# One random memory relating to you from years ago?



## Bretrick (Dec 28, 2021)

About 1977. Travelling sideshow came to town.
I was driving a Dodgem Car, ahead of me there was a pile up of all the other drivers. I managed to "Thread the Eye of the Needle" and avoided crashing into them. Continued on my own merry way.


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## dseag2 (Dec 28, 2021)

I was studying architecture.  Miami had an excellent campus.  We lived in Tampa.  There were three of us driving down to Miami in a '77 Pontiac Firebird with Hotel California blasting through the speakers.  We got to the campus, and there was an outdoor party on the beach with grain alcohol.  I don't remember much after that.


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## Sassycakes (Dec 29, 2021)

Summer vacations for 2 weeks at the seashore with a dozen cousins where I was the youngest kid there and everyone kept an eye on me to make sure I was safe.


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## hollydolly (Dec 29, 2021)

I remember when we were just teens, 2 girls 2 boys  driving through the countryside, near Loch Lomond in Scotland   singing at the top of our lungs to a Simon & Garfunkel 8 track... when we had a burst tyre...

We girls were in unfamiliar countryside, so the 2 18 year old guys( including the driver) who knew the area better  took themselves off walking to find  a nearby garage to get some help, instructing us to stay in the car.. which we did, in this really remote area.. for 6 hours, until it started to get dark and we could see them walking back towards us rolling a brand new tyre long the road.... 

We girls were hungry, thirsty and needing to use the loo... and as soon as the tyre was fitted, we made our way ...only to find that if we'd got out and walked along the road and around the blind bend we would have spotted the nearest  coastal town 1/2 a mile in front of us..

the guys had been clearly having a bit of a good time in town without us.. before returning with the tyre


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## horseless carriage (Dec 29, 2021)

Back in 1963 I travelled with a group of friends to Coventry to see The Rolling Stones, who were just getting established. They were playing at the students union. After the show, and filled with far too much beer, three of us were discussing the statue on the wall of the cathedral on the opposite side of the road. You need to see this statue to get a picture of what happened.

It depicts St. Michael the Arch Angel, victorious over Lucifer the Devil.
Lucifer is about twenty feet above ground level, and he's also, ahem, a very well blessed lad, if you get my drift. Three very drunk students somehow managed to climb up on each other's shoulders and stretch a condom over Lucifer's, er, appendage, before we all lost balance and fell in a heap, laughing, fortunately without injury.
Next day, back in London, I had a phone call from one of my co-conspirators, he had managed to get a copy of the local Coventry newspaper. The headline read: "Well it makes a change." It had to be explained to me. Coventry is famous for Lady Godiva and her naked ride through the city. Apparently students will often climb up on the statue of Godiva, in the city centre, and fasten a bra on her. So Old Nick and his condom, made a change.


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## fuzzybuddy (Jan 1, 2022)

I swore the only reason my parents had kids was so I was the one to get up, and change the TV channel.


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## Liza1948 (Jan 2, 2022)

Gee, let me think. All of my teachers in high school trying to dissuade me from going to college in the mid 60s. Being the only female in the entire economics and accounting departments at University of Iowa. The assumption that because I'm a woman I would only be fit for secretarial work. The assumption I'd just give up on leaving town and instead marry one of the local farmer's ignorant sons so I can raise a gaggle of corn shucking morons. Where I grew up, women were expected to marry by 21, preferably to the son of the local preacher, blacks were expected to not be seen at night, and everyone pretended it was the height of human development. Right. At least my parents were progressive for their time which really meant do whatever you want just don't make a big deal about it with the neighbors (for the first five years after I left they told people I was studing theology in order to join the church). Yeah, great times. I didn't know what an orgasm was until I was 21, not exactly the greatest ****** education for girls at the time.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Jan 2, 2022)

I remember cutting high school with my girl friend to go to New York city which was only about an hour away to see all the free live daytime shows.
One particular time we had front row seats and they scanned the audience with the camera. We were waving like crazy. The next day a teacher we had asked us if we enjoyed the show. Apparently they had the show on in the teachers lounge and they saw us as plain as day.
We were mortified but he was a good sport and didn't rat us out.


