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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: How you see yourself at the age of 5...
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Skinny little legs, baggy shorts, looking a bit like Linus (in Schultz' Peanuts cartoons), and standing on the footbridge, near Our House, crossing over the Tonbridge to Hastings main line - still all-steam in those wonderful days!
O, and knowing that my red-and-cream Dinky Toys double-deck bus was the same colour as those running in Brighton (where Auntie Ethel and Uncle Tom lived).
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Aravis
Shipmate
# 13824
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Posted
I'm not sure of the exact age, but in infant school (so aged between 5 and 7) I remember wanting to be a minister. After a few years I realised they were all male (at least in the Baptist congregations near us, and the Anglican churches my aunts went to) so dropped the idea. I can still remember my first attempt at making up a sermon!
I also wanted to be a farmer's wife, thanks to Enid Blyton. I thought you mainly had to be nice to animals and hunt for hens' eggs.
I decided I would probably not want to be a teacher as I was already frustrated that the other children in my class couldn't explain anything and were very slow learning to read. Also the girls were incredibly girly and talked in a "cute" way that was so alien I tended to avoid them. I got on better with some of the boys and didn't really make friends with other girls till I was about 8.
Posts: 689 | From: S Wales | Registered: Jun 2008
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
My husband, whose name is Stephen, was called David for his entire kindergarten year.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I don't remember my 5th birthday at all, as I hadn't even started school by then. The Demon Headmistress (for so she was) deemed that all children in our village should start school ON their 5th birthday. I had a few days' grace, as mine fell in the holidays. I think my world started and ended at the top of the garden.
Am still a stay-at-home type of person. I have been abroad, but they have funny money and drive on the wrong side of the road, and talk funny. Best to keep in my comfort zone...
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Rossweisse
High Church Valkyrie
# 2349
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
I said as an organist - I am NOT a nerd.
My apologies. I meant it as a compliment.
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I'm not dead yet.
Posts: 15117 | From: Valhalla | Registered: Feb 2002
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
I would quite like to know enough about anything to qualify as a nerd. Or is nerdishness an attitude rather than a body of knowledge?
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
posted by Rossweisse quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
I said as an organist - I am NOT a nerd. quote:
My apologies. I meant it as a compliment.
Really?
Some dictionary definitions:- A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious. (OED)
- a boring or unpopular person, esp one obsessed with something specified (Collins)
- a person, especially a man, who is not attractive and is awkward or socially embarrassing: (Cambridge Dictionary)
- an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits (Merriam-Webster)
I could go on... but that might be nerdish, eh?
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
I would quite like to know enough about anything to qualify as a nerd. Or is nerdishness an attitude rather than a body of knowledge?
It's an attitude IMHO. The major characteristic is not that one knows everything about a single, narrow topic, but that one doesn't express any interest in anything else.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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roybart
Shipmate
# 17357
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Posted
Coming late to this topic. Probably my first vivid memory is of a time when I was 4. My mother was had planned a birthday party for me, and part of that was to be a treasure hunt.
I see myself on the driveway, before anyone had arrived. I glimpse something badly hidden under the garage drainpipe. It's a small cylinder toy -- when you push it away it returns to you.
When the treasure hunt began I ran to that toy and "found" it. It was mine! Then I realized that this was actually quite a stupid and almost useless toy, and I was stuck with it.
I remember this vividly because I gave a lot of thought to this in later childhood years. I guess you could say that I brooded on things like dishonesty, greed, and the wages of sin, though I had no words for this. This was 3 years before what Roman Catholics conventionally consider to be the "age of reason."
Two things remain from this experience: an ingrained cash-register honesty (about small things, at least), and an aversion to celebrating my birthday.
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"The consolations of the imaginary are not imaginary consolations."
-- Roger Scruton
Posts: 547 | From: here | Registered: Sep 2012
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Rossweisse
High Church Valkyrie
# 2349
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
...I could go on... but that might be nerdish, eh?
I have already apologized for giving unintentional offense.
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I'm not dead yet.
