❓️ Question of the Day

SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles
edited July 2022 in General

Sup, peeps? 😎

I looove getting to know people in meaningful ways, asking deep questions, and maybe expanding comfort zones just a little! Let's get to know each other!

To keep things from getting crazy, please submit Question of the Day ideas to me by PM, and be sure to let me know if you would like to be credited, or want to remain anonymous. Extra cookies to those who suggest meaningful questions that encourage deep authenticity and vulnerability. 😌 (But okay, fun and unique questions are ace, too!)

Question 1
By @SunsetSnuggles

What is your happiest childhood memory?

~ Sunset Snuggles

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Comments

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    One of my happiest childhood memories is swinging on the swingset in our backyard, at eight years old. I had an epiphany in that moment that this would be the year I would remember as the happiest time of my life. I knew that when I was older, I would look back on that moment, and that year, and sure enough, I do.

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

  • Mike403Mike403

    My dad bought me my first computer when I was 4 years old.

  • Rye823Rye823
    edited July 2022

    I was like 11 years old and I worked my ass off during the year to get a ps2 and a game called Kingdom Hearts for Christmas. I made an arrangement with my parents that if I did all these chores and got straight A's, and walked each morning with my dad that I'd get both the console and the game. Christmas came and I was psyched. I opened all the presents for me but it wasn't there. I knew I had two options: I could be upset about it or just enjoy Christmas with everyone and work that much harder and maybe buy it myself from mowing lawns or something. I chose to the second option and kept it inside while just enjoying the moments with the rest of my family. Then my dad callled out to my mom and said if they brought out the other gift for me from the garage yet. I stood there in shock 😳. Then he brings out this big present and when I ripped it open and saw ps2 and Kingdom hearts underneath I was so happy I started singing "I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it! I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, I want to! (I didn't know all the lyrics back then so I just started over lol). Then I immediately hooked up the game in the TV room and was in awe at the beginning cinematics and music of the game. I can still picture the scene with the water on the beach 😌 it was so beautiful. All my hardwork paid off and I felt so happy and fulfilled 😊

  • TNNativeTNNative

    Hearing my dad's keys jingle as he was walking from the car to the door before he came in after work. I was little and already ready for bed. "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" We would run and he would scoop us (me and my younger sister) up. Then he would tuck us in bed and sing us old camps songs as we fell asleep.

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl

    I was in seventh grade, walking to school. About a block away from school, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my homework along. There was no way that I could walk back home to get it and then make it back to school on time. Just then, I spotted a friend riding his bike to school. In a panic, I flagged him down, borrowed his bike, and started madly peddling home.

    About half way home, I almost crashed when I actually realized what I was doing. I had never ridden a bicycle before, and had absolutely no reason to believe that I could, I made it home, grabbed the homework, and made it back to school without incident, I walked into my classroom just as the bell was ringing.

    Two weeks later, I had my own bicycle.

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles
    edited July 2022

    Question 2
    By anonymous

    What pet has made a special impact on you?

    I've had rabbits, gerbils, fish, three dogs, and a mouse, but I'm going to say that my current dog has made the biggest impact on me. At this point in my life, he contributes to me feeling purpose and I love having someone to take care of. When we got back from vacation the other day, he was still at boarding for the night, and I kept expecting his wagging little tail every time I walked into the living room, but he wasn't there. It just didn't feel right without him, and I don't even mind leashing him up to take him into our unenclosed backyard, many times a day. I drive him an hour and a half to boarding for some of our travel, and I don't mind that, either...I'm happy to take him to a great place run by a wonderful girl who takes good care of him and lets him run, than go to the place nearby who has terrible reviews. I don't want kids so my dog is my baby, and I appreciate the spontaneity he brings into my life. My boyfriend can even tell that he's good for my emotions. I hadn't been able to have a dog since I was 17, or a pet since about 20, so I was ecstatic to finally have that energy in the house, again. Here he is:

    @Mike403 @TNNative @GreatHornedOwl
    Thank you for sharing!

