#2, the fill in....
*****See Past BLOG*****
Lemme see if I can blog a few things extra to the story now since this is where my memories start again...
At Annunciation: I remember freezing my tounge to a flagpole. Daymn that hurt, they had to pour hot water on my tounge to unfreeze it. I remember all my "friends" laughing, then they were all facinated by the sight, then they all ran and I remember being all alone after the recess bell rang and thinking I was going to die until I saw the teacher see me through the window and salvation came at last.
I remember "the Bowl" which was the track for the schools there, the bleachers, sliding on my crazy carpet there, feeling terrible small in there and it being dead centre between the townhouse and the school.
We had a cousin who lived right accross from the school who was a lacross player of some note... I think I can even see his face. So healthy, so strong, so fresh.
I remember my first long jump. I was running and feeling powerful and took a looooong jump over a mud puddle and all time seemed to stop, I floated there for ages looking at the puddle below me and being facinated by the way it was hardly moving. I felt like the Six Million Dollar Man. It took forever until I landed and I remember stopping for the fist time and really considering what had just happened. I bet I stood there for several minutes just lookin at the puddle and revelling in the feelings I was having. This wouldve had to have been when I was ... well it was before uhmmmm, 1977? so I wouldve been no more than 8 and maybe younger.
Whoops, before that sometime I was in kindergarten and I remember wearing my forhead off. LOL! School wasnt very good for me. It was kindergarten because we were still sitting on the floor and I remember toys around and no real learning so I would sit with the other kids during storytime or whatever and I would (from a cross-legged position) put my forhead on the god awful red and green circular carpet we were all sitting on and draw it back and forth feeling the heat friction build up. push away... pull towards... I was devistatingly bored. I did so much of this that my forhead became raw and I was told to stop when after a few days or weeks or months my forehead started scabbing over.
It was around this time that I started going wonky.
My Mom had a party one night and us kids were to stay in our room and not come out. the place was FULL. We all sat in there and laughed and giggled at the antics of the drunks. I think Lou sent me out once under the ruse of wanting a glass of water or something just so we could open the door and see what was going on. I do remember standing in the middle of the smokey room looking at the many drunken people I had never met before and hearing lots of oooo's and ahhhh's while mom looked embarrased but tended to my needs. Where was the kitchen in that place? Was it the hall we walked through to get to our bedroom? I dont remember a bathroom or Mom's bedroom either. we got scared a few times from the stumbling and the occaisional shouts but it was ok. Maybe this was an engagement party or something because I think it may have been the first and last time my mom ever threw a party, but I might also know why there were never any more...
The next morning I woke up earlier than anyone else (and LONG before Mom did, hehehe) and I snuck out into the living room. I think that maybe it was 8am or so, the sun was up and it was warm so it was likely summer. I remember feeling like a king that I was the first up and had even beat Bro and Sis.
I checked everything out, looked at the full ashtray, sniffed some stuff in the bottles and glasses everywhere, looked at the (only 1 person?) drunk and passed out kind of half-on half-off the couch.
I got it in my head (because mom was always so damn carefull) that this was my one chance to see why everyone smoked and I went back to the ashtray to see if I could sneak out a cigarette.
It's hilarious when I think back and realize that while I snuck out and was so very very carefull I was only just a kid so where did I go outside? Out front at the corner on the left side of the apartment building where we had a basement suite... which also meant that I was just ouside my living room window at the time, HAHA! I couldnt have been closer to her if I had gone into her bedroom. what a goof.
OK, so I stood there with my bounty, I had 3 butts: 2 good looking 1/4 smokes and one crappy looking 1/2 smoke. I had also grabbed a book of matches and lit the first good looking one. Puff puff *tried to inhale* coff coff coff. That one was finished so i started the second one... Puff puff *tried to inhale* coff coff coff and that one was done too. I remember thinking to myself that this was dumb but maybe I'm just not doing it right so I lit up the third one, the cruddy one, it was hand rolled and kinda skungy brown with no filter...
