Today is the first installment of digging into my various health stages. Let's begin by going all they way back to birth through eight years old. The pictures from top to bottom are kindergarten, 1st grade, and then first grade part two.
The first seven years of my life were largely normal. I have 5 older brothers (3) and sisters (2). They are all clumped together within a year or two. I am seven years younger than my next oldest brother, Bob, or Robert as my mom calls him. Being the youngest, I never lacked attention. I was also the youngest male grandchild on my paternal side. So "William" was often the center of affection. I was the king of the world. And all my cousins, and aunts and uncles had all kinds of fun with me. I was pretty much a clown and made everyone laugh. I must admit I truly enjoyed that role. That fun loving wit has never left me and served me well over the years.
Our family eating habits were very healthy. We ate 3 square meals everyday. We did not really partake in junk food. But I was little when the food industry really started to take off. My generation saw Hostess become a cult. But many of my school chums got "Ding Dongs, Twinkies, HoHo's etc, while my lunch was Bologna, salami, braunschweiger (yuck), and an apple, an orange, banana etc. and maybe a couple of Hydrox chocolate cookies. The only time we had soda, Vess Soda, was at family holiday parties. My dad would pick up a mixed case or two of Vess Soda in the can and bring up a wash tub from the basement that had two compartments. One side had beer on ice and the other had Vess on ice. Still to this day I am not a big soda drinker. Soda is a treat, like a candy bar.
The family wheels started to fall off when I turned seven and I noticed that my dad was not home in the morning when I woke up. Mom tried to lie a few times and stretch the truth. "Your dad slept at the office", or "he got up before you woke and had to get to work." Sure I was seven but not stupid. I knew something just did not add up. I did not fully understand it, but I knew things were not good. My grades in first grade suffered. And I was a crack up. So Mom and Dad decided that I would "stay back". Basically I got to do 1st grade over again. It made a huge difference. Sometimes even today I wish we had do-over days where we could make the right decisions and fix things we screwed up---wouldn't that be cool.
Once my second try at 1st grade was over things really started to change. So up to the age of eight life was OK. I think I struggled my first crack at first grade because my Mom was teaching, which took away time from me. She would admit years later quilt over not working with me on reading and writing etc. in those crucial years, like the things we do now with our own children to help them along in the early years, which is so important. I don't blame my parents at all. They were going through some tough personal things.
I will end this blog this way. My life was overall pretty normal those first 8 years other than noticing my dad was not around the way a normal dad would have been. That being said, I taught myself how to ride a bike. I would not let my Dad teach me. He was not a real happy man and I wanted nothing to do with him teaching me how to ride a bike or anything else for that matter. My brother Steve tried to show me how to tie my shoes. And I just could not get it. Then one day, walking back from William's Drugstore (a locally owned pharmacy and catch-all), my shoe laces untied. I did not panic though. It took me a couple of tries but I finally figured out how to tie my shoes. I was at the Millbrook crossing at the bottom of William's hill (William was a street). (You can see why I might have a strong ego when I was little---it seemed that the entire neighborhood was named after me. Ha Ha) Poof I could tie my shoes. To this day I have a hard time letting people show me how to do things. This personality trait drives my beautiful wife crazy.
I digress. All families have quirks and issues but somehow for the most part we all seem to survive and thrive. Kids are very adaptable, but that does not mean that they should have to adapt. The optimum is a stable loving environment. My situation was certainly loving. Stable? Let's just say that the ground had some cracks up to this point.
The first seven years of my life were largely normal. I have 5 older brothers (3) and sisters (2). They are all clumped together within a year or two. I am seven years younger than my next oldest brother, Bob, or Robert as my mom calls him. Being the youngest, I never lacked attention. I was also the youngest male grandchild on my paternal side. So "William" was often the center of affection. I was the king of the world. And all my cousins, and aunts and uncles had all kinds of fun with me. I was pretty much a clown and made everyone laugh. I must admit I truly enjoyed that role. That fun loving wit has never left me and served me well over the years.
Our family eating habits were very healthy. We ate 3 square meals everyday. We did not really partake in junk food. But I was little when the food industry really started to take off. My generation saw Hostess become a cult. But many of my school chums got "Ding Dongs, Twinkies, HoHo's etc, while my lunch was Bologna, salami, braunschweiger (yuck), and an apple, an orange, banana etc. and maybe a couple of Hydrox chocolate cookies. The only time we had soda, Vess Soda, was at family holiday parties. My dad would pick up a mixed case or two of Vess Soda in the can and bring up a wash tub from the basement that had two compartments. One side had beer on ice and the other had Vess on ice. Still to this day I am not a big soda drinker. Soda is a treat, like a candy bar.
The family wheels started to fall off when I turned seven and I noticed that my dad was not home in the morning when I woke up. Mom tried to lie a few times and stretch the truth. "Your dad slept at the office", or "he got up before you woke and had to get to work." Sure I was seven but not stupid. I knew something just did not add up. I did not fully understand it, but I knew things were not good. My grades in first grade suffered. And I was a crack up. So Mom and Dad decided that I would "stay back". Basically I got to do 1st grade over again. It made a huge difference. Sometimes even today I wish we had do-over days where we could make the right decisions and fix things we screwed up---wouldn't that be cool.
Once my second try at 1st grade was over things really started to change. So up to the age of eight life was OK. I think I struggled my first crack at first grade because my Mom was teaching, which took away time from me. She would admit years later quilt over not working with me on reading and writing etc. in those crucial years, like the things we do now with our own children to help them along in the early years, which is so important. I don't blame my parents at all. They were going through some tough personal things.
I will end this blog this way. My life was overall pretty normal those first 8 years other than noticing my dad was not around the way a normal dad would have been. That being said, I taught myself how to ride a bike. I would not let my Dad teach me. He was not a real happy man and I wanted nothing to do with him teaching me how to ride a bike or anything else for that matter. My brother Steve tried to show me how to tie my shoes. And I just could not get it. Then one day, walking back from William's Drugstore (a locally owned pharmacy and catch-all), my shoe laces untied. I did not panic though. It took me a couple of tries but I finally figured out how to tie my shoes. I was at the Millbrook crossing at the bottom of William's hill (William was a street). (You can see why I might have a strong ego when I was little---it seemed that the entire neighborhood was named after me. Ha Ha) Poof I could tie my shoes. To this day I have a hard time letting people show me how to do things. This personality trait drives my beautiful wife crazy.
I digress. All families have quirks and issues but somehow for the most part we all seem to survive and thrive. Kids are very adaptable, but that does not mean that they should have to adapt. The optimum is a stable loving environment. My situation was certainly loving. Stable? Let's just say that the ground had some cracks up to this point.
No comments:
Post a Comment