    @Rye823 What a sweet and mature choice you made; I'm so happy that you received your gift anyway, after all your dedication!

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl

    I've had numerous cats, a Samoyed, three snakes, a squirrel, two Box turtles and a Wood turtle (all of whom roamed about the house), a rabbit, a tarantula, two preying mantises, and two white rats. I'm going to tell you how I learned to love rats.

    We were living in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, and our daughter Michelle who was a senior in high school was taking a class on Friday afternoons at the University of Pittsburgh, that was for high school students who were thinking of becoming veterinarians. My wife and I were going to take a long weekend, and go camping in the mountains. This was going to be the first time that Michelle would be left alone at night.

    On Friday evening, we had camp set up, and then called home to see how Michelle was doing. The conversation went something like this:
    "How's everything?"
    "Great. I brought Seymour home."
    "What! You weren't supposed to be bringing boys home."
    "No no. Seymour was my rat. I removed half of his liver. May I keep him?
    Well, I thought. I've always hated rats, but if she removed half of his liver, there's no way that he's going to live very long. I reluctantly told her that she could keep Seymour.

    Wrong! Seymour recovered from his surgery quite well. Over the next few weeks, we learned that rats are very social animals. He didn't like being alone. If he was in his cage, and somebody would start banging his water bottle against the side of his cage to get some attention. "Let me out." If Michelle was studying, Seymour would be in her lap. If we were at the table eating dinner, Seymour was sitting on her shoulder, grooming her hair.

    In addition to her interest in animals, Michelle was also a musician. At one point, she was selected to be the 1st Oboe, and English Horn player for the All Eastern Honors Orchestra, who would be doing a concert in Boston. Of course, we decided to go hear the concert. Her friend Mike, offered to take Seymour while we were gone. When we got home, Mike had a story to tell. In the middle of the night, he had been awakened by a noise. He groggily looked around, didn't see anything, and went back to sleep. When he woke up in the morning, he was astonished to find a rat curled up in his arm pit. Apparently, being in a strange environment, Seymour got lonely. He somehow managed to push the lid off hi cage, climb out, and go to bed with Mike.

    It was a great loss for all, when Seymour died two years later.

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    @GreatHornedOwl That's a really sweet story! I never experienced wild rats, so maybe that is why I have no aversion to them. They're just big gerbils or mice, to me. They definitely should live in pairs, from what I hear. 🐀🐀

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl
    edited July 2022

    I once had another pet that made a special impact, although technically it wasn't my pet.

    About 50 years ago, My wife and I were living in an apartment that was not air conditioned. I was cooking some salmon, and the back door was open to let out some heat. A cat appeared at the door, and requested his share of the fish. He ate it, inspected the entire apartment, and left.

    The next morning he was back. he walked into the living room, spotted our one year old daughter sitting on the floor, and stretched out across her lap. Never having seen a cat before, she had no idea what this was. She made a fist, and smacked him on the top of his head. He purred.

    He quickly established a routine. He would come in every morning, but demanded to be let out at night, even in sub-zero weather. Some mornings, he would come back cut up and bleeding, from fighting with other stray tomcats. Sometimes he would vanish for a few days. We named him Bum.

    One morning, Bum arrived with a baby squirrel in his mouth. It seemed to be unharmed, so we took it away from him, and let it go. The next morning, Bum was at the door with that same baby squirrel in his mouth. This time, he dodged around me, dropped the squirrel into his food bowl, and stood back to watch it eat. When it finished eating, he cleaned it up with his tongue. By the time he finished, the poor little thing was almost dripping

    After that we didn't have the heart to let it loose again. We now had a pet cat, and the cat had a pet squirrel. We named the squirrel Sammy, and he became part of the family. In the evenings, I would read while Sammy would lay on his back getting his belly rubbed. If I would get absorbed in what I was reading, he would gently, but firmly nip me as a reminder that he wasn't getting the attention he thought deserved.If we went for a walk, Sammy would come along, either curled up in a jacket pocket, or riding on a shoulder. We got some very strange looks walking around that way.