Puff puff "this reeks" *inhale is easier* but COFF COFF COFF!! the next thing I can remember was mom waking me up from my bunk: apparently I had been twitching, sweating and screaming about spiders. I remember this stuff now, she took me out to the living room to the couch where the ashtray sat on the coffee table and was cradling me and she was SCARED, but I didnt know why, nor could I really think to ask her. We talked a bit about how I felt funny and the spiders were everywhere. I can still see them, little transparent spiders. I didnt like them but I was ok as long as they didnt come on me. MILLIONS of them. Every surface was crawling with them, she tried to give me a blanket to stop the shivering but when I saw it it was a blanket made of spiders...! I was getting sleepy now and mom was getting really scared but I couldnt figure out why.
So mom asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I remember saying "yes". She got my little rubber boots WHICH WERE OVERFLOWING WITH THESE SPIDERS! and I remember screaming "your telling me you cant see them all?? Look at them, their everywhere!!" (or something like that). Needless to say: I didnt put them on, so mom had to carry me out.
FF to the hospital (because I dont remember anything in the in-between) and the kindly Dr asks mom to go get me a glass of water and while she gone he asks me "did you get up to anything today son?" so I tell him not to tell mom but I snuck a cigarette.
things went very somber for a bit, etc, etc, etc...
When Mom got back the Dr took her ouside while I drank my water and their voices got progressively quieter while I sat and watched the spider wall crawl and the spider floor shimmer with their density.
When they came back in I remember the Dr's smile being different, but not how it was different, just that it was.
he gave mom some "no-more-spider cream" and sent us home, it worked! I dont know what was in that cream (prolly just Noxima) but those spiders stayed off me and only were everywhere else. I napped all bundled up on the couch and I ...watched cartoons? (did we even have a TV at that point?) and as time passed I noticed that there were fewer and fewer spiders until I did'nt need the cream anymore and things were fine.
Heheheh.
Little druggy Chris! Explains a lot maybe?
Hmmm, what others?
There was the time I took a 3 inch rock into my head.
Bro thought it'd be fun if (since I was bugging him for a ride) we shared the bike riding rather than making him walk. I agreed whole heartedly as that DID sound like LOTS of FUN! I'm pretty sure it was all my fault as I was (if I remember right) the peddler and he was the steerer. my little legs couldnt get us going well enough to stay up and over we went on the gravel alleyway.
Bro musta been HORRIFIED! especially when I started bleeding with a finger shaped rock sticking out of my skull. it was 3" with less than a cm sticking out. Back to the hospital and my mom terrified... To this day it's why I've never shaved my head for fear of having a disfiguring scar.
I've never blamed Bro for that though as I was 120% on-board with the idea, I hope mom wasnt too hard on him or him on himself.
Hmmm, the hockey stick to the head?
we were playing hockey (more likely pirates, (or even better would have been Star Wars) out on the sidewalk in from of the building when Bro threw down his stick which bounced up and hit me in the head cutting the forehead open. or was this one the other way around. yea, I think it was, I think I threw the stick and cut Lou's head open. Crazy eh? We had trash-can lid sheilds and broken hockey sticks, but I'm sure no matter how it happened it was all Bro's fault in Mom's eyes since I was her little baby. hehehe. Poor bro.
WAIT: I think I remember getting the stitches...?
The push off the high slide.
there were bullies at the public playground close to ...one of our places... I think this was at the townhouse. Bro was bigger than me but he was a thin kid and I dont remember the bullies but if Bro was the same as I was at that age then he wasnt a tough kid. besides I think there were 3 bullies and no matter how good of care he took of me he wouldnt have been able to surmount the odds. He did his best though and I was a gregarious kid too likely, I remember my whole life doing things that my mom always told me not to, so I'd bet it was the same way with Bro watching over me too.
