Share a childhood anecdote

I should probably go first.

I was a pretty weird kid. Wouldn't let Mom put squished loaves of bread back on the shelf cuz I thought it would hurt their feelings. Had to blink every time the car passed a telephone pole. Was a big time maladaptive daydreamer.

Been really freaked out by spiders ever since I got put in timeout at 5 years old and a giant wolf spider started slowly creeping down the hall toward me. Mom thought I was lying to try to get out of timeout, so she didn't get up from the couch to kill it. I couldn't move from the spot (timeout) and spent minutes in terror as it came closer and closer, until finally she got up, saw it was real, and dropped a huge JC Penny catalogue on it.

I watched Veggietales (Christian cartoons for children, a surprisingly early pioneer of all-CGI productions) when I was a kid, and after that I would apparently freak out when my mom chopped vegetables, accusing her of murdering Larry the cucumber.

I have no independent recollection of this. But I've been told that it happened.

I would approach strangers and ask if I could look at their scalps, or even start examining such without permission. That much I do remember.

Weird kids UNITE.

Why did you want to look at their scalps, do you even remember.

I don't remember lol it was just something that interested me for a while, like penguins and nautiluses.

Fun fact: I started using the internet because I was asking questions about nautiluses my parents couldn't answer and they encouraged me to go online. My very first Google search had to do with nautiluses. This was back in like 2006 or 2007 I think.

Which is bizarre because there's like a 4-6 year gap between then and when I started using Facebook and actually “being online”. I must've not found the internet all that interesting as a kid.

I started using the internet for videogame walkthroughs. I would get stuck and tear my hair out and my friends would send me links to walkthroughs someone had written in like a notepad document. This was like 2003?

I had a solid beard before I was 18 years old.

I liked reading books unrelated to school during class.

Must be why I generally got Cs.

I had a speech impediment as a child, something about my Rs. Saw a speech therapist for a bit.

Even nowadays I have ‘something off about the way I talk, I’m not sure it's related to Rs anymore though.

As a child I had a green blanket and a stuffed animal ocelot.

They're still around, top shelf of a closet.

Loved to read as well. Other kids thought it was really weird that I read things I wasn't forced to.

Some moments in books 'really gave me a rush,

Feelings of exultation and sensation that I would eventually come upon some big secret to life if I experienced/read enough.

Lot of the time though, it was a method of time travel or a anti reality bubble.

Easy to lose track of time and surroundings when engrossed in something one enjoys.

Eventually I was able to walk and read at the same time, easier with large print books though.

Read a number of books above my grade level, probably ought to reread them, as I think I'd better be able to understand them now.

I remember reading The Brothers Karamazov during High School Spanish Class, Not sure what 'grade of High School though.

I literally worshipped Yugioh cards as a kid instead of my own religion.

I constantly brought animals home.

I never had a decent friend in childhood, so I spent most time imagining things.

I had this strange urge to be clean. I would wash hands like 40 times a day.

Do you still like animals

Do you still like animals

Yes, because as a kid I realized that animals are objectively best friends, and that view didnt ever change, still stands as undisputable fact. I was even smarter as a kid than I am now.

Do you have a pet then

Yes, 5 cats, 15 chickens, and about dozen coypus living near me, if they count.

For  a month or a week, sometime between 1st and 4rth grade I think,

I had a revenge notebook, for petty slights, called for completely equal retribution. Little acts, if someone repetitively stepped on the back of my shoe while we kids were walking in a line, it'd be a note to 'someday walk on the back of their shoe.

We have to be even! Heh, kind of thinking. . .

I think I would have been satisfied with getting even. Didn't need the people to know 'why.

My Dad found the notebook, told me I couldn't have such a notebook and shouldn't write such things down. I forget the details of what he said.

Impact later in life, was a lack of assumption that other people would respect my privacy.

As well as wondering, why didn't I make a notebook for good deeds, reciprocate those?

Now later in life, I find irritation that evil unto evil cannot be good by my measure of existence.

I think people are as they are from nature and nurture. People cannot help but act as by what they are, as Marcus says.

Causation has led us to our situations.

Course, as Marcus does, I often ignore such conclusions when it comes to 'my 'actions. Wanting to be 'better, and exert my Ego and Will to not be a bad person. Sometimes.

. . It annoys me though at times, that I am robbed of wrath. No one is your enemy kind of thinking (Vinland).

If one wants 'good, then 'all are deserving of kindness, forgiveness, help. So much as we can give it.

There 'is something to be said for self defense, not being stepped on like a mat, protecting others in the community.

Just ought not be having cruelty, nor vengeance pleasure.

I suppose we might want others to 'know the revenge, out of damaged Ego.

When hurt, we sometimes feel 'lessened, feel rage and wrath in an attempt at control, a statement of 'control not powerlessness helpless.

Our Ego calls out, we matter, we are important. And so people spaz and froth, rage out of weakness, helplessness. Blindly lash out. Even more unjustly than their own treatment.

