front.

5. Daddy is playing Puff the Magic Dragon on the guitar and I slap my hand on the strings so he has to stop. He’s getting frustrated and I’m laughing.

6. It’s the first day of school and Mom wants me to wear a blue dress and bright yellow leggings and I want my Thundercats shirt.

7. I tried to make my own oatmeal but I put way too much milk in and now it’s soup. I’m so disappointed in myself because I ruined it that I’m crying.

8. Mrs. Jensen asks me to tie another kid’s shoes because Jonathan is being made to sit in the Orange Chair and she doesn’t have time to do it right now.

9. I thought Girl Scouts would be a camping trip but we’re just wearing stupid uniforms and gluing together Popsicle sticks in the school lunch room.

10. One of the kids in Kindergarten got poison ivy. He’s scaring all the kids away with his arm, telling them he’s poison and he’s going to touch them with it. I try to tell him it won’t work but he’s not listening.

AshLeigh's avatar

1. My brother walked clumsily out the back door, his curly light hair sticking out in every direction. I am across the yard, crawling on a blanket. A bee flies over my head toward my older brother. It stings him in the ear.
He cries.

2.I am in a little plastic cart. My sister is pushing it around the house, throwing items over top of me.

3. I am 5 years old. I draw a line with a red sharpie, using water to fade the bold line I’ve made. I tell my mother that my sister scratched me.
It works.

4. I’m five. Someone is screaming. I follow the noise to the front door. My father tells me to go back inside. I hide around the corner, and I hear him say: “You can’t come in.”
The police arrive. An ambulance arrives. They take my mother to the hospital.

5. We’ve run away from my father. A man called Jim says if my father comes to get us, he’ll “put him 6 feet under.”
He’s hitting my brother. I jump on his back with all of my 52 pounds. He cries, and tells me about the surgery he’s had on his back.
Years later realize that we’d been kidnapped.

6. I am 9 years old. My 15 year old sister gets out of her boyfriends pickup truck after a date. Her hair is messed up, and her makeup smeared.
I later hear her telling my other sister that she’s had sex for the first time.

7. I’m 10 years old. My mother takes a wrong turn on our trip through California. We stay with a stranger for three days. I sleep in a recliner each night, before my mother decides not to run away from dad.

8. I’m 11. I’m wrestling with two girls playfully. One of them falls on me. It breaks my finger.

9. I’m 11. I find a strange rash on my stomach. The doctors don’t know what it is. It takes weeks for them to figure out that it’s shingles.
The doctors here suck.

10. I’m 12. My father throws the DVD player at my head. I dodge. He throws the controller. It hits me in the eye.I lie about how I got the black eye.

Those are the first 10 that I can remember at this time, though I’m sure there are earlier ones than some of those. I just can’t think of them right now.

Danebiggs's avatar

1. Laughing while my older brother read me the book Morris and Boris.

2. My sister taking me out of bed and telling me I was sick.

3. Hiding under the table because my dad was drunk and he kicked my sister’s cat.

4. My mom and dad screaming at each other while my dad was drunk.

5. Stealing a Gobot that someone had brought for show and tell in kindergarten (I’m still ashamed of doing that).

6. Seeing a girl first day of grade 1 she was sitting 1 row over and 2 seats back, she had brown hair and she was wearing a purple sweater and I remember saying to myself at 6 years old “She’s not bad.”
I made out with her once when I was 17, but I still get nervous when I see her around and I’m 37 now, LoL.

7. I remember going with my parents to visit some people and having a crush on a girl that lived there and not wanting to wear my glasses at their house.
We would play and hide and I remember her and her sisters always watching out for their dad, like they were afraid of him.
I learned later that he had possibly molested them.
It’s disturbing to think about what those poor girls were going through, but when I think back now there were definitely signs of abuse.
I still keep in touch with that girl on Facebook today and she seems to be doing well and she’s still as beautiful as ever, I still have a crush on her.

