Childhood misconceptions

The kids and I were at Buck and Busha's tonight and Busha and I were talking about a wreck the Queen Mother and I had when I was 2 and a half years old. I remember bits and pieces about the wreck. Mama and I were on our way across town to see G'ma M&M in our Nova. There was a rather large group of rail road tracks we had to cross on our way there (as the town we lived in used to be a rail road hub on the way to Chicago). There are 2 sets of tracks there and we had just crossed the first set when Mama looked down to check on me. This was in the days before child safety seats until a child was 8. I was bundled up in blankets sitting on the front seat next to her. When she looked down at me, the school bus in front of us stopped for the second set of tracks & Mama rear ended them. When she did I hit my forehead on the dash and landed in the floor board of car. Mama hit her mouth on the steering wheel and busted both her lips open requiring stitches. I remember boy scouts getting out of the school bus to help us. I do not remember the ambulance ride to the hospital. I remember having 2 black eyes. But what I remember most of all were the little pink underpants Mama pulled out of the glove compartment to use to put pressure on her mouth. They were mine for "just in case." For years I thought that's what was meant when people would say, "Always wear clean underwear just in case you get into an accident." I thought they meant keep some handy to stop the bleeding.

This got me thinking about other misconceptions I had as a child. When Bubba was born, I wanted a sister (what 5 year old girl doesn't?). I went with Daddy to the front office to settle Mama's hospital bill before we took him home. When I asked what we were doing, Daddy said we were paying for the baby. This made no sense to me since God gave him to us. When Bubba became colicky a few weeks later I was convinced we could take him back to the hospital and either get our money back or trade him in for a sister. After all, that's what we did when something we bought a Target didn't work.

There was a construction company in the town I grew up in that specialized in garages. They had a "model" garage set high on a pole next to the highway. It was the size and height of a billboard and about 2 feet thick, but otherwise it looked just like a full sized garage. I always wondered just how skinny the people who lived in that Garage were.

I remember a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial from the early 80's (before they became KFC) with a little blond, boy with bowl cut hair eating a chicken leg. When he took a bite out of it, he was left with a perfect half moon out of the chicken leg. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get my chicken to look like that after I took a bite. I was pretty sure it was a mechanical chicken leg.

At Busha and Bucka's church there was this odd door in the wall over top of the stage in the gymnasium. There were stairs that went up to it, a small room behind it, and I think it was used for puppet shows. As a very small child I must have seen one there about Jesus and Peter because for quite a while I thought that was where the two of them lived.

I know there are many more because I had a very vivid imagination, but at the moment I can't think of any...I wonder what my kids think of the world around them...

The frog at the top greeted me as I went for some OJ this afternoon. B.B. has decided to use the fridge for extra storage.