Friday, February 27, 2009

Time for another story? Ok, here we go.

When I was about six years old, living in a small village in Russia, times were tough for my mother, but not I. I did not know the difference. Sure we could have meat (pork) only once a month, if that, but I did not suffer because of it. I was having too much fun as a young boy. Only later on did I find out that she held down three jobs to just make ends meet.

In any case, on several occasions myself and my best friend Misha (Michael), would be just a bit hungry around lunch time, so off we would go to the railroad tracks, about 2 Km out. We knew from experience that the folks on the trains would for some odd reason drop their trash near our village. Usually we could find quite a few wooden boards (plywood I would guess), in small sizes, the type we could pull back on and use as sleighs (like the plastic ones kids use these days) to barrel down a hill in all abandon!

So, in any case, we would gather up a few of these and bring them to Masha, my 80 year old (? not sure of her age at that time) landlady. She would use them as tops/covers for large pails of... stuff. Don't know what was in them. Could have been dead body parts. (Just joking). Pickled stuff mostly. As a reward she would give us some soup, and on occasion even some sour cream to go with that. And boy were we overjoyed!

I guess today's kids in Canada and the USA are spoiled. We had great fun, good teeth, and good health, for the most part. One day I'll tell you about burning tires. js

Monday March 2nd:

Just got the below award from Jim (Hermit Jim). See his blog for an explanation. Thank you Jim! I am going to follow the rules but some of the bloggers I follow have aleady received the reward from Jim directly.



Ok, this is in progress so am going to start with:

1. Blondie's Blog.

2. Serenity (already awarded and I agree).

3. Gord's Blog.

4. Essence of Life Blog.

7 comments:

Lydia said...

Cool story John.

Ahhh the lives we once had, hm? Seems like another lifetime. I have many memories as a child in Europe also and when I tell me kids they hardly believe me.

Yes, food was not even close to abundant as for the kids here, but who had time to eat? We were so busy running around and exploring.

It's not our kids fault, you know? It is what we provide for them, they're used to it. They could easily have grown up as we did, if there were no choice.

As far as cavities and so on, how many times were you taken to the dentist during those times? I don't even think there was a dentist in our whole town. Right?

Still and all, these stories are fun for us to remember.

There's a song about that...remembering the good things, but not the bad..

I like when you tell stories of your childhoods, always triggers my own memories. Especially the similarities we share.

You have a wonderful day!
:)
lydia

js said...

Hi Lydia, thanks for the post.

Yes, indeed. Brings back old memories, or is it young memories?

Cavities? No such thing when you could not afford sugar or candies! Right? Right.

Yes, when not given a choice? Children will always find ways to have fun. Like taking an old bycicle wheel, just the iron frame, then using a hanger wire, appropriately refashioned and using that to force the wheel to run on a dirt road and looking like we were chasing it! Now that was fun!

Thanks for the post.

Love, johnski

HermitJim said...

Hey John...I enjoyed the story, and you're right! Children seem to make the best of any situation,
We made a lot of our own toys as kids, but we didn't know that we were almost poor, just having fun!

Thanks for sharing!

js said...

You're right on Jim! And thank you for your thoughts. And yes, we were just having fun!

I may one day tell my story of flashing my ass at a passing truck full of workers in the kolhoz! Haha! Or not.

js

HermitJim said...

Hey John...just gave you an award! Come by and pick it up!

js said...

Thanks Jim! Nice! js

CoolDeep said...

hi js,

Well it's a very touching story.. Thanks for sharing it with us and thank you so much for the award, my friend. It's been great knowing you and coming across a kind and genorous human being like you.

As for my childhood, I will not say that I've been lucky, because I don't believe in anything such as luck; instead I must say that Life has been tremendously kind to me and showered me with all the blessings and love that I deserved. Moreover what I have come to realize that everything happens for a reason... irrespective of our liking|disliking of the incidents that occur.

Once again, thank you so much John. I am honoured.

Love & regards,

CoolDeep