Emotional Intimacy Question: Moments

[ysabetwordsmith]

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This is the current list.

51. What moments or events during your childhood shaped who you are now?

My mother read me The Hobbit when I was 4.  My father read me The Yearling when I was 6.  They read to me all the time, of course, but I remember those two books in particular.

Comments

[heron61]

Despite being in my 50s, I grew up with anime. The first cartoon I remember was Kimba the White Lion, and then Astroboy, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, Tobor the Eighth Man (notable for the fact that the robot protagonist recharged via "energy cigarettes, by the early 70s, that one stopped being shown in the US). I also watched American cartoons, but always enjoyed the Japanese ones more (even though at age 5-10 I had no idea they were actually Japanese). I think this early exposure to another culture's creativity helped fuel my enduring attraction to ideas and stories outside of the US cultural mainstream.

[we_are_spc]

I read nearly the entire series in high school. On my own. I very nearly recked my grades for it. I should've put all those pages in for Braille Readers are Leaders, and never did.

I didn't read Ursuala K. as a child. Now I wish I would have.

The vacation to Mesa Verde. It helped me realize that even state parks can be more inclusive than one expects.

-Trausio~

[redsixwing]

My mom read to me, too.<3

There was an old fairy tale movie series we'd watch. My favorite was the King and the Nightingale. It had these beautiful papercut animations, and I can still see the imprint of them on my art. That story isn't gentle to anybody - some day it might be fun to write a version that is, and ends less horribly - but I loved that version of it. Up to and including the nightmare scene, which thrilled and terrified a young me for weeks and probably contributed to my love of horror tropes.

... I don't remember how old I was, but I was little; the other formative thing was climbing a tree, and feeling like it was a she, and she spoke to me.

[we_are_spc]

I had a favorite tree, too. While it didn't necesarily speak to me, per se, there was a bond there.

I was sad when they had to remove it for my brother's pipes for his basement room. Mainly because it, she?, was the only tree I could climb with complet and utter safety because she was little.

I could never climb any after that-not with as much confidence, many had branches that were either too far appart, or I was to scared to get too high off the ground in case I fell.

-Trausio~

[erulisse]

My mother reading to me. Particularly The Hobbit when I was five or so (although we read a *ton* of SF/F because we're both fans).

Watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my dad. I don't know how many parents let their preschoolers watch TNG but mine did (it premiered when I was four) and it was a formative experience.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I watched reruns of the original series when I was little. Also my parents' geek friends would pile into our living room and watch the broadcasts whenever one of the Voyager craft was making a new discovery.

Eleven is not too old to be called a child, is it?

[pronker]

Learning to drive a '41 Chevy pickup truck just as soon as I could reach the pedals, which I did at age 11 when I got as tall as I ever was going to. Before that, Gramps did donuts and fishtailed the truck through mud on one of his fields to my squealing delight and I wanted to drive, so he taught me to drive a stick. I drove it on the way home through small town streets and killed the engine a lot.

After adulthood grabbed me for its own, I drove alone from California all over the Midwest, Deep South, West, and Pacific Northwest. Ha, it's telling that I'm nearly ready to give up driving now and use Lyft, particularly since one of the tenants is a Lyft driver!

Re: Eleven is not too old to be called a child, is it?

[ysabetwordsmith]

Any time prior to puberty, "child" is biologically valid. Individual people feel that they leave childhood at different times, though -- sometimes much earlier or later.

Re: Eleven is not too old to be called a child, is it?

[pronker]

It's a valid question. At ten, I grew boobs and knew I felt uncomfortable running around topless as we girls did on those triple digit summer days. At twelve, the thing we girls talked about was how different we felt about just about everything in life! Boys were no longer icky, one or two classmates were cute and as for actors or singers, wow, we had it bad for Johnny Rivers or Robert Vaughn. Eleven seems now to me right on the cusp of adulthood.