Friday 25 October 2013

My life 4

As I was telling a story to some people the other day I was told I had been a spoilt girl! Now, I can see both my parents looking at each other and wondering who they were talking about, since they certainly didn't spoil me! The story I was telling was about me in high school. But it started a few years earlier than that. 

In December 1983 there was a lot of hooha about atomic weapons and atomic bombs and the like. To a sensitive girl like me it was all very disturbing. So, one night that disturbance came to fruition by me having a dream about atomic bombs falling. Fortunately I woke up, but when I fell asleep again, I started dreaming again on the same topic. And then again. Three dreams all about the atomic bomb and the end of the world. 

That day in school I was tired and felt sick. I kept thinking and thinking about those dreams and when I finally came home to do my homework, someone on the radio said the end of the world was close. I lost it. Com-ple-tely! I didn't sleep in my own (attic) room ever again and instead bunked with my sister, one floor down. Much safer! We moved at the end of that week (completely unrelated of course, we were due to move anyway). 

Fast forward a few years and one day while in religion class our teacher tells us we are going to see a film. Called 'The Day After'. About the effects of the atomic bomb! And I didn't want to see it. I refused to see it. I made such a hooha myself, in the end they phoned my parents and were told that if I didn't, I didn't and I didn't have to! So, for the next few lessons, while the video was shown, I sat in the cafeteria downstairs waiting for my next class. 

Was I spoiled?

8 comments:

  1. Een jaar of vijf geleden had ik een leerling die nachtmerries kreeg, alleen al door de gedachte dat ze "Oorlogswinter" moest lezen. Gewoon ander boek laten lezen - klaar. Die docent van jou had ze gewoon nog niet helemaal op een rijtje - jouw ouders duidelijk wel.

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  2. I wonder if that's the film I showed to my classes? I don't think so, but I did show one after film. Oh, I think it was called Testament. Maybe.

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  3. Absolutely not spoiled. Traumatized is the more likely term. And for some reason I am not being able to reply to your encouraging words on my blog. So I will leave it here. Thanks for reminding me that there will be life after packing called looking for what I packed. At my age I will probably not be able to find something and assume it was one of the many things the did not make the cut to be kept! Keep up your wonderful blog posts.

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  4. Definitely not spoiled!! There has to be some room in this world for sensitive young people -- and even older people. Believe me as a past principal, not all children are the same and some need more gentle, thoughtful and insightful handling. Ours was a private Christian school. We had more than our share of children who could not handle the rough and tumble of regular school and the unimaginable bullying that went along with it. Our schools are way too large and children are too often just numbers. The Lord does not intend for us to be treated like one of a pack!

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  5. I remember watching that movie with Robbie, who is a couple of years older than you.
    After we watched it, he asked me what I would do if I knew a bomb would be hitting Vancouver in a couple of hours (we lived in the Vancouver suburbs then) and I said I'd grab him and drag him into my car, then head for the Rocky Mountains. Aside from the difficulty of dragging a 15-year-old brother, which he very sweetly didn't mention, there were other difficulties.
    "We wouldn't get very far," he said.
    "I know," I replied, "but I would have to try. If I were alone, I probably wouldn't try to fight the traffic by myself, but because you're here, I'd have to try. There is an incredibly strong instinct I call my Mother Bear Instinct, which drives an adult to try to save the child."
    Of course he now understands it, because he has a 12-year-old and a 10-year old, but at the time I'm sure he thought I was crazy. He didn't say so, though.
    And as for you being spoiled, no. I agree with Janice, I think you were traumatized and needed to be treated like a trauma victim.
    K

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  6. Hari OM
    Mara - albeit 12 years older, I too experienced such vivid dreams; in relation to the actions of the CND in the 60s. I can still feel that terror. Then one day, shortly before I shifted to Australia (1989) in Edinburgh, for some reason, someone decided to check the air-raid sirens.

    Who knew we even still had such things??!!! Coming out of sleep to that unearthly screeing...cannot even begin to be described.

    What, I want to know, did your questioner think was the 'spoiling' in here? Parents protecting their child?

    Tsk. Hugs, YAM xx

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  7. No you were not spoiled, just some scary circumstances that happened to you. It scared me too!

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  8. No! Oh, my goodness, if Lily and Emmy did not want to watch a movie like that, I would not force them to either! I think your parents did a good thing. :)

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Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!