    One day, we made the mistake of trying to teach Sammy to be a squirrel. We took him to a nearby park and placed him on the trunk of a tree. He gleefully climbed up, looked around, and literally started to cry. It seemed that going up was easy, but he had absolutely no idea of how to climb back down. I finally went home, collected my climbing rear, got a rope over a higher limb, and went up after him. When I got to the limb that he was on, he quit crying, scampered over to me, and dove down, inside the back of my shirt. Once there, he hung on by digging his claws into my back. Rapelling back down wasn't a bit of fun.

    We had been thinking of setting him free, but after that, we realized that it wouldn't work. Among other problems, was the fact that he didn't like being alone. If he were set down, he would immediately scamper up the leg of the nearest person. I always had the image in my mind, of him being on the ground, and the nearest person being some lady wearing a dress. Can you imagine the reaction?

    Eventually, we gave him to a friend who owned a farm.

    These photos were digitized from old slides, and the quality isn't very good.



  • IsMeArrgghIsMeArrggh

    As to question 1: riding my red rider tricycle when I was 4 yrs old. I loved it!

    As to question 2: My rabbits, which were my most recent pets. I’ve had many pets before but I was so in love with these rabbits and they did all kinds of weird and quirky things. Sadly they’re gone but I’ll forever remember them!

  • BabichevBabichev

    When I was 19 there was a squirrel who would come around to our kitchen window when we were making breakfast and we’d give it a piece of toast or pancake. One day I was standing in the kitchen, in shorts, with a piece of toast in my hand. It jumped onto my leg to get at the toast.

    @GreatHornedOwl, I know exactly what you’re talking about having it cling to you while claiming down. Those claws are made for climbing trees and it’s no match for soft human flesh.

  • BabichevBabichev

    Regarding Seymour: livers can regenerate.

    https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/liver-transplant

  • achetocuddleachetocuddle

    @GreatHornedOwl Great story and I like your old slide pics. I dig your son's? houseshoes also :)

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl

    @achetocuddle Thant you. BTW, I don't have a son. that's my daughter :3

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles
    edited July 2022

    Question 3
    By anonymous

    Do we really know the answer to the question "What are you?"

    Anonymous wrote: "It's definitely not the body nor the mind. We can observe both our body and mind. When we are happy, sad or at peace; it is the mind that is happy or sad and there is something that is aware of it and can observe it. Even when we are unconscious during deep sleep and when we wake up and fully rested there is something that is aware of the deep sleep while we were unconscious."

    This sure takes the cake for a deep question!

    For me, when I sleep, time gets sucked into a void...I am never aware of sleeping while I'm doing it. When I fall asleep and wake up eight or even twelve hours later, it feels like a second, to me. Perhaps this is why I never feel rested.

    As for what we are, I'm not sure I believe in an eternal spirit anymore, so that kind of leaves me with just the body and the mind. I do believe that when you die, it's over. This is not how I was raised, and it's a tough pill to swallow, as there are people I would dearly love to believe are traipsing through the daisies in heaven, right now. But that's just not what I'm able to believe. Sorry I don't have a very impressive answer for this one, but thank you for the submission!!

    @GreatHornedOwl posted: "About 50 years ago, My wife and I"
    Anything that begins this way is just astounding, to me! Holy crap. Thanks for making me feel young today, hehe!
    Absolutely loved the squirrel story, and the adorable pictures.

    @IsMeArrggh My rabbits are gone, too. What kind did you have? I raised Holland Lops.

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

  • achetocuddleachetocuddle

    @GreatHornedOwl Sorry. Ha ha. I really gotta start wearing my reading glasses :)

  • TNNativeTNNative
    edited July 2022

    My heart is exploding with joy reading the stories about pets!

