Sunday, August 12, 2018

NEW EXPERIENCES -- KAYAKING -- TRAIN TRAVEL


Our skies here in Southern California above my home aren’t as clear as they might be due to the Holy Fire -- devouring over 21,000 acres located in a non-threatening to me distance southeast of where I live. 

Aerial assaults with a dozen or so fixed-wing planes and helicopters have been pouring water -- scooped from threatened residential area Lake Elsinore -- and spreading retardant, to squelch this arson-caused thought-to-be grudge fire.  (An area resident there with possible mental issues has been arrested as the alleged arsonist.)   

Some allergens/pollutants making their way into my air space caused some initial sneezing I noticed, despite my filtered A/C, but I've countered that.    

I’m living vicariously these days as family shares ongoing accounts of a long overdue semi-camping vacation they're taking to National Parks. 

-- a young grandson delighting in participating in an introductory archaeological dig at a site just right for his elementary school age and enchantment with dinosaurs.  

-- The Badlands awe him with a vastness he has never seen before.  

-- Kayaking at Yellowstone on the continent's largest mountain lake with geysers steaming and simmering along the endless shores fascinating him.

That was one of my joys, too, when my children were young -- introducing them to new experiences. 

I remember some of my most memorable experiences when I was young – both pleasant and unpleasant ones.  

Thinking of the recent inhuman treatment the young children had, being separated from their parents -- and some are still having as a consequence of our nation’s insensitive leader’s orders -- I’m sure their experience is permanently burned into their memories.  Even the youngest infants may not have conscious recall, at least now, but the impact of the experience is forever etched into their being.   

These children likely had already been exposed to alarming situations that prompted their homeland departure, perhaps having more mistreatment in their asylum-seeking travels for safety, but at least they were comforted by loved ones.   Now, they were wrenched from their parental security in a foreign, to them, nation where the language was most likely unknown, and not understood. 

I’ve seen how physically helpless adults with the inability to fully understand a new strange situation into which they are thrust can react with anxiety and fear – this anguish might be similar to, or even more severe, for how these children must feel.

There’s enough unpleasantness in the world today without my recounting any specific personal experiences from some of those imprinted in my memory.   I will say that one of them from when I was very young haunted me in my dreams for a number of years – likely contributing to a temporary medical issue when I was a child.  

Other reactions occurred in the years to come, including with the actual conscious event recollection emerging.  Even then several decades would pass before speaking of the subject to seek confirmation I had accurately recalled the experience -- though I knew I had.  These children will likely emerge with varying degrees of scars from their immoral treatment.

One highly anticipated memorable first experience for me when I was elementary school-age was a long overnight train ride through several states with my Mother.   We would, hopefully, be able to see my older brother before he was expected to be deployed to an unknown military location overseas during WWII – the unsaid thought was, would we ever see him again.    

Since we were traveling at night, I was expected to soon be tired, then fall asleep in our coach seats – lulled by the repetitive numbing drum of train rail sounds, vibrations and the car’s rocking motion.   

The train stopped periodically to take on new passengers and allow others to exit.   One segment of the trip was somewhat eventful when a rather colorful woman boarded whose behavior I found far more interesting than my sleeping.   She was busy laughing, conversing and extending friendship somewhat loudly to numerous, primarily male passengers before finally exiting at another stop. 

The conductor, after toning her down a bit several times, eventually felt the need to explain to my mother that the woman made this trip regularly most weekends, so he knew of her and we shouldn’t feel alarmed.   The explanation I ultimately received from my mother was in words to the effect that the somewhat respectable-looking woman was a “lady of the night” seeking an escort.  This was another real-life teaching event opportunity every parent aspires to having.  I don’t recall if anyone left the train with the woman.  

My second foray through several states as I left where I was born, occurred just as I was becoming a teenager.  This auto trip was from the Great Lakes Midwest to the desert southwest close to the Mexico border.  In many ways the trip was uneventful, but some of the experiences along the way were significant to me simply because they were new.   I enjoyed seeing cities and countryside I had not seen before. 

There was a certain amount of sameness after a while, in whatever state we were.  To lessen some of that monotony I anticipated watching for any bodies of water – mostly small streams, occasional ponds or lakes, larger creeks and big rivers.   I was not disappointed seeing the mighty Mississippi, but I felt quite let down to see little more than an almost dry river bed when we crossed what I had expected to be the magnificent Rio Grande River.  What I saw was dirt, gravel, a puddle or two and a barely visible trickle of water -- just wasn’t the time of year for rain in Texas and without rain, no grand river.

