What were you like as a child?

[terrya]

I was shy as a kid. I liked the company of adults more than I did other kids...it just seemed to set me apart a little. I wasn't into sports or anything like that. I remember enjoying books even then...I checked out book after book at the school library. And spending way too much time in front of the television. Kind of a lonely childhood, at times.

[asthmaticeog]

1. I was much like that myself.

Not at all sociable, big reader, more comfortable around adults than around other kids, for the most part.

I hated sports, too, though in my 20s I developed an enjoyment of baseball (largely due to the extreme novelty of the Cleveland Indians actually winning games...).

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Outspoken, too smart for adults, incorrigible, original, individual.

I've only improved as I've aged.

[Jessica]

3. I'll admit it - I was a brat.

I was an only child - which resulted in two factors that contributed to the person I would become ... 1) I usually got my way. 2) I never learned self-defense, which most with siblings do.

I also was both a girly-girl and a tomboy, if that's possible. I grew up on a farm, my first word was "tractor" & I played in the dirt with my matchbox cars. But, I also collected Barbie dolls & pink was my favorite color. In fact, if I didn't get the sheet of pink construction paper in art class, I threw a fit.

I've grown out of most of these things, though ... ;-)

[tigereye]

5. another shy one here -

lost in the world of books, but unable to be too shy due to 4 brothers and sisters.

[ImpeachBush]

4. Pretty much a "tom boy"

I spent as much time outdoors as I could. I'd play baskeball on my home-made court in 10 degree weather ... as long as the snow was less than a inch. I loved to rise early and watch the sunrises and catch old Blondie & Dagwood movies. I loved skating and hiking and biking and exploring and GI Joe. I yearned to be an only child and often plotted to run away from home (never did, though). I wrote little stories about living on airless, waterless planets in an artificial environment and riding around in hovercrafts. I loved Ohio history in school, and math and music. I hung out with the girls, and loved baseball, basketball, and football. Big Ohio State fan, Cincy Reds fan, Browns fan, Tribe fan.

I hated Sunday "dress-up" and frills and lace and curls and going to church and dealing with self-righteous people. I enjoyed Dr. Seuss and fairy tales and mysteries and riddles and puzzles. I believed in ghosts and ghouls and loved to be frightened by "Chiller Theatre" and Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. I loved Dark Shadows, old Topper reruns, Ultra-man, UHF TV. I liked Roller Derby and the Bay Area Bombers, old dumb sci-fi flicks, comic books, mad magazine, Robbie the Robot, the Rolling Stones and Dylan and Beatles and Creedence and Janice and Cream.

I couldn't wait to grow up, and now I wish I could be that young, idealistic kid again!

[Burma Jones]

6. I was referred to as, by various teachers:

That Little Shit
Certainly a Challenge
The biggest troublemaker I have seen
Not living up to potential (the lazy teacher's way out)
and, yes I am not kidding, "Evil Incarnate"

This was back in the 60s and 70s, before education seemed to recognize that some kids might get bored.

I was contemptuous of other children. I was a very arrogant child. I was reading and writing before I entered Kindergarten. I was doing Quadratic Equations for fun at age 5. I spoke fair Spanish in First Grade. I knew Latin Grammar in first grade. Rather than go out and play with other kids, I went out by myself. I read the World Book Encyclopedia cover to cover in the summer between fourth and fifth grade. I had an Aunt that thought I was some sort of educational Science project I guess.....

Until Puberty, I had virtually no friends my own age. In Jr. High, I was a full fledged Jesus Freak supreme, to the point that I was nominated to be an Elder of my Church at age 14. As I got into high school, I got into playing Trumpet, drinking, drugs and playing football. I was a lousy football player, but one of the top trumpet players in the state. I was the Party King and was a very popular guy in High School. I graduated high school with a sub 2.0 GPA. I had to attend Community College to get my GPA up, I did so and ended up at a pretty good little college in Illinois called Knox College.

Now, I am a Husband and Father and I hold a Doctorate in Computer Science.............

[xmas74]

8. I went to high school

with someone who went to Knox.
He went in the early-through mid 90's.
I heard that they have a good model UN program.

[SarahB]

7. Fiercely independent

As I marched to the beat of my own drum.

