Thursday, November 22, 2007

ANOTHER BRAIN MANGLING MEME

1. Describe your earliest memory where the memory is clear and where clear means you can pick at least three details.

2. Give an estimate of your age at the time.


3. Tag at least three other bloggers. No names, just grab your chance to relive your own horror.


I say that because I think every memory I could dredge up was a childhood nightmare.
I really had to think hard to find the earliest one which was when we lived in Ferntree Gully so I must have been three and a half. The national park up there had huge cages for birds, really great for a national park to stick the poor buggers behind wire. I remember black cockatoos and sulphur crested cockatoos. There was a kiosk where they sold icecreams, of course I'd remember that. The children's playground was near the cages and that's where my cousin put me in a swing and swung me before I was ready. I went flying off the back of the swing at the highest point and don't remember much about anything after that.


I don't know why I went to a shrink for two years, all I had to do was discover memes. Amazing how many memories are sparked by an object, a photo or smell. I was an extremely anxious child, the shrink said it usually starts in the womb when a child has it as badly as I did. I think I tried to live in an alternate universe for years where I was a fairy queen and nothing could harm me. My mother said I was a very quiet child, of course I was. I was too frightened to breathe let alone talk to anyone.


I'm still writing down whatever comes into my mind from my childhood and it wasn't, by any means, a traumatic time. I had food, I was warmly clothed and wasn't knocked about by abusive parents, I just seem to remember all the frightening events and not many happy ones.

I might have been a fairy queen exchanged for a human child. I had an infection which caused an obstruction in the throat (I was only a baby) so the doctor sent me to Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital for two weeks. Two weeks in which my mother was not allowed to visit until she received a call to pick me up. Not one doctor explained to her what it was that I had or gave her any documentation as to what treatment I'd been given. No wonder I loved the X-Files, I was one. When I asked her why she didn't query this, she said that during the war you got used to being told what to do and to ask no questions. This was years after the war had finished.

17 comments:

River said...

No matter how hard I dredge, I can't come up with a single nightmare. Even the night my mum left home (on the eve of my 8th birthday) wasn't a big deal. She'd told me she was leaving and asked if I wanted to come. Apparently I'd said I wasn't going anywhere if dad wasn't going too. She took my older sister who is retarded and needed her, and my younger brother who has epilepsy and also needed her.

Brian Hughes said...

I've already explained my excuses for not partaking in this one over at Annie's site. Besides, I'm coming down with the flu, or pnuemonia or something and I'm in a particularly grumpy, if somewhat opaque, mood this morning. Please send chocolates and donations to the usual address.

Anonymous said...

'obstruction in the throat' Another reason, apart from your knees, why you could never be a gay man.

R.H. said...

A mee-mee gives me a nervous breakdown.

Went to bingo last night; two potato cakes, piece of fish, four roast spuds, three dim sims, bananas and custard. The girls thought that was enough, so I finished off with three cream scones. Well golly, it's the only place I can afford to dine out. Sociologists go to Monroes.

The Editor said...

River, if you still think that wasn't a big deal you're a repressive anal retentive no doubt suffering from chronic constipation. Get therapy.

p.s. feel free to hurl abuse at me, I can take it, nay, I thrive on it. :-)

Ann ODyne said...

oh Witchy I'm falling about -
"a quiet child" !
After the swing incident I'm not surprised.
Good to see you came out of that one OK though.

JahTeh said...

River, don't feed the Bear, he does thrive on abuse. At least you were given a choice about your future so I hope it turned out well.

Poor Hughes, A 'brown ale' virus perhaps and I don't donate chocolates to anybody.

Andrew, coat it in boiling toffee and I might be tempted. You could go fancy and do a barley sugar twist.

ANNIE O'D, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'M NOT A QUIET PERSON STILL?

River said...

Bear - psychoanalyse all you like, I like who I am and no, I don't suffer chronic constipation. In fact my diet and elimination are the things I'm most careful about since it was bowel cancer that took my mother 3 1/2 years ago.

Jahteh - My life has turned out well. We kept in touch with mum and the kids, travelling from Port Pirie to Murray Bridge every Easter and Christmas. After I left school I moved to Murray Bridge where mum helped me get a job. I went on to marry and have 4 children, all of them happy and well adjusted kids and I now have 5 beautiful grandchildren.

R.H. said...

Fair go, Gerald. Read between the lines.

R.H. said...

And have a look at your own constipation; all that cliche.

Gerald, you really are tiresome.

JahTeh said...

Rh, did you really eat all that food? Where did you get the time to play Bingo?

R.H. said...

I forgot to say the bananas and custard had a scoop of ice cream on top.

R.H. said...

Well you've never been to bingo. There's twenty minutes between sessions, and it's spent eating.

R.H. said...

And gossiping

Middle Child said...

Jesus Mary and Joseph but I was lucky in the mum and dad stakes... I feel so sorry for poor bugger kids who go through all this shit when even if childhood is a bit crazy its at least consistant and there is love and safety...

The Editor said...

Rh, you're right. I'm a heartless ogre preying upon the vulnerable and defenceless. Shooting me would be too kind...

JahTeh said...

Rh, I never have been to bingo but twenty minutes of eating time between games could tempt me.

MC, a few more like you and Don and the world would be a better place for a lot of kids.

Sorry Bear, bullets cost money. How about a few hundred of your closest enemies get together a dig a large pit. That's for being so pessimistic about Saturday.