I was delighted we were driving south toward the Mexico border to visit a young airman, much like a brother to me, stationed at an air force base in San Antonio.   We stayed overnight, but this necessitated sleeping accommodations for me in our old car’s back seat with the windows partly down for cool air.  Unfortunately, in the heat and humidity the largest mosquitoes I’d ever seen were hungrily thriving in great numbers and I was on their menu that night.   That was a mixture of a pleasant and unpleasant memory, but worth it to me to see a loved one. 

The new memory item list surfacing here has barely revealed any of mine.   I haven’t attempted to recount the most memorable new experiences, the worst, or even any other kind we can have.  

These new experiences, hopefully the more pleasant ones, continue occurring all our lives in one way or another – some quite simple and mundane, others a bit more interesting, maybe mysterious, or even exciting.  

That’s good for us since experiencing the new and different has been determined to stimulate our minds, helping us to keep functioning mentally in a healthy manner.  

So, we need to keep seeking new experiences all our years to challenge our minds.

Do you recall registering any particular new experiences in your youth that recorded in your memory bank?

       

 





28 comments:

  1. Many experiences...some mildly traumatic but nothing as terrifying as something that happened to me months ago. It was so awful I may never write about it. Over 70 and still we can be traumatized!

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    1. Sounds like that’s the kind of experience we don’t want or neeed. Hope you’re continuing to overcome any adverse effects.

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  2. The short answer to your question is, Yes, too many. I may just write a blog post just like yours some time soon listing all of them.

    About the California fires, you might like to read this very interesting suggestion. https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Should-the-US-Air-Force-bomb-forest-fires-13146839.php

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    1. I’ll look forward to reading your list if you decide to write one. Probably each item would be an interesting story in itself.

      Interesting concept bombing the fires. Will look forward to more particulars if they decide to explore it more. Thanks for the link.

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  3. There were many. I remember clearly living with my grandparents when I was young, between 3-5 as I was a "handful" after my brother was born and he was sickly. I remember the music there and my grandfather cycling home from his day as a labourer in different places with sausages and sweets for me.I remember checking the rabbit snares with him first thing in the morning before the sun was up. My grandparents were very poor but I remember their home as very happy and full of song and music.

    XO
    WWW

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    1. Those would be memorable first experiences when we’re so young absorbing the world around us. Sounds like a happy environment which is what children need with love, and songs, music help create such an atmosphere no matter our financial standing.

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  4. As a young child living on the small island of Oahu, my first BIG trip was to another small island of Kauai. Even though it is similar to Oahu, I thought it was another world because it was so much wetter and greener.

    I feel so awful for those young immigrant children who were torn from their parents, some of them have yet to be found. It’s cruel and it’s our government who has done this.

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    1. Traveling to another island — that would have been exciting and a unique experience we mainlanders wouldn’t have. Interesting how you perceived it as being so different and even aware of how that was.

      Yes, this travesty to those children was done in our name. I think most of us are outraged as we should be.

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  5. First day of school as a 6 year old. It was what I had waited my whole life for as that was what I kept pestering my parent for since I could remember. The day was not the best. I was mocked by the teacher one moment and praised the next. Due to not knowing where the bathrooms were and the directions when I asked were vague, I soiled my dress and had to sit in wet pee for part of the day. Amazingly, that day which is clear in my mind today, did not kill my love for learning. I could easily have become a professional student.

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    1. What a horrible first day of school experience and that teacher sounds terrible. Glad your enthusiasm for learning survived.

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  6. 1) Warming blankets for my baby sister during her final illness (January 1941); 2) My baby brother coming home from the hospital without our mother (who needed surgery - December 1941); 3) A lunar eclipse that produced a blood moon (in Spring 1942?) scared me because I thought the moon was bleeding to death; 4) Dodging a small tornado, in our car, in Missouri (1945?); 5) An airshow at Butler MO (also about 1945) featuring aerobatics and parachute jumps. I vowed, then and there, to become a pilot and to learn to parachute. 6) Death of President Roosevelt, announced to my 1st grade class (April 1945); and oh, so many more.
    Cop Car

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    1. Some really serious first experience events in your life. Interesting how you decided at such a young age to become a pilot and to learn to parachute. You also were gaining an awareness of the larger world if learning of the President’s death was so memorable — and a blood moon thought of as literally bleeding. But health, illness and consequences had been introduced early in your family life.