8. I remember riding in a red truck with my dad and crying because he was drunk and swerving as we drove over a bridge.

9. I remember crying because my dad was drunk at a friend’s house and I wanted to go to a gas station where my brother worked, but I was locked in this strange house.

10. I remember my mom babysitting lots of kids and me entertaining them.
I would get up with different kids in our house everyday.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Oh my God you guys. ;( ♥.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I think I may have created some lifetime memories for 5 little kids yesterday.

There is an old, fat, slovenly bitch who lives across the street in a shitty, unkempt rental home. There are 5 kids there, a girl, 4, a girl, 10, and two boys inbetween. The kids are always outside (which is a good thing,) screaming in play, because no one has taught them that it’s not OK to scream unless you need help (yelling is OK. Screaming is not) and the old bitch (who I learned yesterday is their grandmother, who they live with) is always screaming at them. Cussing and calling them names. They’ve been there for at least 3 years.

Yesterday Dad dropped my 5 year old granddaughter off while he ran an errand. We were in the back yard picking up branches when my granddaughter heard the kids and wanted to play with them. I hesitated….well, long story short! I’ll post my ongoing Facebook updates here from yesterday:

Mar 24, 2017 2:18pm

Wow. You know those kids across the street where that horrible woman lives, the one who screams all the time? All those kids are here, at my house! Playing in the camper and in the back yard. Adrionna heard them across the streets so we went over to make our howdies…and now they’re all here. Pretty cool kids. One is only about 4, just cute as a bug. I told them Dakota was a wolf. They got excited and wanted to pet her. The little one asked if she’d bite. I said, “No.”
An older boy said, with authority because He Knows, “Wolves don’t bite.”
“Oh, yes they do! But this one won’t.”
Didn’t want the kids to think they could walk up to just any old wolf and pet it! The wolf is overseeing the whole gang now.
I know it’s hard to believe but I haven’t felt the need to scream at them once. I found out a kid peed in the camper toilet and I told them not to do that again because it isn’t hooked up. Didn’t even lose my mind!

Kansas kids. They’re playing tornado. I said, “But there is no basement in the camper!”
“We know! We’re hiding in the bathroom (the toilet is in a little closet all it’s own. Pretty cool.) and in the shower!”
They know what to do.

OMG!! THEY’RE IN MY HOUSE!!

“Why do you keep calling her Bug?”
“Because I don’t know her name and she’s cute as a bug!”

Good grief! They HAD to see upstairs! Rick works up there! Must be quiet!! I told them there was a fierce Yeti up there but that just got them more excited.
So I organized a tour, with one kid at a time, accompanied by Adrionna.
The first kid to come back down stopped half way down, said he was the guard. He was there to pick up any kid who fell down the stairs. I asked if he was going to push them down so he could do his job. He promised he wouldn’t.
Then it was a mass exodus to get water for everyone. Had to pick out the most unique plastic stuff to hold the water in, like an empty honey bear honey bottle, and empty face lotion bottle and an actual baby bottle with no lid for bug.
I think they like it here. All kids do, anyway.
I wowed them with the news that I was a teacher. Never fails to elicit awe.
Then I chased them outside. Oh, the good old days! “Outside! Everybody! Now!” Kids giggling as they ran out.

Little Bug is 4. She is SO earnest! Everything she says is so important! And exciting!

The oldest is 10. She’s “Mom.” Every gaggle of kids has to have a “Mom.’ LOL! My granddaughter solemnly asked permission to call the girl “Mom.” :D “Of course you can!”
So I have names for two of them now.

My granddaughter said she doesn’t want to get mud on her feet, so Mom keeps carrying her around!
I said, “That’s silly! You’re washable, child! You know I can just throw you in the washing machine and ‘chucka, chucka, chuka SPIN!’ and you’re clean.
The kids looked at me in wide eyed shock….until my granddaughter started laughing! Then they realized I was joking and they grinned and looked at me curiously.

