Children's minds!

Talk about anything with your fellow Chow Chow regulars.

Moderator: chowadmin

Post Reply
User avatar
Judy Fox
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 6320
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:49 am
Location: Cheshire, On The Island.(But always wishing she was back home in Wales)

Children's minds!

Post by Judy Fox »

This post is the result of a conversation Fred and I had last Saturday evening after we had watched the Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall, on television.
It got us talking about war veterans and so on and Fred told me again about his grandfather who lost a leg in the First World War. He had a wooden leg which he strapped on to his stump and he carried on working when the war was over.
Fred said that he and his brothers and his cousins used to ask him what happened to his leg and he told them that it got wood-worm and had to be chopped off. Like most old soldiers, he would never talk about the war and what went on.
Fred said they believed him - they did not stop to think that he would not have got wood-worm in his real leg - it was only as they got older that they realised that.
Similarly, when our children were small Fred told them that the tooth missing from the upper left hand side of his mouth was taken out so that he could fit his pipe in more easily. Like small children do, they believed him even though I told them not to listen to him as he was teasing them. :lol: It wasn't until I was in town with her about ten years ago and she wanted to buy Fred a new pipe for Christmas. We went into the lovely little tobacco shop where all sorts of pipes and tobacco are sold and she told the gentleman whose shop it is that she wanted a certain type of stem so that he could fit it into the gap in his teeth! She could not understand the odd look she was getting from him and only realised when she looked at me in fits of laughter that she realised she had been mistaken for years. :lol:
And when I was little and lived in rural Wales, we were thrilled when it was announced that the Queen had bestowed the title of Prince of Wales on the young Prince Charles. The song, God Bless The Prince of Wales was sung in our village hall at the party that was held and one phrase in that song is ".....and let the prayer re-echo, God Bless The Prince of Wales". It puzzled me for years as we knew the words to this song and many others but we had not seen them written down so my understanding of the phrase was ".......and let the prairie echo, God Bless the Prince of Wales". I used to wonder what the Prince of Wales had to do with the prairie - I knew about the prairie from school and books etc. - never fathomed it out but just assumed that there must be a connection. Again, in one of our Harvest hymns the line "........went forth the reapers band".
When we helped with the harvest on the nearby farms, there was no band - :? - but maybe somewhere else there was a band! I knew what reapers were - but not a band to lead them! It was only when I grew older did I understand.
Just goes to show what can get muddled in a child's mind.
Image
(Thank you Sweetpea for my new banner.)
reddog
Rank 1
Rank 1
Posts: 356
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:09 am
Location: Butler, Pa.

Re: Children's minds!

Post by reddog »

The following has been muddled in my mind for roughly 60 years. I grew up in the country and from time to time people would drop cats off along the dirt road that ran by our home. Now and then one of the cats would find its way to our home. When we were small children we’d ask our dad it if was a boy or girl kitty so we could choose a proper name for it. Our dad had told us he could tell by simply looking at the bottom of the paws. He’d pick the cat up turn it over so that the paws were facing him and then say tell us what it was. It wasn’t until I was a little older that it dawned on me that he looked a little further south towards to tail.

I’ve had fun with my daughter, friends and people through the years with this muddled wisdom. :)

About a month ago I took Whitby to the vet for a check-up. While I was talking with receptionist and lady came in with a cat in a carrier. She had found the cat in a field beside her home and was planning on keeping it. I asked her what it’s name was and she said she hadn’t decided yet as she did know if it was a male or female. I couldn’t help myself. With a straight face, I asked her if she had looked at the bottom of it’s paws. Both the lady and the receptionist looked at me and then asked “You can tell by doing that?” By now several of the vet staff had over heard our conversation and their curiosity was piqued. I told them that you usually can and then went on to explain the procedure. After telling them how to hold the cat and look at the paws I did then tell them that you do have to look a little further south towards the tail. :lol:
User avatar
Judy Fox
Rank 4
Rank 4
Posts: 6320
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:49 am
Location: Cheshire, On The Island.(But always wishing she was back home in Wales)

Re: Children's minds!

Post by Judy Fox »

That is brilliant Red, just shows how a child believes! :lol:
When I was 6 yrs. old, my mother little sister and I went to live in Malta for two years to join my father who was in the Royal Navy and his ship was based there.
We arrived there just after Christmas and the following October 21st. i.e. Trafalgar Day, my father told me that he was going to take me to the Barracka Gardens ( sp?) because the whole fleet was in Valetta Harbour and it was dressed overall because it was my mother's birthday. I remember being thrilled and off we went and sure enough, the whole fleet was there and as he said, dressed overall. That evening he took me back to hear Sunset being sounded and the flags lowered. It was truly beautiful. A Royal Marine band on the quayside, another on my father's ship, H.M.S. Glory - an aircraft carrier and buglers on the other ships. I was absolutely thrilled and believed it was because of my mother's birthday - after all, my father was the Master-at-Arms of H.M.S. Glory! :D
The following year, the same thing happened and again I was so proud.
When we returned home to Wales a couple of months later I told my grandfather and he agreed that would be so. He had been an engineering officer in The Merchant Navy! It wasn't until I was about 14 or 15 yrs. old that I realised the truth! I can still see that wonderful sight in my minds eye though. \:D/ \:D/
Image
(Thank you Sweetpea for my new banner.)
Post Reply