Posts: 15117 | From: Valhalla | Registered: Feb 2002
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Just in the same way as British soldiers in the First World War adopted the nickname Old Contemptibles there are quite a few people who today see 'Nerd' as a name to be proud to own. It means that you have a passion for a subject.
As I nearly wrote of the PE thread, my nephew would be most hurt to learn that swimming for eight hours a week stopped you from being a nerd. He has always owned the titles 'geek' and 'nerd' as does his sister. Even her mum refers to 'H and her nerdy friends' in a tone of pride.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Garfield went up to the teacher to ask how to spell the word 'damn'. She replied D-A-M thinking he was writing a story about the reservoir. He then went back to his desk and wrote 'The Dam thing didn't work'.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Pangolin Guerre
Shipmate
# 18686
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Posted
/tangent/
quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
My husband, whose name is Stephen, was called David for his entire kindergarten year.
Oh, good Lord. I am Steven, and I get David all the time. After doing some linguistics, I came up with a thesis:
Steven and David have very similar pattern of CCVCVC vs CVCVC (C=consonant, V=vowel). In germanic languages, generally, we seem to listen to consonant sounds for meaning. Steven and David have a dental dental stop at or near the beginning [t/d], an intervocalic voiced dental labial fricative in the middle [v], and end with a consonant (though of different types). So, English speakers are not being careless or inconsiderate, just falling prey to how we listen. An Old English professor of mine found the analysis quite plausible.
When I was baptised i took the name David for different reasons, though, by then, I was very comfortable with David as part of my name.
[ 09. February 2018, 17:41: Message edited by: Pangolin Guerre ]
Posts: 758 | From: 30 arpents de neige | Registered: Nov 2016
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sabine
Shipmate
# 3861
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Posted
When I was 5 I walked three blocks to school alone in New York City and then home again at the end of the school day. I was always on time in the morning (except once, which I'll describe in a bit), but I loved the freedom to take the long way home in the afternoon, exploring such things as the park I was told not to go into, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and all sorts of bodegas.
One morning, I got stuck alone in the elevator of our building. By the time I was rescued and walked to school, I was very late. My teacher told me that she didn't believe my explanation and gave me a note to take home. My parents sorted it out with her, but I was left with a sense that my wanderings should remain things pondered but not discussed around the dinner table.
Decades later, I shared with my mother some of the things I did. She reacted to each one with an astounded "You did not!"
I studied anthropology later in life. Coincidence? You tell me.
sabine
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"Hunger looks like the man that hunger is killing." Eduardo Galeano
Posts: 5887 | From: the US Heartland | Registered: Dec 2002
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Rossweisse
My apologies.
It has been pointed out to me that the term "nerd" is not necessarily viewed as a pejorative elsewhere than the UK.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Rossweisse
High Church Valkyrie
# 2349
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
My apologies.
It has been pointed out to me that the term "nerd" is not necessarily viewed as a pejorative elsewhere than the UK.
Thank you, L'organist. I appreciate it.
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I'm not dead yet.
Posts: 15117 | From: Valhalla | Registered: Feb 2002
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Chorister in most primary schools in NZ children start school on their 5th birthday, although legally they don't have to start until they are 6, many people don't realise this).
My 5 year old self was a bolshie kid who refused to go and sit in the corner for being naughty. I wish I had kept some of that strength.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
In NSW schools, a child could start at the beginning of the year if fifth birthday was before 30/6. My eldest was born in September and had to wait till the next yer. If ever a boy was ready early, he was it. Lots of stimulation needed in those months.
My judgment as to his readiness was borne out after he had been in Kindie for about a week. Loads more enrolments than expected left kindie teachers struggling. He was promoted to first grade after about a week at school. He coped just fine.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
At 4 1/2 years old I was desperate to follow my elder sister to school. When I got there, and found myself in a reading class, as you do, I remember asking the girl next to me what "the" was in our reading books. The answer was "she." Wrong. I gave up asking for advice from that point on, at least from my peers.
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I was living in South Africa, not due to start school for another two years. My Dad was a minister in SOWETO so we spent a lot of time in the townships and out in the ‘bush’ playing with the local children.
