Memories...

Mind Dump Monday

(Image courtesy of Ideogram.)

Memories are strange things in what you do remember and what you forget. I have a few distinct memories of my childhood that exist in a fog. A literal fog. I remember taking my first steps…somehow. I got off a chair that my mother had sat me on for my birthday. There was a cake. For some reason, I slid off the chair and walked a few steps and promptly fell on my face.

I recall wandering my neighborhood in oil town Texas, which was full of bullies. The family that lived behind my house had a ton of unruly children bent on committing homicide as young as possible. I’m not joking. They stoned my mother’s rabbits and tried to murder a little girl later with a heavy rock.

However, what I recall the most is a frog pond full of tiny frogs. I realize now that they were eastern narrowmouthed toads. I saw mention of them a week ago with a photo and recognized them immediately. Then…I heard their call. That’s them! A memory from over forty years as clear as day! These tiny toads floating in a shallow sandy pond among thousands of eggs.

This brings me to another memory… My first horror movie. My mother had a night time nursing job, and she left us with our grandparents for those nights. My uncle was a teenager, 17 or 18. They had HBO. Late at night, he’d come into the living room where we were sleeping and watch movies. I distinctly remember two, The Thing (1982) and Razorback (1984). So, maybe a year or two for movies to go from theater to HBO at that time?

I was 8 or 9. Obviously, I had no understanding of what I saw other than a horrible thing was happening to the dogs. As I recall, I threw a fit and started crying, which got my uncle busted.

I don’t recall having a lot of nightmares, just REMEMBERING it and not understanding what was going on. It was over a decade later when I saw the Thing again on tv. I didn’t find it scary at all now that I knew what was going on. :D Yeah, the dog scene still bothered me and still does. The suffocating rabbits and the black rabbit of Inle in Watership Down gave me far more nightmares.

Nowadays, I enjoy a good horror movie, but only the kinds that I don’t believe can happen in real life. I’m also not a fan of gore. My love of monster movies began with Tremors and *gasp* 1998 Godzilla. I enjoyed watching it repeatedly in matinee showings while it was out. So I eat up all the Godzilla & Kong movies, as well as Planet of the Apes.

To this day, I remember the worn cover of the Planet of the Apes book I found in the school library as well as the original movie. I read so many books as a kid that I can’t remember all of them, but there are a few that stand out. Uncle Tom’s cabin was another one of those old dusty covered books.

Every book I read has stayed with me in some way. Little House was my goto along with all the horse novels. I have never been into mystery for some reason. But boy did I eat up Torey Hayden’s books that I should not have been reading at my age. So said the librarian who eventually stopped letting me check them out. Yes, these books dealt with severe child abuse, but why put them in the library if you aren’t going to let anyone check them out?

Almost surprised they didn’t call CPS. My checkout list was eclectic. I wanted to know that kids had endured worse than what I was enduring, giving myself a standard of: You shouldn’t complain about life. Others have had it worse.

That was my coping mechanism. I think I’ve done good since then.

-TC Ross