    @GreatHornedOwl Your stories and pictures are precious!! Thank you so much for sharing. Like the Grinch, my heart has grown several sizes.

    2) I've had various pets through the years. The first comforting friend was probably Floppy, our childhood beagle who had really floppy ears, since her name. Currently I have Jasmine and Jessica, Mackerel Tabby domestic short hair cats. They give me great comfort and over the past hew years have been my constant companions.

    3) Very deep and complicated question. From my work I have reason to believe that I am more than body and mind, but spirit is difficult to put into words. If anyone is interested, the book by Dr. Eben Alexander, Proof of Life, is a good read by a neurologist who had a near death experience. He has written more books, but I have not read them ... yet.

  • TNNativeTNNative
    edited July 2022

    I don't know how the font got so big above ... sorry

    and here are my girls

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl
    edited July 2022

    @SunsetSnuggles Do you really want to feel young? My favorite aunt died last night an the age of 106. She had always seemed so young.

    At around 50 she asked me if I could come by to see why her cassette player was chewing up tapes. I opened it up, and replaced the broken belt with a rubber band. It worked, but i told her that it wouldn't last, so she should take it in and have a real belt installed. Instead, she went out to buy a belt. When the guy suggested that she bring it in so he could replace it, she replied "No thanks. I can do it. I watched my nephew. Just sell me the belt.

    Around 40 years ago, she called me up one day and asked what kind of computer she should buy so she could start using email. I gave her some suggestions, and said that I would come over and give her some lessons. Her response was "It can't be that difficult. Everybody does it. I'll figure it out."

    At the age of 85, she was bitterly complaining that she could no longer find anybody her own age to play golf with, and that she was being forced to play with kids.

    Four years age she was on an expressway with her daughter driving. when her daughter had a minor stroke, but was able to pull off onto the shoulder. They called 911, and when the paramedics arrived, they tried to put my aunt into the ambulance. She practically slugged the guy. "It's not me you idiot. I'm fine. It's her."

    May we all age so well, and feel so young as we age.

  • [Deleted User]Btown (deleted user)

    @GreatHornedOwl Another great story. Thank you for sharing so much.

  • taminatortaminator

    My dog Jack which his pic is in my profile. I took him in until my friends living situation was better or she was gonna drop him off at shelter. The first time he walked into my apt we both layed down in front of each other it was like we were having this silent conversation with our eyes saying you are my mommy and you are my baby boy. We have been inseparable ever since and that was 7yrs ago. I love him so much!!!

    Thought I should go ahead and show him off!!

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    Question 4
    By @SunsetSnuggles

    Did you know your grandparents? If so, share a memory.

    My paternal grandparents died when I was a baby/very little.

    My maternal grandfather died tragically long before I was born, but I grew up spending time with my maternal grandmother and the only grandpa I ever knew, her then-husband. I didn't find out until I was near my teens that he wasn't blood-related, but it didn't make a bit of difference, to me.

    When we came in on a holiday or for a visit, I always remember my grandpa sitting at the dining room table, playing solitaire. Whenever I picture him, that's what I see, and it makes me smile. I wish it had occurred to me at some point to ask him to teach me to play, but it never did, so I looked up a video on YouTube last year, and taught myself. It made me feel closer to him since he's passed away, to be able to play his favorite game.

    A memory that means a lot to me from my grandma is one day a few months before her death, she opened up to myself, my mom, and my aunt, that she had been sexually assaulted, as a teenager. She cried, and I had never seen my grandma cry or talk about anything personal like that, before. Obviously it's not a sweet memory, but it really impacted me and raised a lot of feelings inside of me. I'm glad that she trusted us enough to share her pain, and I wish no one had to go through what she did.

    @GreatHornedOwl I'm so sorry to hear about your aunt passing away. Adorable stores that you shared, what a cutie she was!