We were playing at the park and there were two slides, 1 was probably 5 foot and the other HIGH slide was at least 10 if not 12 or 14 feet tall. the bullys would do things like budge the line ON the ladder and I remember Bro bravely beaking of to them that we were just little kids. He kept calling me away but I'd only play close until I thought I could get away again and when I did I shot straight back at the high slide which was WAY more fun than the sandbox or teh teeter-totter (stupid lame teeter totters never worked right around me, all the other kids seemed to be ok with them). Well, the last time I got away, I got all the way to the top of the steps. now I think the bullies were making it personal now because it was VERY important to them that they got to slide before I did, besides I would get to the top then take a fairly long time to gather up the courage to go which is likely why this all became a problem. And of course they would stop mid way down the slide and block the way and stuff. Well, there I am gathering courage quickly because I know their coming when they get there before I can launch. the #1 bully barges past me, I feel gravity and air all around me and "BWUNK".
The slides were embedded into the ground in cement feet but in Edmonton at the time: as the ground and sand and stuff wore away, the top of the cement was sticking out of the ground about 4 or 6 inches and thats where my big fat head hit (since all little kids are head heavy, arent they?) and well, I have a few more bursts of memory on that one...
Shortly afterwards trying to walk home, while Bro pushed his bike, trying to stop and take naps on the grass at curbside but bro not letting me saying stuff like, "if you have a concussion your not allowed to go to sleep or you might not wake up. you might die" and stuff.
I remember thinking it was kinda cool that they kept feeding me cerial even though all I wanted to do was sleep and everyone telling me that I was NOT allowed to sleep so I watched cartoons. This was the townhouse now.
Wondering why I was being shaken like a ragdoll and where did Mom come from? she wasnt there a second ago. Again, Mom was terrified and the funny thing is this is THE one moments I can remember exactly what she was wearing from that era. I guess she was still working back then because it was a business jacket and she must have left long before we got up and come home long before we saw her because I had never *noticed* her in a skirt before and I barely recognised her with her hair like that. Crazy old world. The memories end there except for a breif moment in the emergency room with the Dr telling my poor hysterical Mom that I was likely ok. Other than that there was just a feeling that all was good now that Mom was there and I was safe at last.
thats it for now, more to come...
Lemme see if I can blog a few things extra to the story now since this is where my memories start again...
At Annunciation: I remember freezing my tounge to a flagpole. Daymn that hurt, they had to pour hot water on my tounge to unfreeze it. I remember all my "friends" laughing, then they were all facinated by the sight, then they all ran and I remember being all alone after the recess bell rang and thinking I was going to die until I saw the teacher see me through the window and salvation came at last.
I remember "the Bowl" which was the track for the schools there, the bleachers, sliding on my crazy carpet there, feeling terrible small in there and it being dead centre between the townhouse and the school.
We had a cousin who lived right accross from the school who was a lacross player of some note... I think I can even see his face. So healthy, so strong, so fresh.
I remember my first long jump. I was running and feeling powerful and took a looooong jump over a mud puddle and all time seemed to stop, I floated there for ages looking at the puddle below me and being facinated by the way it was hardly moving. I felt like the Six Million Dollar Man. It took forever until I landed and I remember stopping for the fist time and really considering what had just happened. I bet I stood there for several minutes just lookin at the puddle and revelling in the feelings I was having. This wouldve had to have been when I was ... well it was before uhmmmm, 1977? so I wouldve been no more than 8 and maybe younger.
Whoops, before that sometime I was in kindergarten and I remember wearing my forhead off. LOL! School wasnt very good for me. It was kindergarten because we were still sitting on the floor and I remember toys around and no real learning so I would sit with the other kids during storytime or whatever and I would (from a cross-legged position) put my forhead on the god awful red and green circular carpet we were all sitting on and draw it back and forth feeling the heat friction build up. push away... pull towards... I was devistatingly bored. I did so much of this that my forhead became raw and I was told to stop when after a few days or weeks or months my forehead started scabbing over.
It was around this time that I started going wonky.
