When I was kneehigh to a Grasshopper I thought....

I always figured pirates were things of fantasy and make believe. Had I known there was such a thing, Hook probably would have been much more frightening.

Along these same lines; I always thought that Davy Jones’ locker was that cutie from The Monkees and always wondered what he _{or is it him, this still messes me up} and his locker were doing down at the bottom of the sea.

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates loot on Treasure Island.”

I always wondered, and still do, when the magic ended why did Cinderella’s glass slipper still exist?

I have really begun to appreciate the toys from my childhood, although it is rather sad I find them on Ebay by searching “Vintage Toys”, does this mean I am vintage, ouch that stings. I happened upon this one and just have to get it for our toy collection. I also have on-route a vintage Tin Top that spins on itself. These toys have a way of transporting me. They are great in their simplicity and the creativity and interaction they encourage.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw these two little tykes take this hill head on. They rolled until they were dizzy and then rolled some more. Remember when this was fun? I thought I’d never be too old to enjoy being a kid. I wish I had obeyed my impulse to have a go at it myself….

When my sisters and I used to visit our Grandparents we would go out in the big canoe, I can see it so clearly (not that a big red canoe is hard to imagine!) but when it’s a specific canoe from your memory there is something about it that sets it apart from all the other canoes. So whenever we went out I would always beg and plead my sisters to “let me OAR the boat”, and my mean ol’ sister would laugh at me and sing at the top of her voice “oar, oar, oar your boat gently down the stream…...” I don’t know how many times she had to sing that version before I finally started to ask to “ROW the boat”!

When I was kneehigh to a Grasshopper I would write letters to my family and would always close my letters by saying I like you and I love you. I don’t know exactly why I chose that phrasing at the time but it has become to mean something much more significant to me as an adult. It is just as important for me to be liked for who I am as it is to be loved and both are very powerful but different feelings. I think I will again adopt this way of closing my letters to friends and family and remember to tell them I not only love them but like them as well.

that there seems to be a common thread that we can all identify with in each others stories? I love it! I went through a similar experience (although not quite as traumatic as yours) when I was little too. We used to beg my Dad to take us out to the buoys on Lake Nipissing in North Bay. They marked the shallow areas in the lake. So shallow, in fact, that you could step out of your boat onto a rock a few inches from the surface of the water. I didn’t believe it was possible to ‘walk on water’ when my Dad told me. My brother, sister and I loved going out to these colorful markers and walking around in the middle of the lake.

I had originally posted this as a comment to MomWoolsey’s entry, “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” and she liked it so much, she suggested I write it again as an entry. So, here’s a good one that my parents still haven’t let me forget. I thought Beluga Whales were bilingual whales. As I was a French Immersion student, you would think I’d know the difference between Beluga and bilingual. No wonder everyone looked at me strangely when I mentioned these fantastic whales! My Mom still won’t let me forget this one!

When I was knee high to a grasshopper, or maybe even smaller I believed that there were little men in my head running from my eyes to my brain to tell me what I saw, from my ears to my brain to tell me what I heard and from my nose to my brain to tell me what I smelled. I believed this was true because my big sister told me it was so. In fact I believed a number of things that my big sister told me including, “No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do.” Surprisingly enough this did not serve my parents well.
As a knee high I tended to think long and hard about most things and these two bits of information were no exception. After much processing I discovered that even after great pain inflicted upon me I still would have crossed the line my parents drew, I still would have done what I wanted. I discovered that if I did not want to do something that I would not do it. I also discovered a conundrum when I thought about the little men. If little men saw what I saw who saw for the little men. Well that must be little men in their heads. What about the little men in their heads, must be littler men? How could this end; it must end with some other way of seeing? I suppose I decided it was more logical to start with some other way of seeing. Then I knew my sister was right about my autonomy but not my anatomy.

I happened upon this site http://www.iusedtobelieve.com/ using Stumble! and found out I am not the first to come up with this idea nor am I the first and only one to have thought the world used to be black and white.

An addition from the site

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!”
My little cousin Melissa used to love the Wizard of Oz. Well, when we took her to the zoo one time, she kept asking to see the “Oh My’s”. It took us such a long time to figure out that she thought Oh My’s were a real animal from the song in the movie!