Some of my favorite things of my childhood were the day trips we'd take with my Dad. Cultural stuff. During our school breaks, my father would occasionally take a day off from work and take us on "adventures", like a ferry boat across the bay, day at the zoo, long bike rides on Sundays, and, of course, museums. My Mom was not into museums and such, so we'd have some alone time with Daddy.
I always loved the Museum of Natural History at Quinta da Boa Vista, in Rio. I remember vividly the noise of the floorboards creaking when you walked in. But the most impressive thing was what my Dad said about the exhibits. There was a wax face of a woman, and the nose was missing. It was so gross and terrifying to a perhaps 5yo -can't remember how old I was. Well, I guess the woman suffered from some sort of flesh-eating disease, but my Dad said she was like that because she got a germ from drinking water from the faucet. That was totally ENOUGH for me, I was so deadly afraid I'd never drink water from the faucet (in Brazil the water is not exactly safe to drink as in the US).I also remember this field trip we took in kindergarten, to this huge firehouse. AMAZING! The firefighters demonstrated so many things, they jumped from buildings, they used a rope to go down a wall, they slid down the poles. Oh, yeah, there was the thick white foam we played with. I remember the white cafeteria, the sandwiches and the little cups of groselha juice (yuck, I hated that, I drank nothing). We had another field trip to the beach, and I deadly afraid of going into the water because the kids found this huge sea urchin, and I didn't want to hurt my feet. Oh well...
Bringing the past back has its price. I had an argument with my Mom yesterday. She can't believe I remember this stuff. My friend's daughter turned 9 - I feel old! - and had a manicure to celebrate her birthday. So I reminded my Mom that I also had my first manicure when I was 9. I grew up around women mostly - 4 aunts and 1 uncle (I'm also the oldest of all my cousins and there was only one boy). So, naturally, I watched everyone getting their nails done - one time my Dad's cousins came over with blue nail polish on and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Anyway, just about every week I was asking my Mom if I could have my nails done. Finally, at the occasion of my cousin's baptism, she finally gave in. As my Mom was doing my nails, my 6-yo sister walks in and demands to have hers done too, which my Mom promptly agrees. What? I waited so long for this, and my sister just gets it with no effort. Just to add insult to injury, my 3yo cousin wanted to copy us so my aunt did hers too. I was devastated.So I had an argument with my Mom that the oldest kids always suffer, since they have to conquer everything, and the younger ones just "get lucky". She agreed with me, since she's the oldest of 4, and my Dad is also the oldest, so I complained to her that they should have been more responsible, that they should have denied my sister to get her nails done until she was 9.
But life is not fair, what can I do? Everything that took me years to get, my sister just had it handed to her. Except, of course, her driver's license. THAT she had to wait 3 more years to get. Oh yeah, but she can't ride the bus to go to her friend's house and do a group assignment. I'd have to drive her... Oy vey!
Pretty sweet, huh? Especially for a guy who's been divorced twice.
