my answer to mother's latest question: what are my happiest and saddest childhood memories
okay... my happiest childhood memories. this is a tough question because i don't really remember how i felt about stuff, i only remember what happened, so i can't really tell you when i was happiest, but i can tell you which memories make me happiest now.
the first one i can think of is the day dad, uncle louis, chad, and i went fishing at adam's creek. you and sophie may have been there, but i don't remember. we fished all day and didn't catch a single thing (as far as i can remember) and we went home soaking wet and exhausted but we had an awesome great time.
the other one isn't really one contiguous memory but rather just clumps of memory or vague nostalgic feelings. like exploring the rock "desert" (that's what we called it) next to our house with chad. or exploring the woods and fields on our property with chad. once, i think it was a snow day, chad and i were home alone and we packed a lunch and some supplies--chad's rifle, an axe, matches--and strapped on some snowshoes and then we went for a long hike through the woods in a blizzard. we were out all day, came back in time for supper. another happy memory is on a sunday afternoon, again we had a giant snow storm, mathieu was over for the afternoon and he, chad and i rode the old bomb (the black snow machine) all afternoon and into the evening--until we had to come back in to get ready for gospel meeting. i also remember chad and i shoveling the drive way late at night in dead still ice cold weather or blinding snowstorms and then coming inside to sit by the woodstove until our faces thawed. also the summers we spent at tower lake with cousin mitch.
my saddest childhood memories... hm. another tough one.
probably the times i was mean to chad or the couple times i yelled at dad. like once when chad bonked his head and started crying and i called him a wimp. :(
or the time when dad and chad and i went hunting and i kept lagging behind and whining about it and my mittens came off and i got snow down my sleeves and i felt like dad wouldn't wait for me (that part doesn't really make me sad, the next part does:) dad kept bringing it up, almost every year when we went hunting after that and he would tell me how bad he felt and how he wished he would have come back and picked me up and carried. that makes me sad. i bet that if i came home today and got dad to take me hunting he'd bring it up again ...
also, when dad used to sing "cat's in the cradle" i always cried when he sang that ... and then he'd sing it just to make me cry and i'd get angry at him. i think i was fifteen or sixteen (old enough to be at the dentist by myself, but before the dentist office moved into the mall) i was in the dentist's chair and the hygienist was working in my head and the song came on the radio and i was so embarrassed and worried that i was going to start crying. fortunately, i didn't.
one time in early spring (early enough that there was still about five or six feet of snow on the ground but late enough that it was really warm and the snow was mostly slushy) chad, jeremy, and i went for a hike ... we were in snowshoes and for some reason chad and jeremy did okay but mine kept sinking and i couldn't keep them straight so they'd tip me over and then i'd trip and fall into the slush. so i took off my snowshoes when we were about halfway to our destination and tried ploughing through the slush but the layers of crust kept breaking under me and the snow was too deep for me to walk on the ground and keep my head above it, so i kind of had to swim/crawl through the snow and i kept getting wetter and wetter ... i was SO angry and upset. finally i just turned around and headed for home. chad and jeremy got to their destination, made a fire, had lunch and headed back before i even made it back to my snowshoes. by this time i was soaked right through my snowsuit to my underwear. jeremy made it to my snowshoes before i did and picked them up, chad caught up with me, picked me up and put me on his back and carried me the whole way home. that makes me sad because i regret being so angry and feeling sorry for myself for being wet and cold.
also, when dad had his gall bladder taken out. it was a saturday and he had to go to work, but there was a family breakfast thing at uncle louis' house. i drove dad to work and i think he wanted me to go straight to uncle louis' from there but i was really tired because i'd stayed up late the night before so i went home and went back to bed. at around nine or so, dad came home and woke me up because he wanted me to drive him to the hospital because his stomach hurt really badly. i got up, had a long hot shower while dad waited for me and then drove him to the hospital, just dropped him off, and then went to uncle louis' and waited until after breakfast when almost everyone else had left to tell uncle louis that dad was at the hospital!!!!! then, uncle louis got his jacket and keys and got right in the van and we drove to the hospital together and went to the emergency entrance where jesse was working in the reception area with the triage nurse. jesse told us that dad had been admitted... so we found him in a gowny thing on a hospital bed hooked up to an iv thing... and i felt so ashamed of myself.
i guess that's not really a childhood memory anymore though ... it's more like a young-adult memory so i'm gonna stop there.
