October 19, 2010
Dear Clusterflock: Obsessions of your early years
Did you have any? Perhaps up to the age of 14 or 16?
I had two that spring to mind. The first is centred around swimming. I loved to swim and was a strong swimmer. I was particularly good at swimming underwater and used to sit holding my breath to train myself to swimming further and further. I think the furthest I managed was about 50 yards. I found the sensation of my lungs exploding kinda put me off of pursuing this as an adult!
The other was my obsession with eating and the desire to be in the Guinness Book Of Records. I wanted to hold the record for eating pickled onions and would eat as many as my parents would allow in preparation. The other eating obsession was stones, pits as you guys call them I think. I wanted to swallow as big a stone as I could – my aim was to swallow a peach stone – I came close a few times, but, as you can imagine it induced a vomit! Every time I eat a peach it flits through my head, should I try again? Thankfully common sense kicks in.
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Phil, I’ll have to think about this to see if I can recall any such obsessions. For now, I am simply delighting in yours!
Okay, I’ll probably never hear the end of this, but around the age of 12-13, I was obsessed with Charles Dickens. To the point that I was convinced his ghost was in our house.
Fucking 19th century.
Does the World Wrestling Federation count? A group of my friends (small group) we must have been in the 11 & 12 range, created our own wrestling crew. We called ourselves Attack Force. Appart from watching the Royal Rumble, we didn’t have any purpose or plan (and we certainly didn’t wrestle).
Also, the Ultimate Warrior was our favorite.
Also, fish poop.
When we were about nine, Melanie and I were obsessed with arctic animals. We formed a club; all you had to do to join was assume the identity of an arctic animal. I was the Caribou. She was the Walrus.
P.S. Who holds the current record for eating pickled onions?
goo goo g’joob
Phil, were you heartbroken when you learned that so many of those records were invented by the people who decided to break them or did it give you hope?
“If that pickled onion record is out of reach, I’ll just set the record for most pickled onions eaten using chopsticks.”
I bet Phil has already gone to bed with a tummy full of pickled onions!
Oh, Michael. You have no idea what you might have started.
I was thinking just the same thing, Cindy.
Excuse me, please. I have to go off and get myself into the Guinness Book of Records. I will report.
Here’s an example.
does my porn stash count? otherwise, bmx.
The Internet, and Kyle Reimer.
oh! painting dungeons & dragons based lead-figures.
Deron, I literally just laughed out loud, really hard.
That never happens. Awesome.
because of the porn or the lead-figures?
The lead figurines. It was just thoroughly unexpected for some reason. You seem cool to me now so I guess I always suspect people were always cool.
seem.
Also, that oh! really adds something. I spewed, too.
I typed it, then I thought of all the weird voices you can do, and let it stand.
Right, Cindy? Like you just FORGET spending meticulous hours painting tiny people so you can play an imaginary game.
“…oh! Oh yeah.”
thank you.
exactly
Early obsessions: when I was three or four I discovered the glory of fireworks and matches. Bigger kids were popping them in the street in front of my house. I watched closely for the ones that were duds, and when the boys left I collected them. A boy named Rex showed me how to peel the paper away to get the little pile of silver powder out of it. Then lots of it could be collected to make more ample sounds. (I seem to recall that Deron had a very similar experience!) I also set a grass fire once that required the fire department to come out. I thought that was the end of me, but they just told me to get out of the way. After that it was the creation of weapons that captivated me: spears, bows and arrows, swords–all made from whatever I could find.
Later obsessions (age 9-13): wanting to live off the land like Sam in My Side of the Mountain; reading about such things; then reading about just anything.
Other obsessions (14-16 to early 20s): motorcycles.
Daryl, my early firecracker experience was with model cars and one time in the snow.
I obsessed over blue trash. Literally. I collected it for 7 years, had a ‘show’ at age 22 (cause it was amazing!) and then threw it all away.
Do you have pictures?
Posting comments about blue trash only puts ideas in my head. Thank you.
But first: series of photographs inspired by other people’s memories.