Flash memories – part 1
As I’m approaching the half century mark, I often think about how was my life so far? I believe that everyone has a moment in life, when they try to reflect on up to date achievements. I seem to have such moments very often. far too often as the time passes by; and believe me, the longer you walk the Earth, the faster it goes.
My kids are adults now and I am lucky to have wonderful grand-kids. I watched them grow up and I thought them as much as I remembered from my own upbringing. Yet I wish I had a real family back then, so I could teach them the way I should.
My very first memory as a kid, comes from the time, when my parents were still living at my grandparents house. It was an incident, when I went to the nearby park, with my grandfather. We spent a lot of time there and I enjoyed it immensely. I do not really remember all the walks, I was told later in my life about our frequent trips and how my grandfather was very proud of me. However. that one trip I remember very well. It’s a flash memory, one of those that you have and they seem to be like clips from your lives, when something somewhat shocking happened and stuck in your head forever. Anyway, we were sitting on the bench in the park and a few meters away from us, there was a lady sitting opposite, with her dachshund. It was a small dog, but as I was about three years old at the time, to me it seemed to be quite large. I wasn’t scared though, I loved animals and I was very excited. I asked my grandfather to let me stroke the dog. Grandpa obtained permission from the lady and soon I was kneeling beside the pooch and stroking his smooth coat. The dog was enjoying it, just lying there, head on the grass. Grandpa was chatting with the lady and I was just behind the bench. Then came time to go home. Grandpa got up and told me to say goodbye. I got up too and at the same time I heard a loud howl, then growl and something flashed before me, so quickly that I truly didn’t realised what just happened. Then someone grabbed me and took me home… That’s all I remember.
What truly happened was that when I got up and started walking towards my grandfather, I accidentally stood on the dog’s tail. Poor pooch had no idea what’s happening and in reply to pain, turned around and I was the first one to see. I was small enough and the hound instinctively went for my face. It managed to grab me around my eye, I was lucky though, as my eyeball remained untouched. Sometimes I am wondering… I think the dog, just as it’s teeth reached my skin, “clicked” that it was a bad move, but it was too late. I believe that the “attack” would be much more intense, if it was a vicious animal. The whole incident finished after just one bite and I don’t even have a scare after that, so I don’t think the animal was bad and regretted it immediately after.
I have no idea what happened with the dog. I truly believe that nothing really happened, as the lady provided evidence of up to date immunisation and in those times, the dogs were not senselessly destroyed, as a result of acting instinctively, which was a good thing. It was a wake up call for parents to look closer at their kids and pay attention to what they are doing, instead of chatting away. Unfortunately, this days parenting is hopeless and there are just a few of them managing just fine within society.
That was my earliest memory. One other, more less at the same time, I remember sleeping on the top floor, with my grandmother babysitting me. The attic was an adapted bedroom and I remember having an old style cot, the one with one side missing, so you can position it next to the bed and have full access to your baby. It was a night with quite bright moon. The windows were not very big and positioned high on the wall. Something woke me up and I instinctively looked up. I saw a huge silhouette of a cat. To me – little toddler – it looked enormous. I must have screamed or cried very loud because my Grandma woke up and told me that it’s just a cat. There was something about this cat though, because I remember being very scared (I’ve seen cats before) and my Grandma found it quite difficult to shush it away. It was scary enough to leave a permanent imprint in my memory.
There were a few others, which were significant enough to add to my story but these will follow next time.
Comments