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ventaRecently, I saw a display of cheap inflatables intended for swimming pools. A ring with a horse's head, a dolphin. The seams of the plastic stuck out, rather than being nicely taped flat.
And suddenly I remember standing in the North Sea on seaside holidays, and the feeling of such a seam scraping across legs made cold and goosebumped by the water (my inflatable ring was yellow with a horse's head, from memory, although given the colouring it might have been a giraffe). As sensations go it was actually quite painful, but very distinctive and something which - in a life which rarely involves swimming in bodies of cold water and even more rarely involves inflatables - I haven't felt in years.
I set myself to wondering what other sensations might have got lost in the last few decades. The one that immediately sprung to mind was the feeling of knees scraping over gritty asphalt.
Because the universe has a sense of humour, the following day I fell over while running along a pavement. I grazed one wrist (including the back of my wrist, somehow), the palms of my hands, and tore a big hole in both my clothes and my knee.
Now, my memory of school-era grazed knees is of it stinging and being unpleasant, but after a cuddle from Mrs Ashman[*] it was straight back to running around on the playground. Critically, I do not remember waking up the following morning stiff all over and aware of badly jarred arms where I'd landed. In the days of socks-and-school-skirts I presumably didn't have to worry about a graze too large to fit under a plaster chafing unpleasantly against jeans. Presumably, my knee was sufficiently smaller that it always would fit under a plaster.
And so, during the next week I limped about feeling pathetic and wincing when stairs were involved. And at the same time, thinking disgustedly "it's just a bloody grazed knee!" I remain uncertain whether my increased height and weight makes falling flat on one's face a more serious matter, whether my advancing age means injuries can't be taken so lightly, or whether I have merely devolved into a whinging wuss.
[*] Mrs Ashman was brilliant. She did a strange, hybrid, half-time job whose duties included running the school office, being a dinner lady, and being the chief distributor of plasters and cuddles to the injured or sick. School staff are presumably allowed to dish out neither, these days.
And suddenly I remember standing in the North Sea on seaside holidays, and the feeling of such a seam scraping across legs made cold and goosebumped by the water (my inflatable ring was yellow with a horse's head, from memory, although given the colouring it might have been a giraffe). As sensations go it was actually quite painful, but very distinctive and something which - in a life which rarely involves swimming in bodies of cold water and even more rarely involves inflatables - I haven't felt in years.
I set myself to wondering what other sensations might have got lost in the last few decades. The one that immediately sprung to mind was the feeling of knees scraping over gritty asphalt.
Because the universe has a sense of humour, the following day I fell over while running along a pavement. I grazed one wrist (including the back of my wrist, somehow), the palms of my hands, and tore a big hole in both my clothes and my knee.
Now, my memory of school-era grazed knees is of it stinging and being unpleasant, but after a cuddle from Mrs Ashman[*] it was straight back to running around on the playground. Critically, I do not remember waking up the following morning stiff all over and aware of badly jarred arms where I'd landed. In the days of socks-and-school-skirts I presumably didn't have to worry about a graze too large to fit under a plaster chafing unpleasantly against jeans. Presumably, my knee was sufficiently smaller that it always would fit under a plaster.
And so, during the next week I limped about feeling pathetic and wincing when stairs were involved. And at the same time, thinking disgustedly "it's just a bloody grazed knee!" I remain uncertain whether my increased height and weight makes falling flat on one's face a more serious matter, whether my advancing age means injuries can't be taken so lightly, or whether I have merely devolved into a whinging wuss.
[*] Mrs Ashman was brilliant. She did a strange, hybrid, half-time job whose duties included running the school office, being a dinner lady, and being the chief distributor of plasters and cuddles to the injured or sick. School staff are presumably allowed to dish out neither, these days.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 01:38 pm (UTC)Too much time down south has that effect I believe. ;)
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Date: 2011-12-20 01:42 pm (UTC)As of about 8 months, I will have lived longer in the south than I did in the north :(
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Date: 2011-12-20 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:49 pm (UTC)But as long as I still wear summer dresses in December I'm still Scottish really, right?
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 01:58 pm (UTC)I used to fall off my bike all the time as a kid. Nothing, no damage, you just pick yourself up, get your grazes washed, end of. Now, as an adult, if I do that, I break a bone and spend weeks hobbling and feeling like I've done 2 rounds with mike Tyson.
I think it did just hurt less to get scrapes and bruises. I base this on things like "a small burn" or "a sprained wrist" being unimaginable painful as a kid and as an adult these are reduced to "ow! I know, a nice glass of wine will fix this, there, all better!"
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:48 pm (UTC)My parents let us have a little wine with our Sunday lunch (certainly not a whole glassful*). Cunningly, they served it in metal goblets, which makes the wine taste foul. Took me until I was 19 to discover that actually wine was quite nice.
*Unlike on my French exchange when I was 13, when they would give me wine (that they personally had made) by the tumbler-full, and then act all offended if I didn't drink it. I know now that was a practical joke on me, and they wouldn't really have been terribly offended. Their kids really did routinely drink that much without watering it!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:41 pm (UTC)Sometimes, even then!
(Hurrah for modern medicine ;-).
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:34 pm (UTC)I think that it does hurt less. I remember it hurting less, and last time Judith had a graze, she just complained that it was 'not big, too small' and I had to comfort her by pointing out that it was towards the end of the graze season, and she couldn't expect them to be as good in October as in August. Having said that, B always hated grazes.
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Date: 2011-12-20 02:38 pm (UTC)I'm glad to hear that. I guess I've read too many political-correctness-gone-mad-what-is-the-world-coming-to stories.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 02:54 pm (UTC)Indeed.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:35 pm (UTC)If only the medical profession worked the same way ;-).
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Date: 2011-12-20 03:58 pm (UTC)If School Liz is (say) 2/3 of the height and weights 1/2 as much, that's about 1/3 as much energy involved in the impact.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:22 pm (UTC)I mean yes, your energy calculation sounds right. But I'm not sure that's all there is to it. School!Liz benefits from any extra bounciness/elasticity which commenters believe children possess. Big!Liz benefits from a certain amount of practice at falling over and having learned to roll.
Besides, if that was all there was to it, then Geriatric!Liz who is old and thin and weighs less and has shrunk due to osteoparosis would bounce back from falls way better than Big!Liz.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:27 pm (UTC)Did you, though? After I learned breakfalls at around 13ish I never once managed to pull one off when I fell over unexpectedly.
Of course, it's possible you really are healing more slowly, but my kids both heal at about the same rate as me despite my recollections of shrugging off childhood injuries (mostly bicycle-related).
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:34 pm (UTC)(In fact, given that some of the marks on my wrist looked remarkably like rope burns, I wouldn't have believed me if I'd told me I'd fallen over ;)
I could believe that the healing quicker thing is due to inaccurate childhood recollections - I don't have a Child!Liz around to test :)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-20 08:57 pm (UTC)But I don't know if age is enough to start causing bad accidents to be more likely (e.g., weaker bones, ligaments, muscles) - I mean yes, this happens when one is elderly, but I don't know if it would be a significant factor at our age. Children do sometimes have broken bones etc too. (I wouldn't be surprised if there are differences between children and adults, but I mean it's difficult to judge just based on anecdotal experience - and I don't know if that also means I'm worse off at 32 compared with when I was say 20.)
But I'm sure it's not that you're whinging :) I feel everything seemed far more painful when I was little.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-21 08:26 am (UTC)Habituation is probably a big part of it too – as a kid one is used to this happening, so a lot of the pain/discomfort gets discounted and the recovery is accordingly quicker. As an adult it's an unexpected shock to the system.