okay... my happiest childhood memories. this is a tough question because i don't really remember how i felt about stuff, i only remember what happened, so i can't really tell you when i was happiest, but i can tell you which memories make me happiest now.
the first one i can think of is the day dad, uncle louis, chad, and i went fishing at adam's creek. you and sophie may have been there, but i don't remember. we fished all day and didn't catch a single thing (as far as i can remember) and we went home soaking wet and exhausted but we had an awesome great time.
the other one isn't really one contiguous memory but rather just clumps of memory or vague nostalgic feelings. like exploring the rock "desert" (that's what we called it) next to our house with chad. or exploring the woods and fields on our property with chad. once, i think it was a snow day, chad and i were home alone and we packed a lunch and some supplies--chad's rifle, an axe, matches--and strapped on some snowshoes and then we went for a long hike through the woods in a blizzard. we were out all day, came back in time for supper. another happy memory is on a sunday afternoon, again we had a giant snow storm, mathieu was over for the afternoon and he, chad and i rode the old bomb (the black snow machine) all afternoon and into the evening--until we had to come back in to get ready for gospel meeting. i also remember chad and i shoveling the drive way late at night in dead still ice cold weather or blinding snowstorms and then coming inside to sit by the woodstove until our faces thawed. also the summers we spent at tower lake with cousin mitch.
my saddest childhood memories... hm. another tough one.
probably the times i was mean to chad or the couple times i yelled at dad. like once when chad bonked his head and started crying and i called him a wimp. :(
or the time when dad and chad and i went hunting and i kept lagging behind and whining about it and my mittens came off and i got snow down my sleeves and i felt like dad wouldn't wait for me (that part doesn't really make me sad, the next part does:) dad kept bringing it up, almost every year when we went hunting after that and he would tell me how bad he felt and how he wished he would have come back and picked me up and carried. that makes me sad. i bet that if i came home today and got dad to take me hunting he'd bring it up again ...
also, when dad used to sing "cat's in the cradle" i always cried when he sang that ... and then he'd sing it just to make me cry and i'd get angry at him. i think i was fifteen or sixteen (old enough to be at the dentist by myself, but before the dentist office moved into the mall) i was in the dentist's chair and the hygienist was working in my head and the song came on the radio and i was so embarrassed and worried that i was going to start crying. fortunately, i didn't.
one time in early spring (early enough that there was still about five or six feet of snow on the ground but late enough that it was really warm and the snow was mostly slushy) chad, jeremy, and i went for a hike ... we were in snowshoes and for some reason chad and jeremy did okay but mine kept sinking and i couldn't keep them straight so they'd tip me over and then i'd trip and fall into the slush. so i took off my snowshoes when we were about halfway to our destination and tried ploughing through the slush but the layers of crust kept breaking under me and the snow was too deep for me to walk on the ground and keep my head above it, so i kind of had to swim/crawl through the snow and i kept getting wetter and wetter ... i was SO angry and upset. finally i just turned around and headed for home. chad and jeremy got to their destination, made a fire, had lunch and headed back before i even made it back to my snowshoes. by this time i was soaked right through my snowsuit to my underwear. jeremy made it to my snowshoes before i did and picked them up, chad caught up with me, picked me up and put me on his back and carried me the whole way home. that makes me sad because i regret being so angry and feeling sorry for myself for being wet and cold.
also, when dad had his gall bladder taken out. it was a saturday and he had to go to work, but there was a family breakfast thing at uncle louis' house. i drove dad to work and i think he wanted me to go straight to uncle louis' from there but i was really tired because i'd stayed up late the night before so i went home and went back to bed. at around nine or so, dad came home and woke me up because he wanted me to drive him to the hospital because his stomach hurt really badly. i got up, had a long hot shower while dad waited for me and then drove him to the hospital, just dropped him off, and then went to uncle louis' and waited until after breakfast when almost everyone else had left to tell uncle louis that dad was at the hospital!!!!! then, uncle louis got his jacket and keys and got right in the van and we drove to the hospital together and went to the emergency entrance where jesse was working in the reception area with the triage nurse. jesse told us that dad had been admitted... so we found him in a gowny thing on a hospital bed hooked up to an iv thing... and i felt so ashamed of myself.
i guess that's not really a childhood memory anymore though ... it's more like a young-adult memory so i'm gonna stop there.