My Mom had a party one night and us kids were to stay in our room and not come out. the place was FULL. We all sat in there and laughed and giggled at the antics of the drunks. I think Lou sent me out once under the ruse of wanting a glass of water or something just so we could open the door and see what was going on. I do remember standing in the middle of the smokey room looking at the many drunken people I had never met before and hearing lots of oooo's and ahhhh's while mom looked embarrased but tended to my needs. Where was the kitchen in that place? Was it the hall we walked through to get to our bedroom? I dont remember a bathroom or Mom's bedroom either. we got scared a few times from the stumbling and the occaisional shouts but it was ok. Maybe this was an engagement party or something because I think it may have been the first and last time my mom ever threw a party, but I might also know why there were never any more...
The next morning I woke up earlier than anyone else (and LONG before Mom did, hehehe) and I snuck out into the living room. I think that maybe it was 8am or so, the sun was up and it was warm so it was likely summer. I remember feeling like a king that I was the first up and had even beat Bro and Sis.
I checked everything out, looked at the full ashtray, sniffed some stuff in the bottles and glasses everywhere, looked at the (only 1 person?) drunk and passed out kind of half-on half-off the couch.
I got it in my head (because mom was always so damn carefull) that this was my one chance to see why everyone smoked and I went back to the ashtray to see if I could sneak out a cigarette.
It's hilarious when I think back and realize that while I snuck out and was so very very carefull I was only just a kid so where did I go outside? Out front at the corner on the left side of the apartment building where we had a basement suite... which also meant that I was just ouside my living room window at the time, HAHA! I couldnt have been closer to her if I had gone into her bedroom. what a goof.
OK, so I stood there with my bounty, I had 3 butts: 2 good looking 1/4 smokes and one crappy looking 1/2 smoke. I had also grabbed a book of matches and lit the first good looking one. Puff puff *tried to inhale* coff coff coff. That one was finished so i started the second one... Puff puff *tried to inhale* coff coff coff and that one was done too. I remember thinking to myself that this was dumb but maybe I'm just not doing it right so I lit up the third one, the cruddy one, it was hand rolled and kinda skungy brown with no filter...
Puff puff "this reeks" *inhale is easier* but COFF COFF COFF!! the next thing I can remember was mom waking me up from my bunk: apparently I had been twitching, sweating and screaming about spiders. I remember this stuff now, she took me out to the living room to the couch where the ashtray sat on the coffee table and was cradling me and she was SCARED, but I didnt know why, nor could I really think to ask her. We talked a bit about how I felt funny and the spiders were everywhere. I can still see them, little transparent spiders. I didnt like them but I was ok as long as they didnt come on me. MILLIONS of them. Every surface was crawling with them, she tried to give me a blanket to stop the shivering but when I saw it it was a blanket made of spiders...! I was getting sleepy now and mom was getting really scared but I couldnt figure out why.
So mom asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I remember saying "yes". She got my little rubber boots WHICH WERE OVERFLOWING WITH THESE SPIDERS! and I remember screaming "your telling me you cant see them all?? Look at them, their everywhere!!" (or something like that). Needless to say: I didnt put them on, so mom had to carry me out.
FF to the hospital (because I dont remember anything in the in-between) and the kindly Dr asks mom to go get me a glass of water and while she gone he asks me "did you get up to anything today son?" so I tell him not to tell mom but I snuck a cigarette.
things went very somber for a bit, etc, etc, etc...
When Mom got back the Dr took her ouside while I drank my water and their voices got progressively quieter while I sat and watched the spider wall crawl and the spider floor shimmer with their density.
When they came back in I remember the Dr's smile being different, but not how it was different, just that it was.
he gave mom some "no-more-spider cream" and sent us home, it worked! I dont know what was in that cream (prolly just Noxima) but those spiders stayed off me and only were everywhere else. I napped all bundled up on the couch and I ...watched cartoons? (did we even have a TV at that point?) and as time passed I noticed that there were fewer and fewer spiders until I did'nt need the cream anymore and things were fine.
Heheheh.
Little druggy Chris! Explains a lot maybe?
Hmmm, what others?
There was the time I took a 3 inch rock into my head.
