Writer’s Workshop: Childhood Obsessions (Plus A Teeny Tiny Bonus Story)
by Jenners • 08/18/2010 • My Childhood, Writers Workshop • 24 Comments
This week, I’m choosing two prompts. (But don’t worry … one is really really short.)
Prompt 2: This one time I was sleeping and… (inspired by Jennifer W. from Momma Made It Look Easy).
I WAS STUNG BY A BEE! (A true … and very short … story.)
Prompt 3: Things you oddly obsessed about as a child. (inspired by Wendy from Like My Baby).
- Staring at my eyes in the mirror for hours (OK … really maybe 10 minutes but still … that is a long time to stare in the mirror). I noticed how the black part of eyes kept getting bigger and smaller. Convinced I had discovered the reason for my poor eyesight and need to wear glasses, I went running to tell my parents about my scientific breakthrough. (They had a good laugh at my expense.)
- Moving a loose tooth in and out of its spot when it was hanging on by a thread. So gross.
- Determining how many licks it took to get to the Tootsie Roll in a Tootsie Pop. I’d work and work on this and could never see it through. (Also, I would unroll and eat the sticks when I was done. I was a weird kid.)
- Wondering whether my fan letter to John Travolta would stand out from the millions of others that were sent to him. It began “Dear John, I’m not like all the other girls who write to you…”
- Determining what my stage name should be when I became a famous actress. I wasted hours thinking about this. I finally settled on Ginger North. (I also decided I would marry a man named Alex North.)
- Wondering whether I was being called by God to be a nun. I seriously worried about this for much longer than I should have. That’s Catholic school for ya! (And, yes, I would think about being a nun and what my stage name should be during the same time period. I had no problem holding two very contradictory career directions in my mind at the same time.)
- Attempting to move a rock using only The Force after seeing Star Wars. I was convinced I could do it if I just really really believed.
- Wondering if there was any chance I would be getting real chocolate any time soon. During the bulk of my childhood, we did not have chocolate in the house because my mother believed it made my one brother hyper. So we suffered for years under the Carob Regime. (If you don’t know what carob is, evil people try to pass off carob as a substitute for chocolate. I can assure you, it is NOT anything remotely like chocolate except it is brown.) I truly believe that my chocoholism can be traced directly to this.
- Agonizing over which Beatle was the best. Coming into Beatlemania a full 10 years after everyone else, I decided on the obvious: Paul. (It should have been John. Possibly George. But never Ringo. No … never Ringo.)
Still obsessing over chocolate years after the Carob Regime ended,
I tried that Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop thing over and over again to no avail. I found a tee shirt with that owl on it a few years ago and it's one of my favorites. i also have shirts with Smokey the forest ranger bear and Woody Woodpecker, too, but I digress.
You sure had some strange childhood obsessions
I think that's what makes you so amusing. The nun thing is weird but I had the same thing going on too. I also went to Catholic school so maybe that's the root of that weird obsession. I wonder what it would have been like if you had decided to become a nun…a nun with the stage name, Ginger North. Now that would've made life interesting 
You're still kind of a weird kid. No offense, of course.
Say, am I the only male who reads this thing?
carob was SOOO gross. Maybe it has to do with the bag my aunt had of carob that was FILLED with ants that made me swear to never eat it again.
Ginger North is a great stage name for a nun.
Luckily for me, my mom loved chocolate too and if the spirit struck, she would whip up a batch of fudge in lightning speed time. Loved it! Carob . . . yech, shudder
Love your possible career paths. Too funny. I am so so sorry your childhood was chocolate deprived. The thing my mom made best was treats: fudge, brownies, these huge chocolate eggs at Easter Time…mmmm
You ATE the stick of the Tootsie Pop?? Really?? Wow… someone really should have just given you some chocolate. Poor child.
arrrghh CAROB! That stuff is NASTY!
And I think you should now sign everything as Ginger! And call Mr Jenner's Alex…those are awesome names!
Oh no, not carob! which tastes nothing like chocolate, nothing!
You know, I had the Tootsie Pop obsession, too. And you know what? Every time I counted, I came out with a different number!
I used to obsess about Donny Osmond in the same way . . . if only I could be the fan he wanted to be with
My mom was the carob queen. She made carob crackle, carob toffee, carob covered cherries . . . . so I can relate! Loved reading about your obsessions.
I made a post about using books for my daughter's wedding, you mentioned once you wanted to see how it turned out.
My mom made us give up sugared cereals as a child, particularly things with colors, like Fruit Loops because of Red Dye #2 scare. As a consequence I am much less stringent about what cereals my kids eat and will tolerate some mildly unhealthy ones. Hey. At least they are eating. Have a yogurt and a cup of strawberries with those frosted flakes, will ya?
Chocoholics unite! My mother hid bags of chocolate chips all over the house. In cupboards, tucked in corners. You could open up the linen closet and might find one in there. Always nearby to pop a few in your mouth. But when you wanted some for a recipe, they were never to be found. And I am convinced that she moved them, and also that she forgot where she hid them!
Enjoy the day!
Erin
You have a great memory, or awesome diaries to pull from. I do remember trying to move things with my mind, never worked for me. Or start a fire like in Firestarter, lol.
A bee stung you in bed…now I will be thinking about that tonight as I crawl into bed.
I've never tried carob and I am not going to start now.
The eating of the sticks is overkill, just so you know.
I tried to use the Force, too. It never, ever worked. I thought it was because I didn't really BELIEVE!
You used to eat the stick?! I had to pause and think about that for a while. Crazy kid!
And I am horribly sorry that your mother abused you by refusing chocolate- I shudder at the thought!
Oh yes, and I'm sorry about the bee.
So Ringo didn't rock your world? LOL. A childhood without chocolate…I don't think I would have survived.
My mom used to get bulk carob treats somewhere. The worst were carob-covered peanuts where the peanuts weren't even roasted or salted or anything. I think they were just boiled so they had no flavor and they were a little chewy. I had forgotten about that until now but just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.
The younger me loved Paul but the older me appreciates George.
This post reassured me that I am not alone in the pursuit of weird things to think about!
Thank you! The Mister had me convinced that I was a freakazoid!
I remember hating carob as a kid because it's nothing like chocolate! I now enjoy it, although I no longer think of it as a chocolate substitute. (I'm definitely a chocoholic too!)
This post just made me love you even more.
And I always wanted to be Ginger too.
I have no idea what I was thinking when I came up with that first prompt and now I feel like I have to write something about it since it was my idea. I'm stuck.
Ha!! "The Carob Regime" was definitely an evil plan… linked to thoughts of suicide and organic gardening. The only cool carob
I ever found was a round orb that came in a map of the world wrapper. I tried for years to get the wrapper off all in one piece.