I like it that you have such good childhood memories.... I'm starting to really like the fact that I am asking you all of these questions, it's something I will cherish forever!
ReplyDeleteMy next question would have to be what were your favorite "comfort" foods... what were your favorite meals? what was/is your favorite dessert? I sure enjoy picking your brains and I do get a lot of communication as a mighty big bonus!
I like it that you call me an "avid reader" and that you choose to keep me anonymous, but if you want to do that, you better clean up my responses so people won't "guess" who wrote those things, but I don't really mind.
My happiest childhood memories? Like you, it's pretty vague in my mind... but I remember going to midnight mass and sitting way up in the balcony at the church and watching the whole thing from up there, I was pretty small and my eyes were wide open, looking at all the lights and listening to the singing and all...
Another happy memory was at Christmas again, and that particular year I had asked for an easy bake oven. Well I didn't receive my easy bake oven, I suppose my parents couldnt' afford to buy me one (we were 8 kids) so they bought me a cute little battery powered oven. When the batteries were in it, and you flicked the switch the four elements would turn bright red so we
four kids spent quite a few hours in the dark closet admiring the lit elements.
There were many happy days at the lake, where we spent our summers at the cottage. From morning to night we wore nothing but a swimsuit and by the end of the summer our feet were so calloused that we could run on the gravel barefoot!
I remember one time aunt Alice came home with a box of puppies. They came in a "chip" box so we named the one Chip. Another time we came home from school and Grandmaman had her hands behind her back, waiting for all four of us to come into the house. Here behind her back, she was holding the cutest little brown puppy with floppy ears. We named him Tipi.
On the other hand, the saddest childhood memory I have was when Tipi got hit by a car and was hurt badly and cried all night long. Grandmaman stayed by him and nursed him. Then Grandpapa took him to the animal hospital and Tipi never came back. Grandpapa broke the news to us four kids, and we all cried and cried so much!
This one was good and bad at the same time. I went on a trip with Uncle Rolly and Aunt Doris. We went to Ottawa and stayed at a hotel for the March break. I babysat Mitch while Uncle Rolly and Aunt Doris took in some kind of a course. I really enjoyed that week, we did so many things and saw so much and that's when Mitch took his first baby steps. But when we got back, I called Grandmaman from Aunt Doris' house and she told me that Linda's father (Mr. Shuren), had died and was burried. I missed the whole thing and I was so sad that I cried and cried and cried...
Those are the memories that stand out most in my mind. I'm sure there's plenty more...
It's good to remember and to tell about it.
Dearest Patrick;
ReplyDeleteI know you're not very old yet, so when I ask you about the good and bad memories of adulthood, I'm sure you don't have to dig very deeply to remember... I on the other hand have been an adult for a much longer time, therefore the memories go further.
The best moments of my life started when I really started to live! The day I got saved, March 5th, 1981 was when my life truly began! Anything that occured before that date has faded into insignificance for me... it is the old woman, dead and buried. This date I began a beautiful journey with my Lord and together He has brought me through so many beautiful moments.
Of course, meeting your Dad and marrying him, was the next thing on God's agenda. So when we began our life together, we were both new in the Lord and so we began our Christian walk practically together on July 11th, 1981. At first the road was bumpy, but we learned to adjust, to pray together, to love each other and to grow together in the Lord.
As a couple our most memorable events, were when Chad was born. Being parents for the first time was truly an eye opener for us. We relished in each other's love for this child and we grew closer to each other in the process.
You were not far behind, Patrick. Only 13 months later, we had another beautiful baby boy! Of course, you took us on a different journey, that of hospitals and trips to Toronto, but looking back we full well understand that to be part of our spiritual growth. It pained us to see you suffer so much after your surgeries, it pained us to see you so sick with milk allergies and later on with spinal meningitis. But through it all, we determined to cling to the Lord through the trials of life, and we knew that God had a special plan for you, dear son.
Then our third and last born, our dear little Sophie. She too took us on a journey, but now as we look back, we can only be thankful that we had the Lord with us and whatever were meant for us to learn, we have and are still learning to this day.
The saddest day of my life though, was when I lost my father to cancer. The date, September 22nd, 1982. That is the year that you were born; and so we named you after my father whose real name is Patrice Donat Godin.
As I look to the future, I don't know what it holds, but I know that the Lord is coming very soon. Each day I live wondering if this is the day He comes to take us home...
I love you,
always and forever,
Mom xoxoxoxoxoxxo