Early Lessons of Life
The December Challenge theme for ActiveRain blogger members is “Who Are You & Your ‘Aha’ Moment - Self-discovery and Personal Growth” This is my fourth entry.
When you are young, you often learn about things that will become more important than you realize during the coming years. My first three blog posts of this series related to my youth while growing up in the Cradock community in Portsmouth, Virginia. This is a continuation of those memories.
When I was young, I was a weight lifter and was very strong for my age. The high school coach recruited me to play football during my freshman year. Those plans lasted a very short time. A severe knee injury ended my football career. I did not know it at the time but the injury would lead to a lifetime of problems with my right knee, including two operations after another fall and injury.
My mother has what was called a "lazy eye" and I have the same condition in my right eye. I have worn eyeglasses since I was a kid but the condition was never corrected and has been a lifetime limitation. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I was a competitive rifle marksman when I was young but always had to shoot left handed because of my vision issues. I was lucky that my optometrist was also a competitive shooter and adjusted my eyeglasses to provide excellent vision in my left eye. I did not know it at the time, but my limited vision would exclude me from military service.
When I was young, my father and some of his friends owned a beach home in Duck, North Carolina. The 16 acres property ran from the sound to the ocean. It was a regular destination for family vacations. The love of the area led to years of enjoyment of visiting places and fishing on the outer banks of the state. I remember a time when we were fishing from the Nags Head pier and could see the Northern Lights. An unusual experience and a positive memory. I surf fished at Cape Hatteras when most of the beach area were still vacant, before the time of the developments since then.
One of the most memorable days of my young life took place on October 4, 1954. I was a senior at the Cradock High School and we had a fire drill. While lined up outdoors, one of my teachers advised me that my mother had given birth to twin girls. Having those younger sisters lead to many new chapters of lifetime experiences over the years.
Thanks for taking time to read about some of my memories.
Happy Holidays!
Thanks to the December Challenge hosts: Lew Corcoran and Patricia Feager.
Comments(9)