the wonders of childhood

(cartoon copyright Nance Thacker 1984/2009)

click on image to enlarge - still can't figure out how to get this bigger - anyone?

I was a weird child.

When did I realize this … I remember a bright sunny day, before I could speak, soaking in the sun and suddenly I arrived. What does this mean? Well it means that I suddenly became aware that “I” am here in this body like – boom – "ta da, I’m here!" And, in that very same instant was the realization that if I had arrived then at some point I would cease to be and that if at some point I could cease to be then where the heck was I when I wasn’t here. Weird.

I remember watching silent movies on the T.V. and being fascinated by the speedy, jerky movements of the people I saw in them. “Wow” I thought to myself “we really walk so much better nowadays!” Weird.

Mom and Dad used to watch THE UNTOUCHABLES a series that, frankly really scared me all those mafia gangsters driving about in their big black cars shooting down people and all. No wonder they did, life must have been awful when it was in black and white; it’s so much nicer now that we live in colour. Weird.

I have a chronic neck problem. I blame it on prayer.

This one:
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray my Lord my soul to take

If I should die!? I’m only a kid for Pete’s sake, old people die in their sleep don’t they, not kids. But if we’re praying to God then I guess it could happen. But how?

The only logical conclusion I could come up with was that someone would stab me in my sleep.

Ah ha! I’ll fool them I thought. I’ll sleep on my stomach. Since the heart is more on the left then when I get stabbed (because it is dark the stabber won’t realize that I’m on my stomach) they’ll probably hit a lung; a lung, not bad since I have 2. Unfortunately you can't sleep on your face so you have to turn your head to one direction. My head turns to the left (keeping an eye on my heart probably); to the right ummm, not so good.

I didn’t read typical, contemporary kids books as a child. I liked factual books on animals and the body. Grimm’s Fairy Tales and the like were the closest I got – the scarier and weirder the better. Oooo, how cool is this I have found this fantastic site with a bazillion of them. Gotta go, got a lot of reading to do.

I’m still a weird kid.