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## JaniceM (Jan 2, 2022)

I remember the Great Northeast Blackout, Nov. 1965.
I was just a kid, and loved it. 
My father brought some kind of safe camping stove up from the basement for cooking, and used the gas stove (oven) for heat.
It look longer than I've heard in some locations for power to be restored, so we eventually got in the car and drove to my uncle's place.  He had a wood stove and kerosene lamps.


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## Trish (Jan 2, 2022)

At school, overhearing a couple of sixth formers talking about an upcoming exam when they would be dissecting several mice which had been delivered to the science room earlier that day.

I have a very clear memory of my friend and I smuggling the mice out, popping them into our pockets and hurrying down the stairs and across the playground only to be stopped by one of the teachers and marched back to the school hall where we had no choice but to join our class row and hope the mice would behave.  

I will never forget the chaos, when two of the mice popped their heads out of my pocket and scrambled up the back of my blazer


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## caroln (Jan 2, 2022)

I have a thousand random memories, so I'll just go with one of the earliest I remember.
I had a next door neighbor named Jane that I couldn't stand.  She was a snotty, snobby, mean little girl.  But since we lived next door to each other we walked to school together.  One morning as we were on our way, a bird flew over us and layed a big white runny gooey blob right on her head!  It was one of those moments where you're just dumbstruck and then break into hysterical laughter.  Jane was horrified of course, and the more she cried the more I laughed.  I just couldn't help it.  Moral of the story:  If you think you're better than everybody else, the bird of paradise will eventually poop on you!


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## JaniceM (Jan 2, 2022)

caroln said:


> I have a thousand random memories, so I'll just go with one of the earliest I remember.
> I had a next door neighbor named Jane that I couldn't stand.  She was a snotty, snobby, mean little girl.  But since we lived next door to each other we walked to school together.  One morning as we were on our way, a bird flew over us and layed a big white runny gooey blob right on her head!  It was one of those moments where you're just dumbstruck and then break into hysterical laughter.  Jane was horrified of course, and the more she cried the more I laughed.  I just couldn't help it.  Moral of the story:  If you think you're better than everybody else, the bird of paradise will eventually poop on you!


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## Sassycakes (Jan 2, 2022)

I remember 2 things from my biology class. One was when we had to dissect a frog. My partner was so afraid and wouldn't touch it. I surprised myself because I Did it myself. I was so busy that I didn't notice the Nun was walking around with a mouse in her hand. When she came near me and held out the mouse I screamed and she dropped the mouse. Boy did I get in trouble!


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## hollydolly (Jan 2, 2022)

I was 21 years old, newly married to my ex , his mother hated me for taking her only son.. so the first Christmas following our wedding, she bought me a grey flannel nightgown which covered every bit of skin from neck to toe, and shoulder to finger tips... she also made us sleep in separate rooms when we visited her... I soon put a stop to those visits


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## Sassycakes (Jan 2, 2022)

hollydolly said:


> I was 21 years old, newly married to my ex , his mother hated me for taking her only son.. so the first Christmas following our wedding, she bought me a grey flannel nightgown which covered every bit of skin from neck to toe, and shoulder to finger tips... she also made us sleep in separate rooms when we visited her... I soon put a stop to those visits


My MIL was thrilled that I married her son. He would drive her crazy so now he drives me crazy !


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## horseless carriage (Jan 3, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> I remember 2 things from my biology class.


Science was never my strong subject, but in physics I do know that tall buildings can attract the wind causing a vortex. How I know is because my wife explained it much more clearly than my old crusty physics teacher.

She was shopping in Central London, this was back in the late sixties, when the mini skirt was all the rage. But on this day my wife was wearing a flared skirt that was perfect fodder for a naughty wind. As the wind hit the side of the building, a down draught occurred, causing a vortex that swirled as it hit the ground. That lifted her skirt to waist height. She told me that a sweet old lady tried desperately to help, but behind her, all her underwear and stockings were on show. It was then that she heard an almighty bang. Looking round she realised that a driver had been more interested in her underwear than he had the road ahead and had run straight into the stationary car in front. My wife told me that she ran into the adjacent shop in case she got blamed. 

