Every time I bend over the kitchen sink to wash my hair, with my eyes closed, operating on rote mode, a random past memory will flash into my head. They are random and unexpected. Sometimes the same one will show up several times, but for the most part it will be some crazy moment from my past. Today:
My sister was five and I was seven. We lived in Smithers on the Government Experimental Farm, along with several other families. There were a large number of kids living on that farm. One day, a bunch of us, including my sister, were far over across the farm on the other side of the farm away from our house. I don't remember exactly what we were doing but my sister was causing us trouble and she had started to cry. I was really annoyed. Firstly I should explain one factor here. We belonged to a very strict religion, some people call it a cult, and this was in the fifties, so swearing, even saying "Gee" was totally verboten. I can still see her standing a little over from me, in her little blue outdoor outfit, crying. I turned on her and yelled, " You are just an A. S.. S.!!!" I spelled it because she couldn't spell yet and even as angry as I was, I couldn't bring myself to say that totally verboten word outloud. She took off, crying for home.
A few hours later I headed home. Upon arriving in the toasty warm kitchen, my mother marched me into the bedroom and ripped into me for calling my sister an ass. I was royally walloped and left to my own misery in the bedroom. That little monkey had walked all the way home (quite a distance) crying all the way, and upon her arrival in the toasty warm kitchen, asked innocently, "Mommy what does A.S.S. spell?"
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