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”

- Jesus

“When you see someone who is worthy, concentrate on becoming their equal. When you see someone who is unworthy, use this as an opportunity to look within yourself.”

- Confucius

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who preformed the injury.”

 - Marcus Aurelius

My childhood was pretty much OK.

Certainly not worthy of extensive psychoanalysis.

You're such a chill guy you're the last person I would probably suspect of having a revenge notebook as a kid, lol.

I had a revenge notebook

I dont usually write such things down, but yeah, there is a long list of people who did me wrong. In fact, its difficult to think of a person who didnt do me wrong. There was maybe 1 or 2 people in my whole life who treated me decently.

I think people are as they are from nature and nurture. People cannot help but act as by what they are

I dont believe in any free will, I am sure people who attacked me were just programmed to do it, and if they were programmed differently, they wouldnt do it. For example, can I blame AI character who is programmed to insult me? Now, if free will doesnt exist, people are just programmed characters, and free will is generally illogical idea, there is no unrestricted will, and there is no will without explanation either. Generally, only two options exist, either will has explanation for why it is the way it is, either it doesnt. If it has explanation, it is not free will but tied to explanation. If it has no explanation, it cannot be free will then either, but just random will which could have gone either way.

I had a similar spider experience to Wryly's when I was about 5. I captured a spider in a glass mason jar and poked holes in the lid. I was naive, not knowing the difference, and put a couple of large leaves in the bottle for it to eat.  I planned to let it go in a few days, but the two leaves would suffice in the meantime. So, I bounded up the back concrete steps to the house, tripped, and fell. My head hit the concrete, hard, and opened a wound. I noticed the jar was broken, and that my spider was gone. I was afraid it crawled into my head through the wound. It was Saturday.  Mom was out shopping, but Dad was home. He treated the wound with a bandage and then we went to the Doctor. I told him the spider I caught had crawled into my head. He smiled and said the Doctor would take care of it. I thought he meant the spider, and that made it all better, even though I had a crashing headache.

I had a speech impediment as a child, something about my Rs. Saw a speech therapist for a bit.

Even nowadays I have ‘something off about the way I talk, I’m not sure it's related to Rs anymore though.

I had a similar issue when I was a child but in my case I couldn't pronounce the R in Spanish (my mother tongue) which is much more difficult than the R in English because you have to roll the tongue and make it vibrate up against the palate. According to the doctors, my problem was that my tongue wasn't enough large, so they decided to cut the frenulum. After the surgery I was finally able to make the R sound.

I was trying to recall some traumas of my childhood but I seem to not remember any negative episode. I think it's better this way.

When I was a child I remember enjoying the school a lot. I have a lot of anecdotes with my friends, specially when we used to skip the class to play in the woods. I recall when one of my friends got lost in the woods, we almost lost him. It was very funny because when we finally found him he was totally scared. Lol.

@SatanLucy #20

The concept that I have free will (Practically speaking), even in difficult situations, is something I try 'hard to remember, and regret when I don't.

Though I assume there are arguments for the practicality of predestination as well.

Regardless of what will be, what I will, influences what will be.

Though I may have to do 'something, even nothing, and though I have to do what I will do, I do not know that I have to act X, until I have acted X, and even then, had I thought it through, I might not have done X.

. . . Though I suppose it might end up a bit of a paradox. . . The world pushes us towards ends, yet we are of this world ourselves, and push the world to ends.

@fauxlaw #21

I don't know if any of us believed it, but someone in the family joked about watermelon seeds in our stomachs growing into melons,

Probably after watching a Rugrats episode.

@Misterio #22

R. . . R. . R. . . Well, that 'is tricky. Most I can currently do is kind of gurgle in the back of my throat.

I was glad I grew up in a place with lots of trees and plants. Too much of other people's property in the big city, and too many people.

Can I upload photo?

Yes!

My childhood was pretty much OK. Certainly not worthy of extensive psychoanalysis.

Indeed your childhood is famous for not requiring protracted and comprehensive therapy from qualified professionals.

I can't say I 'remember any of the discussions on books we were forced to read in school.

I'm not even sure how much discussion there 'was.

I do 'vaguely remember some of the books.

Senior year?

Some book about a mammoth hunter, some book about a woman from a Native American reservation, book about some rich girl from Mexico whose family ended up losing their land and money somehow and moved to America poor.

(The books that year didn't really interest me any)

? Years?

Read the Odyssey (Might have been an abridged version),

Catch 22 (I hated it back then, found the sexual scenes uncomfortable, though I came to enjoy the book and it's commentary on the military, later in life)

Grendel by John Gardner (Book had a deeply negative effect on me from what I recall).

Might have had to read Lord of the Flies.

. . . I really think parents ought to be an 'integral part of education.

Be cool if the parents had/would 'also do some of the schoolwork that their kids do. Read the same books, talk with the kids about the books some.

Not 'do the kids homework, but they ought have an eye and an ear on what their kids are reading.