IF you could do a Word Cloud of your childhood...what would show up LARGE?

[hunter]

87. FIRE, electricity, reading, computers, FISH, sunburn, ER.

I read a lot. I was probably encouraged to do that because otherwise I'd be playing with fire.

I never burned anything important. (As much "fools and children" luck as caution, I'm sure.)

It was cool to be a kid then. Chemistry sets were dangerous. Household chemicals any kid could buy were dangerous. (It would have been no problem to set up a meth lab then but there was no point. Plenty of doctors would prescribe amphetamines for weight loss and common complaints.)

The primary sources of protein in our family was fish my dad (and later us older kids) caught, powdered milk, and beans.

I've caught fish that weighed more than I did a few times in my life, but now I feel sort of bad about that. Big fish like that are rare now.

Unfortunately most of these fish were caught just off the Southern California coast, back when sewage including industrial waste was dumped in the ocean with minimal treatment. I'm sure these toxins didn't do my growing body any good.

Beans and cabbage with a smoked ham hock, or split pea soup with a ham hock, were occasional treats.

Eating with two of my great grandmas was not a treat. They'd go out and kill a couple of chickens when we visited. In that respect I was a city kid.

I also got quite a few blistering sunburns as a child so now I have to keep a sharp watch for spooky patches of skin so they can be cut out of me before they try to kill me.

I've got "moderate to severe" asthma. As a child asthma medicines and common attitudes toward the illness were primitive which meant I'd end up in the ER and sometimes the hospital a few times a year. (Last time I visited an ER for asthma was in the mid 'eighties; modern meds are that good!)