Baby climber

When i was a baby, I don't remember much, if anything, like most in this regard. I vaguely remember my first house at Castlecrag that we lived in, but that was as a toddler.  I have been told by my mother and family that i was good crawler and climber and that before I could walk I would even climb up and out the window, perhaps i was trying to escape from my older brother and sisters, or i was just a natural explorer from an early age. One day I even made it up the road to the butcher's around the corner. I must have looked an odd site as i crawled up the road and then down the main road on the footpath.  The butcher called my mum, who would have come and picked me up and felt quite embarrassed I would imagine, letting her baby crawl around the suburbs.  I wonder what propelled me to do that, I just wanted to look around my neighbourhood, check everything out, see what else there was out there.  I did not want to be confined to a mere house and backyard.
I have memories of our first dog, first firecracker night, or one that i remember fondly.  Sleeping at night with a rocket tucked up under my pillow ready for the big bonfire night, where i could let it off.
When i was a bit older i progressed to climbing trees and rocks and loved to climb up to the top of anything i could find. The parents would worry that I would fall, but i never did and felt confident climbing up any type of tree to it's extremities, in the smallest of branches and nooks.  It was my thing, that i was known for, my sister would sometimes climb as well and we would both be up trees in our yards, or out the back of our place in the bush. It was a great past-time, climbing trees, elevating oneself beyond the mundane boundaries of the ground dwellers below.

Dream

I don't often dream, or maybe I do but don't often remember them.  I always put this down to being a heavy,deep sleeper, oblivious to everything.  The dreams and nightmares you have as a child are remembered.  I think everyone had the dream as a child of falling from far above the clouds, for what seems like an age, falling but not worried about the consequences, for a time at least.  Then the building tension as you keep falling, feeling in control but this feeling slowly changing as you realize that at some point you will hit earth.  In your dream state you try and correct this, as you don't want your dream interrupted by smacking into land.  Then in your dream state, the rising panic as you know you are surely going to hit earth.  A part of you knows it is a dream and you are safe, but another part is not so sure.  You startle awake as it all gets too much and you realize you were dreaming.  It's like you were checking that you were just dreaming and are relieved that it was the case.

Other dreams linger with you, as you are not sure of their meaning, or their meaning changes over time.  I have one such dream.

I had this dream in my early twenties.  I was driving in a car on the way to work, past well known landmarks.  I had another passenger, a female, slightly older on my left hand side. We were extremely comfortable in each other's company, like we were soulmates, I was the happiest most contented human being alive and we were on this journey together.  We were joking and laughing as we weaved in and out of traffic on my way to work in busy peak hour traffic.  On the way, around Neutral bay junction somewhere I stopped on the side of the road, so we could swap sides and let her drive for a while.  She was an attractive blond, familiar and known, but at the same time no one I knew.

I went around to the left hand side of the car to get in and as I got in on my side another woman changed spots with the driver I was getting on so well with and got in and started driving off.  I was looking back behind searching for the other woman and felt a little panicked and perplexed that this happened.  The journey changed and I wasn't as fun and carefree and at ease with this new woman. We drove onto North Sydney and for some reason I got out here and in a short time walking, found myself in an underground tunnel.  It was only lightly illuminated and it felt like there was going to be danger ahead.  I pulled out a glistening steel sword and held it aloft in a warrior pose.  I made my way  down the winding tunnel and was slaying everything in my wake, like this was somehow my destiny.

That was about it really.  At the the time I thought it was one of the most strange dreams I ever had.  Could this dream have been trying to tell me something, I wonder?

You're adopted!

I am the youngest from a fairly large family of 5, common in the time i was growing up, not so common now.  When i was little it was known that i was the second oldest sisters (protege, plaything, one to tease and help raise).  The oldest sister had the second youngest, my sister who was 3 years older.  I think the oldest sister got first choice, and because Marg was born first and would always be a little older and wiser, I think the second oldest sister always felt a little dudded by me and was probably sick of always coming second to the oldest sister.

 At times it was fun to be pitted against each other and we both seemed to bond to our respected older sisters.  I think the 2 oldest had fun keeping tabs on who was doing the better with their protege.  When it got a little more serious, the oldest sister would try to undermine the second oldest sister by saying things to me, like, "you're adopted".  Which i would reply in my kid like voice. "Na, I'm not", "you are!" or something like.  She would persevere and say other things like "you look nothing like the rest of us, you must be adopted".  And "you have freckles and none of us have" or "you burn and none of us burn, we all go brown".  My assigned sister would always stick up for me and I did bond more with her over the years and liked her rebellious streak and how she would always say what was on her mind.

I remember it being hurtful at the time and the scars i guess are still there, which is weird as it was all meant to be fun and games. It might not have been often that these things were even necessarily said, but it's funny how it doesn't take much when you are young, to believe what you hear and start to question yourself, even when faced with these blatant falsehoods.

Do the sisters still keep tabs on us, now that we have we all grown up and are now in middle age.  I am not sure, but I doubt it. Who won overall, again not sure, just glad that none of us were killed or maimed in the process. In one game of tie ups Margaret accidentally knocked her head and went unconscious and had to be rushed to hospital.  In another game gone wrong in the pool, either my brother or sister knocked their head on the side of the pool and were lying face down in the water for a while.  At first i think we all must have thought they were joking, but after a short period, I wasn't so sure and grabbed them out and realized straight away that they were limp.  Luckily enough they came too straight away and recovered with just a bruise on their head.