in spite of search engines being disabled...I am just South Side of Sky on this page. (I hope)..
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My earliest memories are of Miami beach when I was four years old. I guess because of the pneumonia that almost killed me when I was 9 months old, our parents decided it would be in my best interests to have us go to Miami during the winter. A lot happened and that is why I can remember so much.
Sidney apparently recalls the agony (thank God - I do not) of me screaming when I was peeing. I had an infection because our Orthodox Jewish father decided to not have me circumsized at birth - therefore, I needed one on an emergency basis at age four.
I only have two memories of that event - one frightening and one funny.
The frigthening event was I remember being in a bed wheeled into the hospital elevator and looking at my parents. My mother was on the left and she looked terrified. She was wearing a red dress. She looked scarred out of her wits. My father was on the right and he had a black suit jacket on - which was unusual. He looked pretty calm; I think he sensed my terror and just waved. The elvevator doors shut. I had a sinking feeling of being so alone and so frightened. I was totally and absolutely terrified. The elevator rose and they pulled me out - persumably to go into an operating room. I don't think I cried; I was more shell-shocked. My memory ends there.
After the operation, I remember being in a room with a lot of other kids maybe 20 or so. Each in our own bed. A nurse came to me and said, "I have to put a dressing on you." I said, I swear to God, my sense of humor was alive and well at age four, "I'll take French." She laughed so hard - she had to tell the other nurses.
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Your story brings several questions to my fecund mind: Is that really the reason we went to North Miami Beach every year? And, What sort of a Jew was Jack anyhow?
ReplyDelete1) Marilynn told me that is why we went there not just for a minivacation but for several months, I think Mom told me the same. They thought I would get less colds or flu in a warmer clim I guess. But yet, I did not get frickn' vaccinations which would have helped about ten fold more.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the real reason is that they wanted to do it and I was an excuse - I do not know.
2) A bizare Jew.
By the way, memory formation is enhanced during stressful events - probably why this one is so vivid. Probably evolutionary advantages of being able to remember details of a close escape. Thus, post-tramatic stress disorder. Beta blockers, if administered immediately, can help tone down the effect.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, Versad, is given to block memory formation in operations. When I had my colonscopy I had versad, but was "awake" all I can recall is about 20 seconds of looking at the TV image of my innards when they were in my gut which is about 20 seconds more than most can recall.
Versed, eh? Post-tramatic stress disorder, eh? Colonoscopy, eh? This isn't a Michael Jackson Blog.
ReplyDelete