Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
A timely Thursday Thirteen
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Thirteen Things about Doug And, dammit, you’d better play this time, or next week, I’ll tag your ass. 1. Goethe, not Nietzsche, said, "What does not kill me makes me stronger." Three intervals in my life put this to the test, but I was not so much tempered by them as torn apart and put back together.
2. As a four-year-old, I was traumatized by a cantaloupe (AKA musk melon). This was not one of those desperate, ego-formative moments. I got over it. 3. My first memory: I’m two, nearly three, and my brother and sister are helping me get dressed in the back seat of my dad’s car. (A blue Chevy, Sis?) It is the first day of my first Voyage of the Damned: summer vacation, driving from LA to Boston to see the rest of the family. It would not be my last such voyage. 4. I liked to get up when my parents got up. They would eat breakfast, drink coffee, and not yell at each other. I hid in the hallway with my back against the wall heater, listening to them talk. My mom didn’t like this. She thought the wall heater would give me “arthuritis.” 5. On that first Voyage of the Damned, we stopped for breakfast in Needles. I saw a red firetruck I dearly wanted. My mother wanted to buy it for me, but my father didn’t. Much psychodrama ensued. 6. We took the southern route that year. One night, in a motel room in the Deep South, we woke up to find the room infested with giant water bugs. Trust me: you really don’t want to click on that link. 7. Bliss for five-year-old me was a day at the beach . . . although I hated it when my mom would towel the sand from my back. Ow. 8. I had my first mathematical epiphany in kindergarten. I told my teacher, Mrs. Biyotch, “One and one are two!” and she replied, “One plus one equals two.” Talk about buzz kills. 9. I loved my pediatrician, Dr. Johnson. Or maybe I just loved ripping off all my clothes as fast as I could. 10. I didn’t like my next doctor, Dr. May. To this day, I don’t understand why a doctor would feel the need to do a rectal exam on a ten-year-old boy (or younger) at every visit. Actually, I do understand, and I don’t like it one bit. 11. Among other childhood fears, I was afraid of the dark, and of mysterious strangers coming into our house. My sister knows why. I didn’t get over my fear of the dark until med school. 12. My grandfather groped me once, but I didn’t hold it against him. (Hah! I love that gag.) No, this wasn’t one of those ego-formative moments, either. 13. To some degree, I live in a constant state of breath-holding, waiting for the next traumatic interval. 1. Dariana |
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D.
Love #1 and can totally identify with #13. Happy TT!
I played TT today :o)
I clicked on number 6…and what are you talking about, Doug?! That is nowhere near as scary as a spider!!!
And a tip for sand at the beach: take baby talc, the sand falls straight off ;o)
Great! I’ll get you on the list, Jona, ASAP. And thanks for the tip — I’d never heard that one.
i can totally dig it on the water bugs. being a former floridian…you never get over that traumatizing experience…
::shiver::
happy TT! 🙂
Beach sand…yuck
My 13 is up at http://www.dcroe.com/blog.html
I did it too but I have no idea how to get in the loop.
My skin still crawls when I think of those water bugs. Remember the one in the fold away bed (different state maybe different trip)? The one the motel manager tripped over because we called it an “extra guest”, and they thought we were getting away with something?
Yeah, blue Chevy, the ’59.
And oh yeah on the strangers.
Okay, I tried to comment a few hours ago, but Blogger wouldn’t let me, and now I can’t remember what I was going to write. But I enjoyed your list. In looking around through your site, I also enjoyed your other posts. Very funny and interesting.
My thirteen are up.
I’ve jumped on the bandwagon as well! So interesting! Thanks!
~Sapph.
Sis — 1970, Alabama (or Mississippi?), Daddy trying to be funny with the night manager. “Excuse me. Is there a charge for an extra guest?”
Caryn, Sapph, I’ve got ya.
I thought the “Excuse me is there an extra charge…” was in New Jersey, but then you know what my memory is like. I think it was a Howard Johnson’s too. That huge bug incident was in Oklahoma.
I hate palmetto bugs in Florida. Although I’m a kind-hearted animal lover, I feel a perverse satisfaction when I see one belly-up and dead. (Thanks to the monthly exterminator visits.) Years ago, I went to the restroom in the dark of night. While sitting there, a palmetto bug jumped on my leg. I screamed and insisted on a bathroom nightlight for years afterward. I have a fighting chance if I can see the menace approach.