Taught

Once when I was very young, I was reading a book in my sister Amy’s room.  The book was an early-reader about a horse, and I came across the word ‘content.’  I didn’t know what it meant, so I asked Amy.  She told me it is being happy with what you have, and not wanting or hoping for anything more (something like that anyway), and I got it.  I don’t know why this particular little experience stuck in my brain and stayed with me.  Why do I even remember it?  I don’t know. 

I remember one time I was peeling carrots, starting at the very end and peeling all the way to the other end.  It was fairly slow because I didn’t want to peel my fingers.  My dad came in and said “This is how you do it so you can do it fast.”  And he had me hold one end of the carrot, and quickly peel the bottom half, then flip the carrot and hold the other end and peel the other half.  You can go a lot faster because you don’t have to worry about your fingers.  And I still peel carrots that way to this day.

I remember my brother Derek taking me under a basketball hoop and teaching me to make lay-ups.  I’ve never been very good at them, but when I think about what Derek said about aiming for the corner of the box on the backboard, I do a lot better.

I remember my mom sitting with me, showing me how to write 5’s.  She said, “Once there was a little boy (the line going down) who got fat (the bottom curve) so his mother bought him a new hat (top line).”  That’s how I showed Jethro and Hazel how to make their 5’s, and Hazel even remembers being shown that from Grandma Rasmussen too.  I also remember my mom teaching me to make a knot in thread by wrapping it around your finger, rolling it off with your thumb, and pulling it tight.  She had me practice several times.  I also remember her showing me how to tuck in the edges of the sheets when you make a bed to make them look neat.  She said her sister Denise had worked at a hotel in Waterton (I think) and shown her the nice ‘hotel’ way of doing it.

Three people taught me to drive a stick-shift.  First, a guy I liked took me out in his parent’s jeep one time, but I don’t remember really getting it before we had to go back home.  Then my brother-in-law Jared took me in his car to the big parking lot behind the Minot State Univ. stadium and very patiently had me start and stop (or TRY starting and stopping) over and over for a LONG time till I got it.  Then my dad took me in our car Pinky, whose clutch was a LOT stiffer than Jared’s car, and I remember when I backed out, I really didn’t want to kill it and I ended up ZOOOOOMING out of there and going for quite a ways before I finally remembered that I could use the brakes.  My dad is not easily distressed—very good for teaching kids how to drive.  Thanks Jared and Dad for teaching me, because for some reason I’m very glad that it wasn’t Brett teaching me how.  ;)

I have this really fuzzy memory from when I was really little of bathing with either Megan or Amy (that’s how fuzzy it is), and she was shaving her legs and she told me, “This is how you do it—bend your knee like this to do the top of the knee, and straighten your leg like this to do the underside of your knee.  Now you’ll know how to do it when you get big enough.”  And for some reason I remembered, and knew just how to do it when I started shaving.

I also remember a sister (I do know which one, but will keep it anonymous just to be sneaky) teaching me that you can try to cover up hickeys with make-up, but it doesn’t work very well.

I wonder what things my kids will remember me teaching them.

What do you remember being taught?