[xmas74]

9. I was considered

smart and athletic, but it was very hard for me to get a date (HS).
I was a tomboy but I liked to look polished.
I was an all-state trumpet player and a Lincoln Douglas debater (did extempt too-but didn't like it).
I was the president of five different clubs in high school. I was a voracious reader. I excelled in social sciences, especially history, economics and geography.
I won a few essay contests.
Spelling bee champ (but can't spell now).
Geography bee champ (JR HS).
I always ran around with the exchange students and I had a friend in every clique.
I was also a bit of a pothead.
I won the senior award for "Most Bizarre".

[skygazer]

10. Weird - and a mass of contradictions

I was a loner who would rather read a book than do anything. However, i loved the outdoors too, so I would take a book outside and park under a tree and read all day. I had two invisible friends, a large bear and a small one (sort of like Yogi and Boo Boo when I think about it) and they were my favorite friends.

I was extremely independent and would wander off into the woods for hours on end (this is at the age of 5 or 6) - my mother finally stoppped worrying about me.

But I was also terribly spoiled by her. I wouldn't cry over anything serious (I never cried when she died) but I'd shriek like a banshee when my older siblings teased me. My mom did everything for me - though I was very independent in some ways, when she died (I was 14) I had never washed my own hair or cooked anything more complicated than toast.

Yeah, I was a strange kid....

[sniffa]

11. too smart for my own good

and heLL raising terror. i was nothing but a troubLe - aLways getting punished at schooL. apparentLy my mother spoke with the teachers, toLd them i was bored and needed chaLLenges. in stores, i'd disappear in bLink of an eye, and my mother wouLd dread the coming announcement over the intercom of, "wouLd the mother of a young boy pLease come to aisLe 12!!!!" where my mom wouLd find me in a piLe of opened cereaL boxes or something. :D

i was a crier - i cried over everything.

i was chubby.

i liked playing sports even though i was no good at any of them, and worse, didn't know a single rule for any of them.. which made my little league stint a series of funny incidents/games.

[dolo amber]

12. I broke 2 matresses and wore out my tricycle by age 4

Had numerous broken bones, cuts, scrapes, abrasions, stitches...My doctor actually prescribed ballet, gymnastics or some other 'coordination-building activity' to help get rid of some energy and hopefully prevent my parents from ending up in hot water with Child Protective Services. :D

I was a *tad* hyper. ;)

Was put on Ritalin at 4, then I mostly was a normal-ish kid, but I was always (and still am by most counts) precocious and far too big for my britches. :P

[flamingyouth]

13. I was a lot like you, Terry

Shy, bookish and kind of a loner. I am an only child of very stern and cold parents, so I spent a lot of time by myself - drawing, reading, writing short stories, etc.

I think I read the entire children's section of my local library branch by the end of third grade. :D

[mondo joe]

14. Liked adults better than kids, unpersuadable

There was not much anyone could do to motivate me because there was nothing I could be offered or threatened to have taken that I wasn't willing to live without.

Adult: "If you don't do this we'll take away all your toys."

Me: "Okay. Take them. They are dead to me now."

[datasuspect]

15. kindergarten, catholic school

our task was to color a picture. we were supposed to color the girl in the picture and give her blond hair and blue eyes.

i colored the hair silver and gave her purple eyes.

the sister was nonplussed and asked why i did it this way and i told her that not everyone has blond hair and blue eyes.

i was taken to the office and they summoned my mother to the school . . . our house was about three blocks away . . . and they told my mother that i was a noncomformist and all this other shit.

anyway, my mom read them riot act for dragging her down for such trifling bullshit and took me home for the day.

i think we stopped for ice cream floats on the way home.

[Beware the Beast Man]

16. I was a typical fat kid.

In the jungle that is childhood, you survive fat kidness by becoming one of two things: a bully or a clown. The bully thing never really worked for me, so I became the jokester. I was also very precocious and creative. I managed to stifle that creativity until recenty. Since my parents split up when I was six, I also had the obligatory behavioral problems growing up. And much like I am now, I can be painfully shy around some people, and extroverted around others. I guess it's all about who fits in my comfort zone.

[redqueen]

17. Quiet, serious, shy...

I don't remember most of it... but what I remember is awkward. Always preferred books to toys, so was an outsider from the start. Liked being outdoors but not sports. I imagine most people thought I was strange and just kept their distance.

[Maine Mary]

18. Extroverted, adventurous, curious

But was beat into submission, fear, pesissmism, hopelessness and introversion.