    @TNNative posted: "I've had various pets through the years."
    So I read this out of context and was like, aww, people pet you? ;)
    Very photogenic kitties, you have!

    @taminator What a precious story!!

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

  • [Deleted User]Btown (deleted user)

    My grandmother was a real tough character. She lived a very long life and buried three husbands. Two of them were just napping.

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl
    edited July 2022

    Some of this I can recall. The first part of the story I can remember hearing from my maternal grandfather. He had deserted from the Czar's army, and stowed away on a boat headed to America. As far as he was concerned, America was America. North or south wasn't important. He ended up in Argentina. There he took up his earlier occupation as a scrap dealer. He tells of the first time he bought a banana from a street vendor. It tasted terrible. Nobody had told him not to eat the peel.

    He learned to speak Spanish, and eventually managed to save up enough money to buy passage to New York, and then to Chicago, where he had some relatives. He continued working as a scrap dealer, and learned English. During the time that I knew him, he had quit scrap dealing. By then, he owned a six flat apartment building, a small hotel, and, in partnership with my father, a large laundry.

    At the time, I really wasn't old enough to wonder how the transition had occurred.

  • waynewvwaynewv

    I remember my grandmother telling me when she went from a horse and buggy to a car, she said granddad would stop at night and take a wooden match to light the headlights.! And she remembered the Wright Brothers flying at Kitty Hawk

  • DaringSprinterDaringSprinter

    Did you know your grandparents? If so, share a memory.

    I've got lots.

    My paternal grandparents actually lived in the same house for a while when I was a kid. Grandpa was a gardener, and I still remember his corn, onions, tomatoes, strawberries, etc., with fondness.

    One day in the garden Grandpa cut his arm pretty badly on the barbed wire he had put up to keep out the wildlife. I saw the blood and told him he should go in to get it cleaned up before it got infected (I had recently learned about germs). He looked so sheepish as he said he knew he should, but he didn't want to worry Grandma.

    "That's her job," I said, "to worry about you and take care of you! You know she likes it, don't take it away from her."

    This 70-something-year-old man blushed like a teenage boy and went inside to get his arm bandaged. Those two loved each other so much. Drove each other crazy sometimes, but you could always tell—the love was always there.

    Grandma, now....

    I didn't spend a lot of time with my paternal grandmother, but I remember one day I was trying to pick a Halloween costume (out of this box we had with a load of strange clothes in it; interesting the stuff folks give away in clothing donations), and she told me a story.

    Grandma was a kid during the Great Depression, and one Halloween, somewhere around the age of twelve, she wanted to go trick-or-treating as a hula dancer.

    She had a skintight leotard, which was fine for the base, but for the rest of it all she had was tissue paper. She spent hours folding the flowers for the lei, putting together a "grass" skirt, making the whole thing look good.

    Grandma laughed as she told me, "The first part of the night went well!"

    She could barely get the words out as she explained that later on in the night it started to rain and she had to scurry home like a Cinderella whose magical outfit was incompatible with water. "And it was fine," she managed to choke out, "I got home and still had enough paper to preserve my sense of modesty—but my, wasn't I scared!"

    No word on whether she ever used tissue paper for a costume again... but knowing my paternal grandmother, she might have.

    My maternal grandparents lived in a different state to the rest of us.

    Grandpa was a bus driver, and always seemed to deeply disapprove of me for reasons I never heard: all my memories of him involve watching him listen to my siblings (with such interest!) and admire their drawings and other creations while I stood off to the side wondering why nothing I did ever got more than a glare out of him.

    So much for him.

    My maternal grandmother is my only grandparent still living—she's got a personality so much bigger than her body that, in memory, I always recall her being a good foot taller than she actually is.

    She wears gigantic belt buckles and cowboy boots with her pink, collared shirts, and all her jewelry features turquoise, but what she'll really blind you with is her hats: every one of them covered in enough sequins to hold its own disco! She's a woman who knows what she wants and never hesitates to go out and get it. I don't recall ever feeling anything in her presence but awe, and the emails she sends me don't change that a bit.

