Postcards from childhood...Vol 1

One of the great things about having a kid, is reminding myself of what it was like to be one. It is amazing the clarity I suddenly have regarding my own childhood.

So lately I have been having these crazy flashbacks to moments of my youth, and I can't help but laugh at some of the stupid things I did - and what's more amazing, is I distinctly remember thinking it was a good idea at the time.

The one that i've been thinking of lately happened when I was about 3-4 years old. Probably closer to 4 because I remember my cousin Kim being there and she was still a baby, in her car seat - and she is 2 years younger. (I think there had to have been a 'Men At Work' song - "we come from the land down under..." playing because I had not remembered this incident until I put this record on for the first time in years and the event suddenly popped into my head clear as day). Anyhow, I was for whatever reason in the back seat of my aunt's car - and again, the memory is so vivid. I can put myself back in the moment, not being able to see out the car window, having to look up at everything, including my aunt's reflection in the rear view mirror from the back passenger side seat. I remember only being able to see the top of her head in the reflection - this was important and was a factor in my deciding to do what I did next.

My cousin, as I mentioned, less than 2 years old was sitting tight against me in her car seat in the middle of the back seat. I can clearly remember the plasticy vinyl material that covered the seat was old and weathered, and the yellowish foam sponge was easily viewable. Not just viewable though. Obtainable.

There had to have been someone with partially the same idea as me prior to my arrival because there was evidence of the sponge being picked at and ripped. Again, making it irresistibly obtainable. I fooled around with it for a while, sticking my finger in the crack of the sponge, feeling and pushing my way around, all the while keeping one eye looking up at my aunt.

It wasn't long before I began to pick at the sponge. What I did next baffles me completely. I held a small piece in my fingers and rolled it into a little ball half the size of a pea. I know it was half the size of a pea, because it was the perfect size to stick up my nose.

It's amazing the process we go through to learn things as children, because it was this day that I learned about sponge, and it's ability to expand following compression. Once in my nose, it did just that. I remember the panic that fell over me - not just when it got stuck, but as I pushed it further and further up while attempting to unlodge it. I wasn't exactly sure what I was more afraid of - the fact that I got sponge stuck up my nose, or that I destroyed family property obtaining the sponge. It was even that more difficult trying to get it out without being caught. I could just imaging my aunt - who had to have seen me suddenly start squirming in the back seat trying to pull down a winner. Nonetheless, I worked that thing and eventually got it out.

So basically, the long and the short of it is, I'm fortunate to remember some of these stupid things... because when Gord comes to me with some foreign object stuck in his nose, all I can do is relate.