My sympathies were for that motorist, I know that you shouldn't be looking, but my missus does have beautiful legs. All that dancing we do.


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## Fyrefox (Jan 6, 2022)

I can remember an epic band trip to participate in the Washington Cherry Blossom parade.  On the trip back, we were treated to a stop at an amusement park where the buds and I secretly carried water pistols into the fun house, squirting cheesy spooks and the hapless human employees who jumped out in vain efforts to scare us.  They ran away like scared rabbits…great fun!


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## Sassycakes (Jan 7, 2022)

Becoming an Aunt at 7yrs old and then again at 9yrs old. That was when I got the name Auntie Barbara will do it.


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## RadishRose (Jan 11, 2022)




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## Sassycakes (Jan 13, 2022)

RadishRose said:


>


Looking at this reminded me of when my older brother got out of the Army.The first job he got was at a Shoe store. In those days the store was closed on Sunday. After he was there a few months they promoted him to Manager. On Sunday he would take me and my sister to the store and pick out shoes. My parents would give him the money for the shoes and when the store opened on Monday he would buy the shoes. One day during the week Clarabell from the Howdy Doody shoe went to the store to make kids happy and me any my sister got to meet him. I think I was about 9yrs old at the time.I was soo excited and I remember it all.


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## Alligatorob (Jan 13, 2022)

First time to Mardi Gras in the New Orleans French Quarter.  I was about 19 or 20 and had lead a relatively sheltered existence up to that point.

Saw things I never imagined.  

Amongst many many other things I got to see Pete Fountain and his Half-fast Marching Club.  But that was not what shocked or what sticks in the memory most...


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## win231 (Jan 13, 2022)

When I got married in 1980, we bought a house in a "quiet" neighborhood. We couldn't have known that our next-door neighbors were drug dealers. I'm relaxing one evening & a loud motorcycle parks in front. I watch a guy around 6'10" & at least 400 lbs walk up to my front door & he starts pounding on it - really pounding, the whole wall is shaking.

Without opening the door (of course), I ask_ "Who is it?"_

He yells, _"Open the f-----g door or I'll break it down." _ (Obviously, he could - easily)

I grabbed my 12 Gauge, went back to the door & chambered a round (makes a loud noise) & yelled,_ "Did you hear that?"_

He says, _"Yeah, & I don't give a f--k......nobody rips me off."_

That gave me a clue - he mistook my house for my next-door neighbor's house where he felt they ripped him off on a drug deal.
I said, _"You don't want to die for nothing; you got the wrong house; your dealers are next door....leave while you're still breathing."_

Just thinking of the mess 000 Buckshot would have made gave me nightmares.......


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## Bretrick (Jan 13, 2022)

Dates become a little fuzzy trying to look back 40+ years. 1976?
There is a Mountain in my home town called Mt Owen.



As a 14 year old teenager I would climb this mountain with a friend of mine.
One time, whilst scaling the left flank - below the TV Tower - shown here mid picture near the top - not the two on the extreme left- my body decided to not move anymore.
I froze, midway up a sheer cliff. All this climbing was without any climbing equipment, free climbing?
I had lost control of my body, my limbs would not move.
Looking down, the drop would have been 600 meters/yards? into the dry creek bed below.
For more than 20 minutes I was stuck there, my friend had continued to ascend the mountain and was unaware of my predicament.
Eventually my body released itself and I was able to move again.
I went down instead of up and found another way to the top.
That was rather scary, looking down, unable to move, nothing to stop a fall.


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## Bretrick (Jan 13, 2022)

win231 said:


> When I got married in 1980, we bought a house in a "quiet" neighborhood. We couldn't have known that our next-door neighbors were drug dealers. I'm relaxing one evening & a loud motorcycle parks in front. I watch a guy around 6'10" & at least 400 lbs walk up to my front door & he starts pounding on it - really pounding, the whole wall is shaking.
> 
> Without opening the door (of course), I ask_ "Who is it?"_
> 
> ...