OF COURSE I PUT THEM TO WORK! So nice having slaves around again! They were in the camper and I said, in an excited voice “Who wants to pick up branches and twigs from the back yard!”
Only one kid stepped up. It was a boy of course (there were 3 boys and 3 girls, including Adrionna.) He was busily cleaning up the branches. Another boy showed up. He started raking leaves. Then the littlest boy joined them. Yard is clean! The girls were like “Pffft! What eva!” and they didn’t volunteer.
I went and rounded up all my change. It came to $2.50 or so. Put it in a baggie and gave it to them to split up. They thought that was really nice of me.
Of course, the girls were a bit miffed over that, but too bad…..GIRLS MAKE ROTTEN SLAVES!!
They were, actually, dang cool kids. They live with their gramma. The one who yells at them all the time.
Now they’re all gone and it is quiet.

Final post:
It was a good day. It rained pretty hard for a while, then the sun came out.
Then Adrionna came over.
Then we started picked up the back yard.
Then we discovered a passel of kids and they wound up at my house. I’m in my element with a passel of kids.
Then the slave passels cleaned up the rest of the yard. No I had never met those children before. They shouldn’t have come over! But…they seemed to feel honored….
I got all the crap out of the drive way that was left over from moving from the RV to the camper.
Then Christopher came to get Adrionna.
When it was time to go Chris walked to the camper. I said, “Tell them to clean up!”
Chris looked at me oddly, like, “I don’t know those kids! I can’t tell them what to do!”
I said, “Just boss them around like they’re your own!”
He settled for bossing Adrionna around, and the other kids pitched in.
I just finished one of my favorite meals…a burrito with cream cheese, refer beans, regular cheese, lettuce, tomato, green onions, salsa, all wrapped up and smothered with more cheese. Nuke for 1.5 minutes and YUM!
I am content and so is Dakota.

One thing I didn’t mention was that I asked why they didn’t like with their mom.
One kid said, “Because our mom and dad broke up.”
The oldest boy said “I live with my mom sometimes.”
The youngest boy said, like a statement of fact, “She doesn’t love us any more.” No emotion, nothing.
They were really super great children and I’m glad I met them.

Coloma's avatar

Oh gosh, mssed this one, great sharings everyone.

Lets see, not sure if I have 10 but…

I remember taking a nose dive out of my crib, probably under age 2, and landing on a throw rug on the hardwood floor and sliding underneath my parents bed. I distinctly remeber my mother bending down and peering under the bed an exclaiming ” How in the world did you get under there!?” haha

I remember at age 3 the string on my fabulous red helium balloon I got at the fair coming untied from my wrist and watching my beautiful balloon sail away. I was heartbroken.

Age 3 again ( am eventful year ) I was playing with modeling clay and stuck some in my ear. It melted into my eardrum from my body heat and I had to be out out and have the melted clay scraped from my ear. I remember fighting like a tiger as the nurses held me down and shoved the gas mask on my face. haha

I also remember at about age 3 waking up not feeling well and walking out into the kitchen and throwing up all over my mothers feet. haha

Also at age 3 or so, on a cross country drive and becoming carsick after eating pancakes with blackberry syrup. Never ate syrup again.

Age 4–5, taking my pet turtle out to see my friend who rode her pony up our little street to my house. Her parents were standing at the end of the road watching her.
I held the turtle out and the pony sniffed it and promptly reared up and dumped her in the dirt. She was fine but upset and I felt really bad.

Age 4 taking off with a book and getting on the school bus with the neighbor kids early one morning when my mom was in the shower before work. She was beside herself of course and it took the school an hour or so to figure out who I was from the older neighbor kids and call my mother to come retrieve me. I just sat down in one of the neighbor kids 1st grade classrooms and nobody noticed me for awhile. haha

Age 4 again, getting lost in the mountains near my home n Santa Fe N.M. I don;t know how long I was missing before I was found but was really hot, tired and scared. I could hear Bobcats screaming in the canyons and thought they were going to eat me.

Age 4–5. Being tossed up on the teenage neighbor boys horse and being completely enraptured. I felt so big and powerful from that vantage point. The horse seemed to be 10 feet tall and I was captivated. Thus began my life long love affair with horses.

Hey..I got 9! lol

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