Things people said to me Part 1

Now I am assuming this is true for everyone (one can never be sure about one's wiring in comparison to others)...that in your life people say things to you that stick around in your grey matter for a long time, possibly the rest of your life - or at least until the dementia kicks in - for one reason or another. It might be that it's something:
*that makes you think in a new way,
*something particularly clever,
*something exceptionally kind,
*something that made you feel good,
*something amusing,
*something you really do not agree with,
*or even something startlingly mundane that mysteriously lingers,
but whatever the reason, what has been said resists oblivion.

What I thought I would do is try to remember and collect such things and occasionally do a post of what I have gathered and/or remembered.

Here goes, first installment:

Europe has all the history the Americas has the geography
Said by cousin Jenny Anderson who lived in San Francisco for years but is now back in London. I just thought that was neat!

With everyone it's a case of pot luck whether their body can cope with their chosen lifestyle - whatever that lifestyle might be.
Said by Dr Bob among a herd of hedonists (including himself). Not sure why that stayed with me. I think I liked the idea of having a body and playing Russian Roulette with it.

You know what Molly, all you need in life is contacts
Said to me on graduation day by Stuart Dunion who had a terrible speech impediment. What he actually said was, 'All you need in life is sfnonacts.' I am not sure this has proven to be true. I am not big on 'contacts'.

I am happy to pay for experiences - not things
Said by my big sister: Claire Potter in recent years. This is a brilliant life philosophy.

I just tell myself I don't have shares in it.
Said by experienced trainer Jo Adams in describing what she says to herself when she comes across severe resistance from trainees to learning the message she is delivering. Surprisingly helpful for those of us that can get passionate about what we are delivering.

You will be 32 in the year 2000
Said by Jenny Craig my neighbour from babyhood (my sister and her sister alongside her). I must have been about six years old because this was like alien speak. I didn't even know what year it was then and the idea of the year 2000 as a concept was well and truly beyond me. Strangely, I remembered it and it was true. I did turn 32 in the year 2000 - I get it now!!! Perhaps it was the fact I was receiving individualised attention; there wasn't a lot of that about in the 70s!

There are people that are part of a Buddhist religion that meditate upon their death every day.
Said by cousin Alan Etherington (brother to Jenny) when he visited us once. While I have not engaged in this as a practice, I can see how it makes sense and would hopefully have the impact of making sure you cherished life as it should be.

Happiness is someone to love, something to do and something to look forward to.
Said by my late nan: Joyce Margaret Ward. Despite a really tough early life, she did have a generally upbeat and slightly potty demeanour.

They asked a genius that and he answered in about the same amount of time as you did!
Said by my maths teacher in 1980. This is unashamedly a boast but in the desert of self esteem enhancement at the time, I had never felt so good about myself. My maths teacher had to leave the classroom to talk to the headteacher briefly, so to keep us occupied he threw into the room, 'add up all the numbers between 1 and 100'. A couple of seconds later I said 5050. I had just added 100 + 1 to 99 + 2 to 98 etc and then realised 50 would be left over. Maths is taught nowadays in a much better way and I suspect most kids would get that quickly now. However back in 1980, I was a genius. Please don't take that away from me.

I would have thought that by the age of 60 I would have got over acne.
Said by my dad in 1991 as he exited the bathroom after squeezing a whitehead that splurted all over the mirror. This doesn't really do my dad justice as in his time he said a lot that has stuck with me but by 'Things people said to me Part 2' the only way will be up.

Just think, these will travel with me into the year 2010 (I am not planning on dementia just yet). With these as my thrust, the future looks rosy.

Comments

  1. Good idea,just maybe you should number them so that it is easy to refer to them.
    I like the one with All you need is contacts (as in all you need is love)and the definition of Happiness.

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  2. All I can remember that people have said to me is:

    "For a bright girl you lack common sense" (said when I was about 10 and it has really stuck with me! I think it has held me back a bit tbh, I found it quite hard to get past!)

    "Earning £100,000 a year isn't actually that much," said to me by my aunt-in-law in a discussion about taxes (I said anyone earning over 100k a year should be taxed at 50%). This took me aback and was a real glimpse into how some people's lives are very different to mine...

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  3. Hey, solving the 1+2+3+4+5... in that way was pure creative genius. There's 50 things that add up to 100 with the 50 in the middle left to add. That's even different from the standard mathematical proof. Don't worry, no-one can take that away from you :)

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  4. I love this blog entry. Makes me wanna do it. My favourite is nanny joyce's. I think it's spot on. I carry that with me too. I think I have inherited dad's old age acne thing and I don't get the maths thing at all. Which I guess makes me some other kind of genius than mathematical. xxx

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  5. Hay DUTA..numbering might be too systematic for me but maybe next time.

    Nikki - I used to get told that all the time when I was a waitress in the Little Chef...'you clever girls have no common sense' what they should have said is come down from inside that head...you can't take orders while you're flying with the fairies. I might just about be able to live on £100 000 a year. Ha! Madness.

    Cogitator - thank you, I guessed you might appreciate that!! That year I also wrote an essay on 'Time' and a different teacher liked it so much she made me read it out in assembly and put it up on the library wall. Clearly that was my one year of glory!!! However, mostly we seem to remember the negative stuff!

    Claire - your genius is certainly unique and defies any academic classification!!!!! It's pretty bloody great though.

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  6. You can write an essay on time??? I wouldn't know where to start.

    Or should that be "when".....

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  7. Stuart Dunion, eyeglasses and lasik are viable alternatives...

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