Near misses like this are a blessing. If the guy had not believed you and crashed through the door.......


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## win231 (Jan 13, 2022)

Bretrick said:


> Near misses like this are a blessing. If the guy had not believed you and crashed through the door.......


Splat.  And a 400-lb. mess to clean.....sticky bits everywhere.


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## Marie5656 (Jan 14, 2022)

*This article was posted on my FB feed, from back in 1956. My father's side of the family, had cool Christmas parties every year.  I remember the adults would draw names for gifts, and the kids too.  Great memories.

*


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## CinnamonSugar (Jan 15, 2022)

Post high school, I worked as an Activities Aid in the long term care ward of the local hospital in upstate NY.  One of our favorite patients was a retired farmer, originally from Russia….  Everyone called him Papa b/c he was a gentle teddy bear of a man and very sweet.

Unbeknownst to me, Papa — keeping the traditions of his heritage and homeland where the parents arranged their children’s marriages— was looking for a bride for his youngest son.

He asked me to come by his room to meet his wife and son; as visiting the patients in their rooms was part of my job, I said, “Sure, Papa” and went in on the appointed day.

Here’s what I found:  papa in his wheelchair beaming proudly…  son— standing very stiff and formal by the window….  wife, complete with babushka, coming toward me, saying, “We’re going to love having you for our daughter in law!”

I fled 

One of the nurses (from Germany or Poland) knew a little Russian and the next day she gently explained to  Papa why I couldn’t marry his son

it all had a happy ending.  His wife went back to the old country and found a suitable girl.  The last time I visited Papa, he proudly showed me a pic of his infant grandson


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## Bretrick (Jan 15, 2022)

1986, Queenstown Tasmania. I was hiking in the hills without a shirt.
Tasmania never used to have very hot summers and this day I think the temperature was around 28 degrees C, slightly over 80 F.
Unbeknownst to me I had become sunburnt predominately on my back and shoulders.
After I arrived home I sat in my velvet covered lounge chair and fell asleep.
Upon wakening and attempting to get up from the chair I found that I was stuck to the chair.
Attempting to remove myself from the chair was extremely painful and it took me more than 20 minutes to unstick my back from said chair.
The sunburn had blistered and the weeping blisters saw me firmly stuck.
I was in great pain for days and was unable to work because I could not even raise my arms, what with the pain of the now drying skin.
Learnt a lesson that day and I am never in the sun uncovered.


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## Rah-Rah (Jan 15, 2022)

Since I married my high school sweetheart, I have a lot of firsts and memories from those days in the 80's. Like our first kiss way back when I was 15 years old and I was kissing a Senior boy. Attending the Senior Prom with him in 1983 when I was just a Sophomore and he was a Senior. Going to Football and Basketball School Games together.


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## Sassycakes (Jan 15, 2022)

Another memory from when I was growing up just came back to me. Whenever my mother would come to me and want to hit me with a wooden spoon, my older sister would stand in front of me knowing my Mom would never hit her.


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## palides2021 (Jan 15, 2022)

horseless carriage said:


> Science was never my strong subject, but in physics I do know that tall buildings can attract the wind causing a vortex. How I know is because my wife explained it much more clearly than my old crusty physics teacher.
> 
> She was shopping in Central London, this was back in the late sixties, when the mini skirt was all the rage. But on this day my wife was wearing a flared skirt that was perfect fodder for a naughty wind. As the wind hit the side of the building, a down draught occurred, causing a vortex that swirled as it hit the ground. That lifted her skirt to waist height. She told me that a sweet old lady tried desperately to help, but behind her, all her underwear and stockings were on show. It was then that she heard an almighty bang. Looking round she realised that a driver had been more interested in her underwear than he had the road ahead and had run straight into the stationary car in front. My wife told me that she ran into the adjacent shop in case she got blamed.
> 
> My sympathies were for that motorist, I know that you shouldn't be looking, but my missus does have beautiful legs. All that dancing we do.


Beautifully said, and very funny!


