The Pitcher And Anxieties
Here’s more from Suburbia.
My bold brother and I were home alone. I was old enough for my mom and dad to be able to leave me in charge for a while.
My brother grabbed an apple out of the refrigerator. Coming into the living room, he got this idea of practicing his baseball pitching by throwing his apple at the couch. If it stuck between two of the back cushions, he had thrown a strike. If he didn’t get it to stick, it was a ball.
I was kind of bored myself, so I watched him do this. He gleefully explained all he was doing while throwing his apple.
As always seems to happen with every young pitcher, my brother threw a wild pitch. The apple hit Baby Sister’s picture shattering the glass in the frame.
I went to the picture and picked out all the glass and threw it away. I put the picture back in the frame without the glass and set it back on the end table. We then went on our merry way and played outside for the rest of the day.
It took Mom a week, but she found what I had done with the picture. When she asked me about it, I came clean and told her, but by that time enough time had gone by, that no one was punished for it.
The little kids in the neighborhood were pretty cute including my youngest siblings. Though the elementary age kids were the unspoken rulers of the neighborhood, including myself, the little kids added subtle ingredients to our lives.
My mom set me to watch the little kids swim in our blow up pool in the back yard. Actually, it was on the cement slab I mentioned in an earlier entry. There was usually Baby Brother, Baby Sister, Jojo and Ling Ling (the Phillippino kids), and an occasional little brother or sister from my friends.
This particular time, it was my little siblings and Jojo and Ling Ling.
At first, Jojo and Ling Ling wouldn’t go anywhere near the pool. Ling Ling would just throw herself down and cry. Jojo helped us figure out what was wrong. When I tried to help him into the pool, he cried and said, “Jaws is coming!”
Apparently their parents had taken them to see the movie “Jaws” at a drive in. It was funny to see them so afraid of the water, but maybe it wasn’t.
Jojo got over his fear eventually. I would ask him from time to time if Jaws was in our pool. He would get a cute smile on his face and say, “Jaws is coming!”
About that same time, Baby Brother would start running into the house in sheer terror. He would usually run to Mom, but sometimes he came to me.
Every time an airplane or helicopter flew over the yard, he would be gripped with fear and start yelping and heading for the house. Sometimes my bold brother and I would laugh, but usually I was the one to calm him down.
How in the world did he become afraid of these? I thought maybe it had something to do with my friends and I shooting at the planes in the sky with our toy guns. We would always pretend to be shot and fall down dead.
As with Jojo and Jaws, Baby Brother eventually got over being afraid of airplanes and helicopters.
My bold brother and I were home alone. I was old enough for my mom and dad to be able to leave me in charge for a while.
My brother grabbed an apple out of the refrigerator. Coming into the living room, he got this idea of practicing his baseball pitching by throwing his apple at the couch. If it stuck between two of the back cushions, he had thrown a strike. If he didn’t get it to stick, it was a ball.
I was kind of bored myself, so I watched him do this. He gleefully explained all he was doing while throwing his apple.
As always seems to happen with every young pitcher, my brother threw a wild pitch. The apple hit Baby Sister’s picture shattering the glass in the frame.
I went to the picture and picked out all the glass and threw it away. I put the picture back in the frame without the glass and set it back on the end table. We then went on our merry way and played outside for the rest of the day.
It took Mom a week, but she found what I had done with the picture. When she asked me about it, I came clean and told her, but by that time enough time had gone by, that no one was punished for it.
The little kids in the neighborhood were pretty cute including my youngest siblings. Though the elementary age kids were the unspoken rulers of the neighborhood, including myself, the little kids added subtle ingredients to our lives.
My mom set me to watch the little kids swim in our blow up pool in the back yard. Actually, it was on the cement slab I mentioned in an earlier entry. There was usually Baby Brother, Baby Sister, Jojo and Ling Ling (the Phillippino kids), and an occasional little brother or sister from my friends.
This particular time, it was my little siblings and Jojo and Ling Ling.
At first, Jojo and Ling Ling wouldn’t go anywhere near the pool. Ling Ling would just throw herself down and cry. Jojo helped us figure out what was wrong. When I tried to help him into the pool, he cried and said, “Jaws is coming!”
Apparently their parents had taken them to see the movie “Jaws” at a drive in. It was funny to see them so afraid of the water, but maybe it wasn’t.
Jojo got over his fear eventually. I would ask him from time to time if Jaws was in our pool. He would get a cute smile on his face and say, “Jaws is coming!”
About that same time, Baby Brother would start running into the house in sheer terror. He would usually run to Mom, but sometimes he came to me.
Every time an airplane or helicopter flew over the yard, he would be gripped with fear and start yelping and heading for the house. Sometimes my bold brother and I would laugh, but usually I was the one to calm him down.
How in the world did he become afraid of these? I thought maybe it had something to do with my friends and I shooting at the planes in the sky with our toy guns. We would always pretend to be shot and fall down dead.
As with Jojo and Jaws, Baby Brother eventually got over being afraid of airplanes and helicopters.
posted by praiseage at 9:47 PM
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