Growing up, some frivolous situations gave me stress and anxiety. Definitely insignificant now, but that’s a tribute to the magnificent childhood I had. I was extremely lucky that these silly scenarios made me stressed.
Who remembers the game Perfection and Superfection? The object of each game is to place matching pieces into a tabletop tray before the timer goes off. After 60 seconds, all the pieces pop up and scare the daylights out of you! It was a love/hate relationship. The game was so fun, but the anxiety of the pieces popping up made me so nervous! The key was to practice often so you can beat the timer..lol
I loved watching Saturday morning cartoons and shows. One of my favorites was Land Of The Lost. It was such a weird show, but one of my favorites. The premise was that the Marshall family was trapped in a universe where dinosaurs and other strange creatures existed. Each episode focused on surviving in this bizarre world and finding their way back to the world they left behind.
The Sleestaks were these green lizard creatures with big bulging eyes, hooved feet, and a spine of bones down their backs. When they came onto the scene, they made a noise like the blowing wind. They were scary, and I got so anxious when they appeared on our big, heavy TV console in our family room. I’m sure I hid under Mom’s orange and brown knitted afghan that hung on the back of the couch. Check out a video of the Sleestaks here. Scary, right?
When I attended CH Campbell Elementary School, there was a teeter-totter on the playground outside the kindergarten room doors. Talk about giving me anxiety..I learned you had to really trust the person with whom you would be riding. Cherry Bombs were the worst. Do you remember them? It’s when one person is on the low end of the teeter-totter, puts their feet up, and the other person goes flying down and bumps hard into the ground. It always freaking hurt. It also bruised your feelings if you and the other rider promised not to do Cherry Bombs, and they lied. I never enjoyed anxiety on the playground…
In our backyard on Dartmouth, our Dad built us a sandbox. It was a big square, and it had a little ledge around it where we could sit. It was great at first! We would do all the sandbox stuff..dig, fill buckets, make sand paths, etc. Then the worms showed up. I’m not sure where they came from. They were big and slimy and gave me so much anxiety. Needless to say, I ditched playing in the sandbox because I was afraid and felt uneasy every time I thought about playing in it and digging one up. Ick.
In every stage of life, there are anxieties to overcome. Obviously, some situations are more serious than others! Luckily, most situations come and go. Just remember this…
We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist without the presence of a pie.
-David Mamet
Lol…….