Bro thought it'd be fun if (since I was bugging him for a ride) we shared the bike riding rather than making him walk. I agreed whole heartedly as that DID sound like LOTS of FUN! I'm pretty sure it was all my fault as I was (if I remember right) the peddler and he was the steerer. my little legs couldnt get us going well enough to stay up and over we went on the gravel alleyway.
Bro musta been HORRIFIED! especially when I started bleeding with a finger shaped rock sticking out of my skull. it was 3" with less than a cm sticking out. Back to the hospital and my mom terrified... To this day it's why I've never shaved my head for fear of having a disfiguring scar.
I've never blamed Bro for that though as I was 120% on-board with the idea, I hope mom wasnt too hard on him or him on himself.
Hmmm, the hockey stick to the head?
we were playing hockey (more likely pirates, (or even better would have been Star Wars) out on the sidewalk in from of the building when Bro threw down his stick which bounced up and hit me in the head cutting the forehead open. or was this one the other way around. yea, I think it was, I think I threw the stick and cut Lou's head open. Crazy eh? We had trash-can lid sheilds and broken hockey sticks, but I'm sure no matter how it happened it was all Bro's fault in Mom's eyes since I was her little baby. hehehe. Poor bro.
WAIT: I think I remember getting the stitches...?
The push off the high slide.
there were bullies at the public playground close to ...one of our places... I think this was at the townhouse. Bro was bigger than me but he was a thin kid and I dont remember the bullies but if Bro was the same as I was at that age then he wasnt a tough kid. besides I think there were 3 bullies and no matter how good of care he took of me he wouldnt have been able to surmount the odds. He did his best though and I was a gregarious kid too likely, I remember my whole life doing things that my mom always told me not to, so I'd bet it was the same way with Bro watching over me too.
We were playing at the park and there were two slides, 1 was probably 5 foot and the other HIGH slide was at least 10 if not 12 or 14 feet tall. the bullys would do things like budge the line ON the ladder and I remember Bro bravely beaking of to them that we were just little kids. He kept calling me away but I'd only play close until I thought I could get away again and when I did I shot straight back at the high slide which was WAY more fun than the sandbox or teh teeter-totter (stupid lame teeter totters never worked right around me, all the other kids seemed to be ok with them). Well, the last time I got away, I got all the way to the top of the steps. now I think the bullies were making it personal now because it was VERY important to them that they got to slide before I did, besides I would get to the top then take a fairly long time to gather up the courage to go which is likely why this all became a problem. And of course they would stop mid way down the slide and block the way and stuff. Well, there I am gathering courage quickly because I know their coming when they get there before I can launch. the #1 bully barges past me, I feel gravity and air all around me and "BWUNK".
The slides were embedded into the ground in cement feet but in Edmonton at the time: as the ground and sand and stuff wore away, the top of the cement was sticking out of the ground about 4 or 6 inches and thats where my big fat head hit (since all little kids are head heavy, arent they?) and well, I have a few more bursts of memory on that one...
Shortly afterwards trying to walk home, while Bro pushed his bike, trying to stop and take naps on the grass at curbside but bro not letting me saying stuff like, "if you have a concussion your not allowed to go to sleep or you might not wake up. you might die" and stuff.
I remember thinking it was kinda cool that they kept feeding me cerial even though all I wanted to do was sleep and everyone telling me that I was NOT allowed to sleep so I watched cartoons. This was the townhouse now.
Wondering why I was being shaken like a ragdoll and where did Mom come from? she wasnt there a second ago. Again, Mom was terrified and the funny thing is this is THE one moments I can remember exactly what she was wearing from that era. I guess she was still working back then because it was a business jacket and she must have left long before we got up and come home long before we saw her because I had never *noticed* her in a skirt before and I barely recognised her with her hair like that. Crazy old world. The memories end there except for a breif moment in the emergency room with the Dr telling my poor hysterical Mom that I was likely ok. Other than that there was just a feeling that all was good now that Mom was there and I was safe at last.
thats it for now, more to come...