Growing Up Blind Part Two

I promised I'd share some of the things I'd gotten up too as a child. Let me start by saying that in the beginning, I loved being outside. As I got older and we moved, I started spending a lot of time indoors.

Back then though, I couldn't wait for school to finish or the weekend to come around. The minute I was free, outside I went. As I said in my previous post, I spent a lot of time with my cousins. This was made easy because they lived about two blocks away.

the twins would come over and take me to their house. I can still remember the first time they did this. I was so uncertain of my surroundings at that time. I was extremely nervous something would happen since there would be no adults accompanying us.

"It's easy," one of them said, "we made it here just fine."

"Come on," his sister added, "it'll be fun."

Finally I agreed and went with them. From that day on, I did it many times. It was one of the things I'd miss the most when we moved.

Hanging out with them was always so much fun. It also would have gotten me into a lot of trouble had my Mom known. Oh the stories I could tell! I'll only be telling a few here. The rest I will save for another time.

One of the first memories I have of doing something I wasn't supposed to do, was when I was about six. They decided to teach me how to climb through their bedroom window to get into their house. See, my aunt had four older children, all of whom were older than the twins. Their sister was just a few years older than me and she had the key to the house. Usually, we would have to wait for her to come home and let us inside. I was always with them because my Mom worked and since I rode the bus with them, it was just easier for me to go to their house at the end of school. Why neither of the twins received a key when they got out of school earlier than their sister, I don't know.

In any case, I don't know which one of them thought of it, but they had apparently gotten frustrated with having to always wait on their sister. They decided to leave the window open. In those days, you could do that sort of thing without the fear of someone breaking into your house and stealing all your stuff. Now, forget it!

I remember the first time they proposed their plan of climbing through the window. I thought they were insane! For one thing, the window-sill was really tall! For another, I was not good at climbing things!

"How are we going to do it?" I had asked worriedly.

"We'll get something to stand on." He replied.

"What if I fall?"

"We'll be right here." She said, pulling a rickety old bench over beneath the window.

I was still really nervous. I knew they wouldn't be able to catch me should anything happen. I decided to trust them. It helped knowing the top bunk bed was right on the other side of the sill.

I stepped onto the bench, panicking a little as it wobbled beneath me. They held it tight and it took all the courage I had to stand up. Slowly, I reached up and gripped the outer lip of the sill. I climbed through, bruising my ribs as I pulled myself up and rolled onto the bed. I barely had time to recover and move out of the way before they came in after me.

I had to be careful each time we did this. The beds were narrow and it was a long way down if you fell. I nearly did a couple of times while trying to climb down.

When their older sister came home that first time and found us waiting for her already inside, she was quite surprised. she scolded them for having done it, saying we could have gotten hurt. That didn't stop us from doing it again a few days later when she was once more late coming home.

It became a regular routine after that. every time I did it, it got easier. Before long, I found it as natural as walking through the front door.

The next year, the twins wanted to go to their friends' house, but they didn't want to go through their house and cross the street. It was much easier to simply climb the fence. I balked at the idea.

"I don't know how to climb a fence." I'd practically whined.

"It's easy," he said, "I'll teach you."

"And if I fall?"

"You won't," he reassured me. "We'll be right there. I'll go first."

With that, he was up and over the fence. He made it look so easy! I found out later they'd both done it several times before.

So, once again, I trusted he knew what he was talking about. It was so nerve racking that first time. The fence was old. I mean, really old. The posts were coming loose from the ground and some of the planks of the fence were rotten. Others were loose and breaking apart.

I had to be careful where and how I stepped. Luckily, I never got hurt. That didn't keep me from being terrified when I reached the top and realized how high up I was from the ground. It was the first time I'd ever been in that precarious of a situation.

The fence was gently swinging back and forth with my weight and any second, I just knew I was going to fall head first to the ground! I simply hung there, my heart pounding, the wind ruffling my long hair, blowing it into my face.

"Turn around!" He called up to me. "Come down backwards!"

I just stayed there a moment longer, scared to move. The boards dug painfully into my hands as I tried to calm myself down. Very slowly, I turned around, gritting my teeth each time the fence trembled beneath me. I wanted so much to hurry up and get down and place my feet on solid ground again.

I made my way down very slowly. When I reached the bottom, I could barely believe it. I had done it! I had made it, and I was still in one piece!

I remember just standing there as his sister started over, trying to collect myself. Even now, I can still feel myself shaking as I slowly moved away from the fence so I wouldn't be in the way of her making her way down. There was only one good place to climb the fence without getting splinters or worse.

I thought I would never do it again. That's what I told myself anyway. The next time they asked me to go with them to their friends' house, I groaned and complained a little. But there I went, once again climbing the fence. It was easier the second time, still terrifying, but manageable. Each time after that, I got better and better with the thought of doing it. I also found it easier to climb with every time I did it.

They even taught me how to climb their chain link fence. That was hard for another reason. I had to be careful not to pinch my fingers on the metal or get them stuck in the holes. I also had to go much slower, trying to make sure my feet found purchase before moving my hands up. At the top, I had to be careful not to poke myself with the sharp corners of the wire.

I didn't climb this one as often. We only did it when we wanted to go through the alley. Needless to say, I preferred the old wooden fence to the chain link one. The wooden one was less painful since I knew where to climb.

The final story I want to share with you is another climbing one. This one though involved a ladder. To this day, I don't know why we had it in our yard.

My Mom had gone to work or something and my brother was supposed to be watching me. He had let our cousins come over, probably in the hope that they would keep me out of trouble. It didn't work.

Only the boy of the twins came that day. That in itself should have told my brother something. I always got into more mischief when it was just the two of us.

I don't remember what we were doing. I only remember that my brother had stepped out and our cousin grew bored. I couldn't think of anything to do either.

"Let's go outside."

"Why," I asked, "what are we going to do out there?"

"Just come on," he replied. "I have an idea."

I followed him out the door and he went around to the side of the house. I heard something and asked what he was doing. To my surprise, he asked me to help him move a ladder.

"Why?"

"Because I want to get onto the roof."

"What?" I asked in astonishment.

"I do this at my house." He said, as if it was no big deal. "It's fun."

"What do you do up there?"

"I look up at the sky," he replied. "Come on, I'll show you."

"I can't see the sky."

"So, just come on. you'll love it."

Together, we pushed the ladder over to the front of the house and started up. Since I had by this time climbed through his bedroom window and climbed two different types of fences, that ladder was a piece of cake! It wasn't long before we were sitting on the sloping edge of my roof with our backs against the chimney. The breeze was cool and the air was fresh. My cousin was right. I loved it, despite the fact I couldn't see the sky.

When my brother came looking for us fifteen minutes later, he was not happy to find us on the roof. He scolded us both and threatened to tell our parents if we didn't get down immediately! Mumbling in annoyance, we complied. Let's just say that after that, no one in the family ever put a ladder within easy reach again. So that was the only time I ever went onto the roof. I wish I could have done it more!

Well, that's it for this post. I will have more stories for you in the future. The next post that I will be putting up in a few days though, is something near and dear to my heart. Some of the snippets of information concerning me will be familiar to anyone who has read my previous posts, but I wrote it a few weeks ago, before I was even sure I wanted to start this blog.

I'll only say this, it's a long one. I mentioned in my :about me: section that I would have several topics to talk about and the next post is one of them. See you in a few days.