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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2009 12:03:12 GMT
Most everyone has had some type of major disappointment that occurred in childhood, Whether it was the discovery of there being no real Santa Claus or the cancellation of a long anticipated vacation. For some of us the letdown is huge and seems like the end of the world when it occurs. Mine occurred when I was ten years old and my father had just died. My best friend Maggie had just lost her father as well.We were devastated of course at our loss but what really sent us into despair was the fact that now we could never be The Potato Queen,an annual contest held in the spring where starting at age ten you could enter the contest and bear the crown of Potato Queen for a whole year. The Queen got to ride in the back of a fancy convertible at every parade in all the little towns in the area,waving her scepter at the adoring crowds,all there to see the Potato Queen.The one major qualification to enter the contest was you had to be the daughter of a living potato farmer.Thank goodness we had each other to commiserate with. Many,many years later, I was working for a woman here and one year she wanted to grow potatoes in her garden. We generally worked together and would share information,stories,gossip etc. I told her the story of my childhood disappointment.One day when I went to work over in her garden she told me she thought it was time to harvest the potatoes. So,while I was in the garden unearthing the potatoes she came out of the house with a beautiful basket and a head wreath(crown) she had made with woven flowers and ribbons. She crowned me the Potato Queen. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2009 12:10:38 GMT
You will be the permanent Anyport Potato Queen to all of us, Casimira!
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Post by tillystar on Apr 2, 2009 12:24:14 GMT
Oh that made me all teary the thought of that lady making you a Potato Queen crown!
I was very disappointed in 1982 when the Pope visited the UK. I was about 5 and went to a Catholic school and it seemed to be all anyone talked about. I was really looking forward to church on Sunday as I thought he would be visiting us.
I have such a clear image of him getting out the Papa Mobile outside our church dressed all in white and kissing the floor and then walking over to me and I hand him a bunch of flowers and we have a little chat and he realises how totally holy I was. Its so clear in my head as I had imagined it so often in the week before that it seems like it really happened!
I remember arriving at church that Sunday and asking my Mum where he was and where we had to wait and my heart broke when she explained he wasn't visiting our church and it was just a normal Sunday.
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Post by tillystar on Apr 2, 2009 12:24:43 GMT
No need for anyone to dress up as the Pope and come visit me though.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2009 12:28:42 GMT
I don't even have a ring that you could kiss.
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Post by BigIain on Apr 2, 2009 16:25:48 GMT
I just have to say that I am LOL at that one, sorry.
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Post by gyro on Apr 2, 2009 19:55:06 GMT
What a depressing thread. Why is it that these days people often try to look at their childhood and find fault with it ? All too often too, they try to find something in childhood that would justify or explain some problem in later life. It's all rather clumsy, really.
(not that I'm saying that's what the OP is trying to do, by the way, but ...)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2009 20:03:09 GMT
It's a good thing that's not what you're saying because you'd come across as a complete horse's ass otherwise.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Apr 2, 2009 21:08:23 GMT
I was slowly and insidiously devastated in my childhood when I gradually became aware that I would never be getting that circus wallpaper for my bedroom. I had to make do with Superman pajamas. Years later now, I think I've put that behind me at last.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 4:25:52 GMT
Valid input there, K, as always. Well done.
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Post by tillystar on Apr 3, 2009 8:55:57 GMT
I thought it was quite funny remembering how things were bulit up so much in our funny little minds as children. Not really depressing at all. I am sure I have not been deeply scarred by not meeting the pope and Don is even getting over his lack of circus walpaper without therapy.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 9:07:21 GMT
My parents never bought me a bicycle, but that's probably a good thing because I have not yet broken a bone in my life.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 9:39:55 GMT
Tilly; that's the beauty of these forums; sharing differing opinions. Some people don't seem to understand that.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Apr 3, 2009 12:36:57 GMT
Yes, Tilly, I'm becoming whole again. This Forum gives me the circus and wallpaper of which I was deprived as a child.
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Post by Jazz on Apr 3, 2009 12:53:53 GMT
When I was 8 years old, I desperately wanted my first crinoline. That Christmas I was given the most beautiful crinoline in the world! It was worthy of a princess! I proudly wore it the first day back to school after the holidays. We had gym class and I changed into my gym outfit. When I came back, it had been stolen! I was crushed and inconsolable Don, you are my mentor for bravely overcoming the loss of the circus wallpaper in such a manly fashion.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 19:42:10 GMT
That's more than a disappointment Jazz. That's downright traumatic. And the idea that someone would STEAL a child's crinoline. I remember my first one, I guess I was about eight,maybe a little older.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 19:57:34 GMT
Are you two 150 years old or something ?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 20:04:34 GMT
;D
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Post by Jazz on Apr 3, 2009 20:38:44 GMT
Are you two 150 years old or something ? Gyro, let's see if we can make this a cultural reference you can grasp. Why don't you just replace "crinoline" with "Mr. T action figure" and see if that makes a difference? Or, if that's too North American, just replace it with the thing you cared most about as an 8-yr-old boy. Better?
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2009 20:42:17 GMT
How did you know about his Nerf bier stein, Jazz??
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 20:45:12 GMT
Actually, we boys have only ever seen the word crinoline in Victorian literature, in the type of stories that did not interest us. I personally do not even know what crinoline is, except that it was apparently common in Victorian times. I suspect that Gyro is as ignorant about this as I am.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 20:45:16 GMT
Jazz, my mental image of a crinoline is those under skirt basket things that Edwardian birds wore.
Biscuit, I've never had Nerf bier. Wass it like ?
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 20:46:35 GMT
Anyway K, you know I'm ignorant about EVERYTHING ....
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2009 20:52:32 GMT
Gyro: Kerouac & Gyro:
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 20:55:07 GMT
The second one makes sense. The first one doesn't; although it does remind me of the other month when my son and I rampaged through Harrods toy department.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2009 21:00:00 GMT
I thought Nerf was a common brand for boys' toys when you were a ladlet. I think at that time they only made those soft balls.
Okay, your Mattel bier stein, then.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 21:03:41 GMT
Aaah, Mattel makes sense. Nerf was only something Princess Leia said in The Empire Strikes Back .....
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Post by Jazz on Apr 3, 2009 21:07:11 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2009 21:07:25 GMT
Well, if you'd gotten the reference to soft toys, it would have been fairly amusing.
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Post by gyro on Apr 3, 2009 21:08:50 GMT
Jazz, she looked a little too much like Alanis Morrisette to imbue any hormone elevation.....
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