Often when preparing a column, I find myself wondering what it might be that readers want to know about the ‘now and then’ times I remember. Is it something they can relate to, something they are familiar with… or something they never knew about in the first place?

What I discovered recently is the real problem with my columns lies in the fact most of my memory stories are of short stature. A story is usually expected to deliver lengthy details or conclusions not always included in my little excerpts. Filler content is a solution that comes to mind, but I don’t find it a pleasingly acceptable choice.

That I am bothered by this problem is only when occasionally a listener to my oral stories will beg me to write about it so they can rerun it in their mind later.

So, with that thought in mind, I have decided to string more than one snippet of a story in some (but not all) of my columns and to not be concerned if they are or are not always related to each other.

We’ll see in, short order, how that works in the doing.

The first snippet that comes to mind right now is how we adults (some of us) do not realize how we look to children of a small size; say at 3 to 5 years of age.

Well… I remember! My mother looked like she was all legs. Not really, but when she handed me, at 4 years old, the Brownie camera and told me to take a picture of her to send to her sister, I peed my pants. I couldn’t get her focused so her head was included and I suddenly noticed how big her feet were. It came out fine and years later when I look at that snapshot, I can still remember how she looked like a giant to me that day.

Another time, at about the same age, we were in a grocery store in our little town of Lone Tree.

I had wrapped myself securely in mommy’s skirts as a woman with huge eyes (obviously magnifying glasses) began asking if I was an only child. My mother answered yes and the women said, “She’ll be spoiled.” And, laughed.

I quickly remembered just that morning mommy had opened a fruit jar of food, said it was spoiled and daddy had told her he would dump it out in the hog lot.

Needless to say, my day did not go well until I was reassured, repeatedly, I was not going to be tossed out when we got home.

Sometimes our actions don’t always ring true to their intent when delivered innocently but can bear unrealized impact just the same.