Growing up my family never took family vacations. We were a practical asian family and vacations were a frivolous luxury we could not afford. We did however visit our family in Taiwan a few times within my own memory and there were even a few trips that were beyond the borders of my fleeting memory.
One of those forgotten trips was when I was one month old. My mom was so home sick she packed her bags, packed up her two kids (including one month old me!!) And hopped on a plan homeward bound. Travel in those days were quite free of all safety regulations. My mom told me she was in the front row of coach so there was a bit of extra leg room. She didn't actually purchase a seat for me; I wasn't even stored in a carrier. She just brought me on board apparently planning to keep me in her lap for the entire 14 hr flight?? Well it worked out alright because she ended up spreading out my baby blanket on the floor in front of her and I slept there the entire flight. No crying, no fussing or anything--much to the relief of the passengers seated next to my mom no doubt. Occasionally my brother (then five) would join me on the floor and look at me or try to play with me. But WOW I was such a great kid!
Thinking back, or rather calculating back-since I obviously don't remember these things, my mom was only 29 at the time--THREE YEARS (FIVE NOW since this post was started 2 years ago) younger than me right now! No wonder she was home sick! This was also back in the day when there was no such thing as the internet or computers (for the regular consumer anyways) much less email, Skype or Facebook that keeps everyone so connected all over the world these days. Heck back then it was even a huge ordeal to place an over seas phone call - the connection sucked and it was uber expensive!
Apparently, that was an action packed trip! I had a 1 month celebration in taiwan that was stupendous! There was a fire at our house and my grandfather chose to save little old me, by bundling me up in my baby blanket and rushing out the door, before anyone else even gathered their wits about them! Things definately could have turned out differently for me. You hear the horror stories of babies being forgotten during a crisis and I was such a good sleeper I would have just drifted off as the smoke choked the life out of me.
But it didn't and 34 years later here I am writting about it.
Its funny how you don't worry about things when your little. You just take each moment day by day and there's almost a trust in everything around you. Of course there are the exception where children grow up without a home or in terrible homes but I'm not speaking of those situations of course. It's funny how it all goes away when we grow up. It shouldn't but it does...
No comments:
Post a Comment