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  7. Some good memories, some bad. Never a dull moment.

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  8. I remember watching President Kennedy's funeral on TV with my dad. The sound of the caisson and the drums is still very vivid to me. Similarly, I recall my father being outraged and terribly angry at the resignation of Nixon--he took it very much to heart that he had disgraced the country with all of his actions.

    My parents were very political. My mother took all of us to see then-candidate Hubert Humphrey's motorcade drive down the main street of our little city. I can still see his head and waving hand out the window of his limo. It rained the day after Election Day that year--a cold, heavy downpour--and my mother said the heavens were crying because Hubert Humphrey lost.

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    1. Some significant memories beyond just your immediate self and family.

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  9. So many memories, we all have them in later life and now traveling my 80's
    they are stories that arise without me seeking them some good and some not so good. I share occasionally on my journal. As you said That's life!

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    1. I, too, experience unsolicited memories spontaneously popping into my mind as I get older.

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  10. That's actually what my blog is all about … vignettes of my life from childhood on … just memories and it's good I started in 2006 and put so many down because it's harder to remember the older I get !!

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    1. Memories of new experiences you're sharing on your blog benefit not only you but those of us who enjoy reading about them. Sometimes I’ve wondered what other ones that seemed so important at the time may have been relegated to the memory sidelines when one I’d forgotten surfaces unexpectedly.

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  11. One new experience that will always stay in my mind is the day I finally learned to ride a bicycle. It was my older brother's bike and far too large for me but I was determined. After many a fall and many scraped knees and elbows, I finally got it. I felt that I had finally become one of the big kids.

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    1. That was a memorable occasion and on a bike not even your size. I have a few bike memories, but not one of when I learned to ride it.

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  12. When I was in 7th grade I took a fossil hunting elective. If the Indiana Jones movies had been made then I might have gone into archaeology as that was a great time. Fossil hunting was really fun.

    I have a good friend who has been impacted by the holy fire - she could hear the helicopters all day and the smoke was quite bad.

    I remember a great vacation that involved aircuit hitting all of the National Parks in the area - we covered Mesa Verde, the Painted Desert, Grand Canyon,Zion, Bryce and more. I am still in awe of Bryce Canyon - it was an amazing place.

    I enjoy listening to people recount their travel adventures almost as much as I enjoy my own adventures.

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    1. Fossil hunting at thatvage would have been impressionable, a really exciting new experience. Sorry your friend affected by the Holy Canyon Fire. Smoke is bad enough. Hope her house remains safe.

      Driving trips to numerous National Parks we enjoyed, too. Your trip sounds spectacular. I just watched a PBS special on one of my favorites — Grand Canyon.





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  13. As adults we often forget how brave we had to be at times when we were (very) young, how strange and frightful so many first experiences, even those who look benign and pleasant in hindsight, must have been.

    I remember being afraid of the tv screen in my grandmother's house, which was hidden inside an elaborate wooden closet with folding doors which had - in my memory - very large shiny hinges and doorknobs. For some reason, I felt that invisible forces were responsible for opening and closing these doors, revealing and ending what to me at age 3 was simply incrompehensible noise and flickering images. Usually, I would fall asleep on someone's lap while the adults watched tv, and this only increased my fears when I was eventually transferred to a car or a bed. All I could do was keep very very still to avoid being sucked into that box.

    This only happened a few times and my most vivid memory of these occasions is still my grandmother's lap and the buttons on her blouse. It comes up every single time I watch something in black and white on tv.

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    1. So true about how things seem when interpreted through the eyes of a child. What was behind those doors? We do forget children may process experiences differentlly than adults do sometimes. Interesting reaction to TV when it was so new to all of us, even adults.

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  14. I think the new experiences that most stuck in my mind as a child were the family holidays. Both sets of grandparents lived at the seaside, one in Cornwall and the other on the Thames Estuary, and I loved being at the seaside. Another long-standing memory is English lessons at my prep school. The English teacher had a great sense of humour and his lessons always included hilarious examples of grammar and syntax. He's the main reason why my command of English was always exceptional.

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    1. Those sound like new experiences that would have been interesting and memorable.

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