The passage of time has helped this memory to not be so painful. But when I was four (possibly five) it really, really hurt my feelings. I was a senstive child; easy to discipline. All my parents had to say to me was, "We're disappointed in you (or your behavior)" and then they'd have to hide sharp objects so I wouldn't commit hara-kiri. As a child my family lived in a townhouse in an apartment complex; Bob Gibson lived in the building next to ours. My parents made a big deal about him being our neighbor. I had no idea who he was but I was impressed that he was someone famous. One day my boyfriend (my first boyfriend; we spent our days riding our Big Wheels together) and I saw Bob Gibson walking to his car. We stood on the sidewalk and as he passed by we waved and frantically said over and over, "Hi Bob Gibson! Hi Bob Gibson!" We were genuinely excited to see him. His response? "Shut up kids." He said it in a mean voice. I was crushed. I'm pretty sure no grown up had ever told me to shut up before. It's funny now but back then not so much.
A few years ago I ran across a photo of a sports car that my Dad had taken. The description on the back was, "Bob Gibson's car". I work with a guy who's a big baseball fan so I brought the photo in for him to see. His reaction was so enthusiastic that it amused me.Then I thought that I'm in no place to judge because if, for example, someone brought me a photo and said, "This was Leo Tolstoy's horse carriage" I would probably snatch the image out of their hand and be like, "Let me see it! Can I have this?".
I toured Leo Tolstoy's house in Moscow in the 90's. I took this photo of his potty (covered chamber pot to the left):
A few years ago I ran across a photo of a sports car that my Dad had taken. The description on the back was, "Bob Gibson's car". I work with a guy who's a big baseball fan so I brought the photo in for him to see. His reaction was so enthusiastic that it amused me.Then I thought that I'm in no place to judge because if, for example, someone brought me a photo and said, "This was Leo Tolstoy's horse carriage" I would probably snatch the image out of their hand and be like, "Let me see it! Can I have this?".
I toured Leo Tolstoy's house in Moscow in the 90's. I took this photo of his potty (covered chamber pot to the left):
I remember the museum docent didn't want me to take the photograph. I thought it was a good reminder that even though Tolstoy was a great literary giant, he still had to evacuate his bowels. You know how those trashy celebrity magazines will have photo spreads entitled, "Stars-- they're just like us!" and it will show famous people buying groceries and taking out the trash? This is my version of that. I've also got a photo of Abraham Lincoln's outhouse at his home in Springfield, Illinois. I couldn't find it though to show you. You'll just have to take my word for it. I just googled "Potties of Famous People" and there were no results. How is this not a thing? How is there not a coffee table book with that same title?
Speaking of titles, somewhat, I registered the domain name, "endearinglywacko.com" (only ten bucks-- who knew?). So now you won't have to type ".weebly" at the end if you do a google search of this site. If you were in fact doing that. The low cost of domain name registration makes me want to register odd names just IN CASE I might ever need them. Like "PottiesOfFamousPeople.com".
Speaking of titles, somewhat, I registered the domain name, "endearinglywacko.com" (only ten bucks-- who knew?). So now you won't have to type ".weebly" at the end if you do a google search of this site. If you were in fact doing that. The low cost of domain name registration makes me want to register odd names just IN CASE I might ever need them. Like "PottiesOfFamousPeople.com".