    You ever meet anyone who takes getting their heart shocked back into working properly in stride? "I've got rhythm again!" she typed, and then went on to describe her daily walks like she hadn't just mentioned undergoing a medical procedure out of Frankenstein.

    I remember the day she gave me a mystery novel and, upon reading it, I realized that this terrifying person understood me far better than she should, given our distance.

    I don't think we'll ever really be close, she and I.

    But I'm—frankly, I'm humbled by her. I feel privileged to be able to see such enormous confidence and competence, even if I disagree entirely with her faith in the existence (and importance) of unprovable things: she's a fire in human form, and I can only admire that.

    ...And aspire to it. Maybe, someday. When I'm old enough.

    She's over-levelled!

  • GreatHornedOwlGreatHornedOwl
    edited July 2022

    @waynewv Those headlights that your grandmother had to light were acetylene lamps, which were a very clever design. For the youngsters here who have never heard of them, I'll explain. They were generally made of brass. They had a small, screw on thak, with a tube ending with a nozzle that was fixed in place in front of a polished reflector. There was also a small water thank, that could allow water to drip into the main tank, through a valve that could adjust rate of drip.

    To make it operate, you would place a chunk of calcium carbide into the main tank, and then open the valve so water would begin to drip. Calcium carbide and water enter into a chemical reaction that produces acetylene gas, which is flammable. When the gas would start to come out of the nozzle, you would light is. Being in front of the reflector, it actually produced a nice directional beam. The faster the water was allowed to drip, the righter the light would become.

    These lights had a lot of different uses aside from auto and bicycle lights. Long before electric lights existed, miners would keep one affixed to their helmets. They were also used as footlights on the stages in theaters. Since another name for calcium carbide is lime, that is why actors were said to be in the limelight.

  • DaringSprinterDaringSprinter
    edited July 2022

    @GreatHornedOwl: Now, that is cool. Thanks for sharing! This youngster learned.

  • waynewvwaynewv

    @GreatHornedOwl , that is neat, I have seen them before but never knew how they worked. Being from WV and worked in the coal fields I have seen the old miners hat with that type light on them, but never heard how they worked. Thanks for sharing!!

  • [Deleted User]Zundar (deleted user)
    edited July 2022

    I knew 3 out of 4 of my grandparents, one died before I was born.

    Here's a memory regarding each of them:

    Paternal grandmother - after my sister became a vegan my paternal grandmother was surprising open to the idea and accommodating, but the results were "interesting". She would invite us round for lunch every now and then and the first few times after my sister came out about her veganism the meals were a complete disaster. One of the times she just gave her a plate of grapes and nothing else. Another time she gave her an entire packet of Linda McCartney vegan sausages. Not the best results but she was doing her best and it's the thought that counts.

    Paternal grandfather - I remember he didn't particularly like me, he passed when I was young so my memory might be off though. It's less a memory of him and more a fact regarding people's memories of him, but after he died it turned out that he'd been lying about certain elements of his career for decades, but in a way that was odd. He had nightmares that he claimed were caused from experiences he had in his job but it turned out his job had nothing to do with the things he mentioned. And specifically in a way where he had been claiming that his job was a lot worse and more dangerous than it actually had been, rather than him making it seem like it was safer to cover up a horrible truth.

    Maternal grandmother - I remember she used to teach me to cook things, the two I remember most vividly were making some battered fried fish and also showing me how to make baked apples using the family recipe, which as far as I can tell is actually pretty much identical to a lot of other recipes for baked apples. I wish I spent more time with her in her last years to have more memories of her, but there was a lot going on at the time. Sometimes when I think about what I'd do if I could time travel I think about going back to be a better grandson to her, and to explain why the me back then was the way I was. She lived about 2 hours away, further away than my other grandparents, but we visited her more often.

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