Oh so many ways I could have died
* Went down the basement stairs in my Taylor Tot. Here I am, sitting in the same device in the safety of a wide, flat field, looking disapproving of the world. This was probably before I decided to roll down the basement stairs, bashing out my two new front teeth.
* Decided to play with the portable hair dryer while I was in the bathtub. Zzz. What was that? Zzzz. What was that? Zzzzz. Oh.
* Kidnapped by older neighbor kids, who stuffed me in a red wagon full of dead leaves and snow and hauled me down the block and left me there. OK, I probably wasn't close to death, but I was as terrified as though I was. (This is later that day, safe at home.)
* Had a fight with my brother, who ran away across the street. I dashed after him--and the car that was aimed right at me at 30 mph slammed on its brakes. My father saw the whole thing from the front porch, shouted us back into the house, and made us go upstairs and sit in a back bedroom. "I don't even want you looking out the window at the street," he said, and I could not imagine why he was so angry.
* A car pulled up as I walked along East Fourth Street on my way to the house of my friend, April Dann. The driver was a middle-aged man in a fedora. He said, "You want a ride downtown?" My heart beat faster. I needed to get away. I must not get in that car!
But that sense of survival was doing battle with the obedient side of me, the side that said I must politely do what adults asked of me. I said, "I'm not going downtown," and the man frowned and drove off.
Oh, how do children survive childhood?
29 comments:
Geez. You could write your own personal version of the Gashlycrumb Tinies.
But isn't that the truth? And I think girls with brothers have even more chances/more ways of possibility! Love the photos and the snippets of memories.
What an exciting childhood! I notice the dangerous moments peter out the older you got. No adult mishaps? ;-)
Oh, Babaloo, how quickly you forget. This is the woman who had adventures with Mexican strangers and Russian dogs.
It's a wonder you're still alive, Laurie. You were the cutest kid.
It's a miracle, isn't it Laurie?
I was given this doll pram, a Pedigree yet, when I was 6. I took the hood off it and pulled out the middle flap which would hold shopping under the 'baby' and then used it as a wagon, 2 of us would sit in it and go barrelling down our sidestreet and across the busy main road without looking, on a dare.
I can't even IMAGINE how dangerous this was, my heart pounds when I think of it.
And this is only 1 of my 25 lives.
XO
WWW
I think bubble wrap is a great invention. Too bad we can't wrap ourselves or our kids in the stuff.
I love being terrified and laughing at the same time, which is what this post did to me. BTW my husband fell down the basement stairs in the SAME Taylor Tot...has a scar to this day.
Oh , I love that photo of the rescued you backed into that corner .
My youngest aunt left me in my pram on a slope and went into the baker's ( the way you did then ) whereupon the pram rolled off and through the red traffic lights .....
Being a child was lively at times!
i love the gashlycrumb tinies.
babaloo, in addition to mexican and russian adventures, don't forget setting my leg on fire, and kayaking backward down the river while not knowing how to swim.
there was also the time i went rock-climbing and took the rope off before i was all the way at the top. i can still feel that awful swaying feeling when, for a moment, I didn't know if i was going to sway into the cliff, or away from the cliff...
It is a wonder any of us survived childhood although I don't think my experiences were as harrowing as yours were.....so glad you survived my friend.....:-) Hugs
It is a wonder isn't it? Someone was looking after you that's for sure.
morbid thoughts
Kim, Laurie, I remember all of it! That's what the winking smiley was for...
I just know that your guardian angel is somewhere out there in the afterlife, sipping a nice drink and enjoying a very well-earned retirement. She is probably the guardian angel guru, much sought-after guest speaker at angel workshops and mentor to angels with responsibility for little boys and girls with ADHD.
The Gashlycrumb Tinies is one of the few poems I have memorized. But that thing, that Taylor Tot...I was trying to figure out what it was, and my first guess was sprinkler.
Fabulous post. Glad you're here.
Oh dear....momma said she almost stuck a knife in the toaster cause the toast was stuck. Her momma screamed just in time...Great pictures
Benny & Lily
It is sometimes a wonder. My childhood was much less adventurous, although I did get separated from my grandmother when I was four on our way from the subway to Madison Square Garden. I knew I wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, but a very nice woman helped me find her without me so much as opening my mouth.
I remember the Taylor Tot! Thanks, Laurie, for that smile. My nearest near-death experience? When I was 4 years old, my older brother convinced me that if I held onto a feather, a la Dumbo, and walked off the edge of the garage roof, that I would fly.
I didn't...lol.
I think your Guardian Angel may be a bit bruised up:)
i think all children have these experiences all the time. i just happen to remember a few.
and sandy, you're right that having brothers makes life even more dangerous. i had five brothers....maybe my childhood was five times more dangerous than most?
and re the Taylor Tot, indigo--a sprinkler! ha. it's a stroller. it was blue, all metal. click on the picture. look at the exposed metal and screws. look at my bare little feet.....
You've left my heart in my throat. Are you part cat? Such luck! Such survival!
Indeed, it's amazing that there so many of us fully-grown humans on the planet.
My youngest son, when he was two, rode on the bumper of his father's step-van, barefoot, wearing only a diaper, for about a half-mile, of course unbeknownst to his dad, who nearly suffered cardiac arrest when he discovered why the car behind him was honking madly and flashing his lights.
Glad you survived it all!
oh my god, T. Clear! oh my god!!!!
So glad you survived these life-threatening events - you have a wonderful store of memories that you write so beautifully about. Must find the "Gashlycrumb Tinies"!! It certainly IS a wonder that so many survive those things that can happen to us in split seconds - and if you go climbing again.... oooooh. Laurie don't take the rope off til you're tied off at top anchor - that scared me just about more than anything... as a climber hehee! Careful out there everyone. Am doing an awful lot of thinking about Haiti now - another "split second" thing that has devastated an entire country. So glad YOU survived!
Hugs xo
Sammie's Mom, Miche
I'm glad you survived. I'm sure your parents doubted the liklihood for awhile? Dryer in the bathtub!!!
This is so wonderful, funny and true.
I remember falling backwards off a little ladder, my fall stopped when my legs caught in between the steps. There I hung upside down -- and thought it was hours before anyone found me.
Actual time elapsed was seconds from when my mom saw me fall backwards and the time it took to run out and help me.
And we try to eliminate risk from our children's lives! Just no point. There will always be danger and there will always be lucky types like you surviving it. Think of all the practice you have had now! no wonder there are none from your adult life. You must have survival cracked now.
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