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## Sassycakes (Jan 25, 2022)

I was speaking to a friend I had lived on the same street until 3yrs ago. She brought back a memory of something that happened to me when I was in my 30's. I was walking up my street and as I passed by a neighbors house she came out and asked me if I wanted to say Hello to her husband Charlie who had just gotten out of the hospital. I said sure and when I went in he was in a bed in the living room and he was naked. She then told me I could sit on the bed and talk to him. I said, "Gee I'm sorry I am getting company and If I don' answer my door they might leave."Then I ran out of her house.


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## ElCastor (Jan 25, 2022)

I was at work long ago and a woman I didn't know and had never met (a fellow employee) called from 6 floors above with instructions regarding securities we were to receive and pay for in New York. Her instructions were missing a required piece of information. I asked for it and she said she "didn't know". I replied, "When you know, call me back", and hung up the phone. Rather rude, I admit. Anyhow, two years later I married her.


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## Autumn72 (Jan 26, 2022)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> I remember cutting high school with my girl friend to go to New York city which was only about an hour away to see all the free live daytime shows.
> One particular time we had front row seats and they scanned the audience with the camera. We were waving like crazy. The next day a teacher we had asked us if we enjoyed the show. Apparently they had the show on in the teachers lounge and they saw us as plain as day.
> We were mortified but he was a good sport and didn't rat us out.


Wow aren't you cool using cool words to point out just how cool you were then


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## Sassycakes (Jan 26, 2022)

When I was growing up and living in the City all the houses had somehing called a vestibule. You would open your front door and there was a small room and another door and when you opened that door you were in the living room. As a teenager, if you went over to a friend's house and a brother answered the door he would feel you up. As I got older and married I thought those days were over until I went to a friend that lived on the same street. I would go and visit when her husband went Bowling. If I happened to get there before he left he would open the door and was all over you. After he did that to me I would always call before going over to make sure he wasn't home. I never told his wife. In later years he left his wife and kids for a woman he met online and moved far away.


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## JaniceM (Jan 27, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> When I was growing up and living in the City all the houses had somehing called a vestibule. You would open your front door and there was a small room and another door and when you opened that door you were in the living room. As a teenager, if you went over to a friend's house and a brother answered the door he would feel you up. As I got older and married I thought those days were over until I went to a friend that lived on the same street. I would go and visit when her husband went Bowling. If I happened to get there before he left he would open the door and was all over you. After he did that to me I would always call before going over to make sure he wasn't home. I never told his wife. In later years he left his wife and kids for a woman he met online and moved far away.


Seems to me he deserved a good sock in the mouth.


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## Lewkat (Jan 27, 2022)

One memory that sticks with me refers to tree climbing.  I was visiting my cousins in Midland Park and when we went out to play, my aunt, knowing I never met a tree I didn't want to climb admonished me to stay away from this activity.  Well of course I ignored this and proceeded to climb the first tree I came to.  It was rather fragile looking but I loved a challenge.  I promptly fell out of it and I was rushed 2 blocks up the street to my uncle Joe's office.  He was a country doctor and he took one look at me and held his head.  Not again was his out burst.  Fortunately, it was only a sprain and healed quickly.  It wasn't until a few years later when I was very high in a much larger tree that a branch broke that I stepped on and I came hurtling down.  Luckily, a couple of branches before hitting the ground were able to support me.  That ended my tree climbing days once and for all.


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## Della (Jan 27, 2022)

Liza1948 said:


> Gee, let me think. All of my teachers in high school trying to dissuade me from going to college in the mid 60s. Being the only female in the entire economics and accounting departments at University of Iowa. The assumption that because I'm a woman I would only be fit for secretarial work. The assumption I'd just give up on leaving town and instead marry one of the local farmer's ignorant sons so I can raise a gaggle of corn shucking morons. Where I grew up, women were expected to marry by 21, preferably to the son of the local preacher, blacks were expected to not be seen at night, and everyone pretended it was the height of human development. Right. At least my parents were progressive for their time which really meant do whatever you want just don't make a big deal about it with the neighbors (for the first five years after I left they told people I was studing theology in order to join the church). Yeah, great times. I didn't know what an orgasm was until I was 21, not exactly the greatest ****** education for girls at the time.