An idyllic childhood, I was very sheltered. I didn’t know there was such a thing as cruelty until I was past seven years old. I remember crying all night when I found out not everyone was as kind and caring as my parents and the people who surrounded us.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
Since shows like, "The Big Bang," "nerd," has not only lost most of it's weight as an insult, it's the latest way to humble-brag. For example, "Oh, I was such a math nerd in high school," says, "I was really smart in school."
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by sabine:
When I was 5 I walked three blocks to school alone in New York City and then home again at the end of the school day.
You did not!
When my son started kindergarten, we parents were all getting a note from the school saying the kids were old enough to walk to school by themselves. As it turned out, I walked with my son because I decided to volunteer as an aide to the sixth grade teacher at the same time.
A group of little ones attached themselves to me like magnets (they knew they shouldn't have been alone.) Hardly a day went by that one of them didn't start to follow a precious colored picture out into the street, or just fall in that direction from jostling.
I didn't do the herding work all by myself though, I had superior help from a collie who lived along the route and took it on herself to walk between the kids and the street. She was wonderful and continued her mission long after I had moved on.
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
We went to and from school on our own right from the start. Because we had to cross the road to get the bus home from prep school, my mum carefully showed us the lollipop lady a hundred yards or so in the wrong direction from the bus stop, and told me to cross with her. An instruction I carefully ignored for six years, probably contributing to several near heart attacks for drivers.
[ 13. February 2018, 10:39: Message edited by: jacobsen ]
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
I always walked to school alone after the first day with no issues, apart from the day I got half way and ran home screaming because I thought I saw a snake on the pavement that hissed at me (It wasn't a snake, it was a fur collar that had become detached from someones coat)
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kitten:
I always walked to school alone after the first day with no issues
I was 6 when I moved to a different school, and had to take a bus. On a few occasions, I was slow changing out of my sports clothes at the end of the day, and so arrived in front of the school in time to see the back end of the bus heading down the road.
One time I had followed the bus some considerable distance down the road before I realized:
- I didn't actually know the way home. I more or less knew where to go, but everything looked different on foot.
- When I didn't arrive on the bus, my mother was likely to understand that I had missed the bus, and with some grumbling drive to school to get me.
- Given that I can't walk as fast as the bus, this is going to present some difficulties
So I went back to school and waited...
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Twilight
Puddleglum's sister
# 2832
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
An instruction I carefully ignored for six years, probably contributing to several near heart attacks for drivers.
We lived on a hill with a woods between our house and Route 35, where the cars went by at about 90 MPH in those days. As a young teen, when I would go down to check the mail, I would run down the woods path at top speed, then do a grand jete over the ditch that was between the woods and the road and land on point next to the mailbox.
I am truly appalled now to think of the deadly pile up I could have caused if a driver had seen me sailing out of the woods just as he approached.
{ I could never convert to Catholic, my first confession would take weeks.)
Posts: 6817 | Registered: May 2002
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Rossweisse
High Church Valkyrie
# 2349
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Posted
When I was in kindergarten, our house had a view of the hill down which I would descend to school, or ascend from same, under my mother's unseen eye. When we moved, in first grade, I was on my own. There were some older children who would deign to make sure we weren't kidnapped, though.
I only remember being taken to or picked up from school when there was a large project to be schlepped, or an appointment right afterward. Those were different times.
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I'm not dead yet.
Posts: 15117 | From: Valhalla | Registered: Feb 2002
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
Yes, when I started school, my mother took me for the first day certainly, and I don't know how much longer after that, but very soon I was taken to school by my friend, a big girl of 10.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I remember walking alone to kindergarten four blocks away from my house. Actually I frequently fell in step with other children, but there were no adults supervising us.
This was in a residential neighborhood in 1939 in Washington, D.C.
Moo
c
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Fredegund
Shipmate
# 17952
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Posted
Another one who walked from the start. Not more than .5 mile, but I told myself long sagas on the way. Never occurred to me that I probably looked mad. (nothing's changed, then)
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Pax et bonum
Posts: 117 | From: Shakespeare's County | Registered: Jan 2014
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