Greetings great minds!
Happy weekend!!
Happy children's day to you all!
We are pencils in the hand of the Creator. For today, I take that to mean we are all little ones in God's hands. At some point in our existence, we were children. We have only grown and developed to be fathers, mothers, gentlemen and ladies in the universe. While we have outgrown the age of children, our creator still sees us as children and most importantly, each of us have the memories of our childhood which are peculiar us. Based on this premise, I shall use this Saturday being children's day to share with you some of my childhood memories.
My childhood was great. I lived those years partly with my parents, and both grandmothers.
At the time I came of age to know things and became aware of my being, the first thing I remembered was that I was critically ill. My mom and Dad took me for treatment in the village, I didn't improve so I was taken to a prophet who prophesied that a meal be cook in the house and when everyone has eaten, they should clean their dirty hands on me instead of going to wash them. I vividly remembered how each of my siblings cleaned their hands on me. I am not sure I got healed after that spiritual exercise. I was taken to a medical hospital in a town farther from my village. It was there I got healed after proper medical treatment.
I remember when my siblings and I would swim and play at the bank of the river for a long at a very tender age. It takes the caution of the elderly ones to make us leave.
As children then, we were forbidden to eat outside. I mean in our neighbours' places as it was an offense to our parents. I was with my paternal grandma at a time when I and one of my half brother went and ate in an old woman's house who our grandma has warned us not to eat. When we were done eating, we came and told our grandma, she was angry. So in order to punish us, she took us to the river (my village is a riverine community) and threw us at the middle river. At that time, I was about five years or so. This was a time we could only play around at the bank of the river because we were afraid of going to the middle which was deep. My grandma expected us to swim to the bank of the river. She paddled back to the bank and watched us. I could only struggle to the bank because I hand not gathered enough confidence to swim then. It was a frightening experience.
In those days, parents take it upon themselves to properly train their wards how to swim.
My stepmother did one of those swimming training for me and some of my half brothers. She took us to the middle of the river. One after the other, she throws us in the water and moves the canoe away and watch each person swim to the canoe. Anyone who struggles to do so, she extends the paddle to the person to have a grab of it. She then draws the person to the canoe. This was how I was taught to swim.
When we became very confident swimming across the river, we would swim and play in the river for hours without getting tired. If elderly ones are not around to caution us, we leave when we are satisfied.
Those were days I spent with my paternal grandmother.
I also spent a some years or years with my maternal grandmother. When my Mom left for higher education, she left I and my siblings with her mother but at some point, I went to stay with my father's mother while my siblings stayed at the other side.
Because it was a village, we could visit and some times sleep over.
Many times I visited my siblings, I stayed with them for weeks before returning. I was a little stubborn in those days but not anymore. One of those times I was with them, I had a misunderstanding with my little sister. I had a knife while she had a stick with her. I dared to throw the knife at her, she said I couldn't do that. I threw the knife and it hit her with the very sharp and painted end. Blood gushed out, the situation was taken care of but when my grandma came, I was reported. I was scolded and flogged by her. My Dad did same when I was reported to him as he came to see how we faired.
While we stayed at the village, I was with my maternal grandmother when a war broke out between my village and the neighboring one. The whole village had to leave their houses and travel to internal villages. My siblings and I had to travel with grandma on canoe. She had her canoe, we had ours. We travelled very far to settle and lived in a village she usually go to fish. That was where we lived until Dad located us and brought us with him to a better place where we could attend school.
When Mom was done with her studies, she came and took us to be with her in a town where we could access better education. I was nine when Mom took us to Ore, the town I spent the rest days of my childhood. Even though I attended school while I was with my Dad, I had to repeat a class in my new school to help me learn better. My siblings and I attended same school but we were in different classes according to our abilities.
With just about a year with them, I started taking first position in my class. I didn't even complete elementary school before I proceeded to secondary/college school. I was a bright student altogether.
My siblings and I blended in our new environment and were very influential among other children. We did all kinds of play- running with tyres, jumping and most especially playing football. I grew up with a memorable childhood that I always cherish. Anytime I look back at those days, some of the pictures we took, I just laugh and thank God for growth.
Those were some of the episodes of my childhood. I wish to read childhood stories of some of you.
I can still refer to my childhood days and remember some key days because my parents made it possible for us to take pictures every festive season or special occasion in the family.
All the pictures I used for this post were taken by me with my phone from an album of pictures we snapped while growing up.
Thanks for reading my post. Do have a wonderful and memorable children's day celebration.