Sounds like a slight variation on my life.  My father was an artist/display man and had taught me how to use a draft board and T-square so I could draw my house plans for fun, so I thought I would enjoy being a draftsman.  The local business college turned me down saying they only allowed men in those classes, but I could take shorthand and typing.  I did marry at 19, not a preacher, but a handsome young man who looked just like Barry Gibb and had a college degree.  Unfortunately he was too lazy to actually want to use that degree. I was 27 and in a women's "conscious raising" group before I found out what an orgasm was.  Yes he was _really_ lazy.



horseless carriage said:


> She was shopping in Central London, this was back in the late sixties, when the mini skirt was all the rage. But on this day my wife was wearing a flared skirt that was perfect fodder for a naughty wind.


Those first mini-skirts were a traffic hazard.  The first time I wore one down High Street in Columbus a young guy ran into a parking sign.  We all laughed at him.


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## fuzzybuddy (Jan 27, 2022)

My aunt got married. The brand new, 22 year old, freshly consecrated priest, who performed the ceremony, attended the reception. He ran into my uncles, who were "hard drinkers".  Have you ever knocked on a rectory door, while carrying a passed-out clergyman? OK, so it's not a "Hallmark Moment".


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## win231 (Jan 27, 2022)

When I was in 1st grade (I must have been 5 or 6 yrs old), there was one big bully (Jimmy) who picked on everyone - shoving, hitting, taunting - everything.  I also had a mean teacher - a woman around 300 lbs who constantly yelled at her students.  She picked on me often.  I was very nearsighted (not diagnosed yet) & when I couldn't read the blackboard, even after she put me in the front row, she would accuse me of not wanting to do my work & called me lazy.  I was also hearing impaired & she would accuse me of "Pretending not to hear her to get out of doing my assignments."  Most of the kids hated her as much as I did.
One day, I told the other kids:  _"I've got a plan cooked up for both of them; just watch during art class."_

The teacher handed out clumps of clay & told us to_ "Make Something."_  I did.  I rolled up some clay into a round ball.  While the teacher was writing on the blackboard, I stood up & threw the piece of clay at her.  I must have thrown it really hard because it hit her in the butt with a really loud _"Smack."_
She let out a loud scream & yelled,_ "WHO DID THAT?"_
I yelled,_ "JIMMY DID IT.  I SAW HIM."  _(Jimmy sat in front of me, so he couldn't see that I did it)
She grabbed him by the arm, lifted him out of his chair & shoved him into a corner, while he was crying & saying, "I didn't do it."
Jimmy must have learned something about being bullied that day; he stopped bullying other kids.
In 6 years of elementary school, that was my favorite day.
_Revenge is a dish best served cold._


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## palides2021 (Jan 27, 2022)

win231 said:


> When I was in 1st grade (I must have been 5 or 6 yrs old), there was one big bully (Jimmy) who picked on everyone - shoving, hitting, taunting - everything.  I also had a mean teacher - a woman around 300 lbs who constantly yelled at her students.  She picked on me often.  I was very nearsighted (not diagnosed yet) & when I couldn't read the blackboard, even after she put me in the front row, she would accuse me of not wanting to do my work & called me lazy.  I was also hearing impaired & she would accuse me of "Pretending not to hear her to get out of doing my assignments."  Most of the kids hated her as much as I did.
> One day, I told the other kids:  _"I've got a plan cooked up for both of them; just watch during art class."_
> 
> The teacher handed out clumps of clay & told us to_ "Make Something."_  I did.  I rolled up some clay into a round ball.  While the teacher was writing on the blackboard, I stood up & threw the piece of clay at her.  I must have thrown it really hard because it hit her in the butt with a really loud _"Smack."_
> ...


Well said story! For someone nearsighted, though, you aimed pretty well!


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## oldpop (Jan 27, 2022)

I vaguely remember when I was about four years old I snuck out of my Grandmas house, slipped through a hole in the fence, crossed a four lane highway and recrossed it to get back home. There were deep ditches on both sides and I was covered in mud when I returned. I also remember had to go get the switch that was used across my backside.


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## jerry old (Jan 27, 2022)

cutting switches-the old people thought was a learning experience-it wasn't
if the switch i had cut was insufficient, i had to cut another one, and so on, until i got it right
i carry great resentment about that, 70 years later


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## win231 (Jan 27, 2022)

palides2021 said:


> Well said story! For someone nearsighted, though, you aimed pretty well!


It didn't take much skill - with such a huge target.


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## JaniceM (Jan 28, 2022)

jerry old said:


> cutting switches-the old people thought was a learning experience-it wasn't
> if the switch i had cut was insufficient, i had to cut another one, and so on, until i got it right
> i carry great resentment about that, 70 years later


It's just plain horrible how some individuals treat children


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## win231 (Jan 28, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> It's just plain horrible how some individuals treat children


Some people get a sense of power & control by hitting someone who can't hit back.
Some parents (like my mom) learned the hard way that their kids won't always be that small.  Sometimes, it ends tragically for both - with the parent dead & the son charged.


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## JaniceM (Jan 28, 2022)

win231 said:


> Some people get a sense of power & control by hitting someone who can't hit back.
> Some parents (like my mom) learned the hard way that their kids won't always be that small.  Sometimes, it ends tragically for both - with the parent dead & the son charged.


Unfortunately that's true.  and despite all the so-called progress, it won't change until parents and others start to realize children are human beings.


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## oldpop (Jan 28, 2022)

I was not complaining about being switched at all. I learned more from that switch and others like it than all the verbal reprimands I ever heard. For those who may not understand the process. Picking the switch was designed to give me time to think about what I did and the consequences. The switching itself was mild in comparison. My parents never did anything to intentionally hurt me physically or mentally. They were good and kind people that taught me well. Now what I did with that good guidance is a whole different story but that's on me not on them.


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## Della (Jan 29, 2022)

Thank you, Oldpop.  My mother was a switching, spanking little  4'11"Tasmanian Devil (yes we called her that behind her back, but there was never any cruelty behind it at all, she just thought that was how you taught kids things.  If my brothers and I had been afraid of her we wouldn't have been in trouble so much.

I was not a spanker myself, but a long winded explainer.  My son once, sighed and said, "I've heard it before."  I think he would have preferred a switching.


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## ElCastor (Jan 29, 2022)

Couple more memories to add, both related to the Caribbean, that might be worthy of a smile (-8 ...

When I graduated from Navy OCS I got orders to a ship -- most of us in my unit of about 30 guys were also headed for a ship, but one (possibly not the sharpest knife in the drawer) was not a happy camper! He was VERY distressed to announce that he had orders to some place called "Bar Buh Dose" -- usually spelled Barbados.  I think there were 29 guys who would have gladly traded with him. (-8

Later in life I was in a Bank unit that among other things accepted deposits in a branch on Grand Cayman island. One day a gentleman called to inquire if a trip to Grand Cayman to visit his money would be tax deductible. We suggested he speak to a CPA. (-8


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## JaniceM (Jan 30, 2022)

Trish said:


> At school, overhearing a couple of sixth formers talking about an upcoming exam when they would be dissecting several mice which had been delivered to the science room earlier that day.
> 
> I have a very clear memory of my friend and I smuggling the mice out, popping them into our pockets and hurrying down the stairs and across the playground only to be stopped by one of the teachers and marched back to the school hall where we had no choice but to join our class row and hope the mice would behave.
> 
> I will never forget the chaos, when two of the mice popped their heads out of my pocket and scrambled up the back of my blazer


Oooh, I have one about mice!  

When I was in the 5th grade, one of the other teachers came to the classroom, said her daughter had pet mice but had outgrown them, so any student who could bring in "a note from home" could have a mouse. 

My parents gave me a note, but the teacher did not tell me why the mouse she gave me was so fat..  it turned out the mouse was pregnant, and gave birth the first night I had it.  So instead of "a" mouse, I had a cage full of lil mousies...  
I occasionally wore one or two mice in my hair, like barrettes-  totally creeped out some of the neighbors!


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## horseless carriage (Feb 2, 2022)

This lovely tale is one that my wife shared with me, it's well worth a wider audience.
The story goes back over forty years or so, my wife worked in the ambulance service as a trained paramedic. There were two tiers in the ambulance service in those days. Those with basic training weren't on the front line emergency ambulances, their task was to ferry the walking wounded to hospital appointments, most of their patients were older people who needed constant care in transport, the risk of ferrying them by taxi was too high. Taxi drivers just didn't have the training required.

On this particular day, the hospital appointments were a crew member down and my wife had agreed to cover on overtime. Her task was to remain in the back of the ambulance in case a patient needed medical aid. The first patient was dropped off at a rehabilitation centre, a place surrounded with high fencing. "Another patient, an older lady, started singing the famous wartime song, by Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters: "Don't Fence Me In." The rest of the patients were taken to their appointments and then the ambulance crew took a break before starting out to collect everybody and take them home.

As the ambulance arrived at the last collection point, the one with the high fences, the same old lady started to sing: "Don't Fence Me In." Once the patient from the rehabilitation centre was comfortable in her seat, my wife went to the other lady, the one who had been singing, squatted down, folded her arms across the old ladies lap, looked into her face and started to sing:

Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don't fence me in.

Let me be by myself in the evening breeze,
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever but I ask you please,
Don't fence me in.

Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies.
On my Cayuse, let me wander over yonder
'Til I see the mountains rise.

I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences
And gaze at the moon 'til I lose my senses
And I can't look at hovels and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in.






Before long not only had the old lady joined in, but most of the elderly patients too. How they loved it. Come the end of the song, the singing older lady asked: "How come a youngster like you knows a song like that, from the forties?" My wife looked upwards, as though looking at her hair: "Victory rolls," of course, I should have known," the older lady exclaimed. "Songs and styles from that era, is hobby of mine," explained my wife. "And I tell you what, I've agreed to cover again next week so get your Andrews Sisters song book ready. They did too.

"He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicago way
He had a boogie style that no one else could play
He was the top man at his craft
But then his number came up and he was gone with the draft
He's in the army now, a blowing reveille
He's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B."


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## DGM (Feb 2, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> Looking at this reminded me of when my older brother got out of the Army.The first job he got was at a Shoe store. In those days the store was closed on Sunday. After he was there a few months they promoted him to Manager. On Sunday he would take me and my sister to the store and pick out shoes. My parents would give him the money for the shoes and when the store opened on Monday he would buy the shoes. One day during the week Clarabell from the Howdy Doody shoe went to the store to make kids happy and me any my sister got to meet him. I think I was about 9yrs old at the time.I was soo excited and I remember it all.


You are aware that Clarabell later became known as Captain Kangeroo aren't you?


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## Alligatorob (Feb 2, 2022)

Bretrick said:


> There is a Mountain in my home town called Mt Owen.


I hiked part way up one of the other Mt Owens.  I think there are several.  Wish I could say I made it to the top, but never got close.

The big peak is the Grand Teton, Mt Owen is the smaller peak to the right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Owen_(Wyoming)


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## Autumn72 (Feb 14, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> Unfortunately that's true.  and despite all the so-called progress, it won't change until parents and others start to realize children are human beings.


The cost of living not asking to be born


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## Autumn72 (Feb 14, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> When I was growing up and living in the City all the houses had somehing called a vestibule. You would open your front door and there was a small room and another door and when you opened that door you were in the living room. As a teenager, if you went over to a friend's house and a brother answered the door he would feel you up. As I got older and married I thought those days were over until I went to a friend that lived on the same street. I would go and visit when her husband went Bowling. If I happened to get there before he left he would open the door and was all over you. After he did that to me I would always call before going over to make sure he wasn't home. I never told his wife. In later years he left his wife and kids for a woman he met online and moved far away.


And why not tell her!
Shame you helped him carry on his badness


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