My sister seemed very small when we were living in that house in northern New Brunswick.my mother would put her outside in a little pen that was built beside our house,for fear that she would run out on the road.I'm not certain if that was because she actually had strayed near the road,or just because she was so much smaller than me,but I was allowed to wander about in the yard.At the age that we both were at the time,sixteen months difference seemed a huge difference even to me.I veiwed my little sister as a baby,even though I myself must have been very small.She was small enough that she didn't talk much while I could carry on a conversation,at least with older children and adults.But I'm certain that ability was not so well developed as I imagine today,and thus,the quality of memory is somehow different because of it.More on memory later.While I could dress myself with minimal help from one of my parents,my little sister was dressed by my mother.I can still recall her slipping a little baby into a snow suit,and that is why she seemed so small though she was only slightly more than a year younger than myself.
My sister never did stray out onto the road,at least when we lived in Redmondville.And that is a good thing as ,surely there would have been no hope with the way cars went speeding by our house.But that is not to say she was never in any danger from the misadventures of early childhood.At some point during the year or so we lived there,she found and swallowed a screw.Actually,what she swallowed I would call a bolt-long and thin with a square end.I saw it a few years later when my mother was showing us both our baby books and I was amazed not just that such a thing could pass through a small child,but that it could be swallowed in the first place.At the time,as I recall my father was away to a funeral,likely in Springhill.I don't recall how we got to the hospital,but I do remember being there.The halls there were wide and the room was very cool as we waited.The doctors had taken my sister and I didn't know where she was.I don't recall being concerned or having any appreciation of danger associated with this event.Mostly I sent my time trying to escape and explore the hospital,which was unlike any place I'd ever been before.My mother certainly seemed uptight as we waited for what seemed like a long time.Every time I would try to wander off she would herd me back into the waiting room and make me sit down on one of the seats until I would try to sneak off again.Eventually we went home and left my sister at the hospital.She wasn't there long.It was simply a matter of waiting for the screw to do what food does naturally.But in those days you weren't allowed or encouraged to stay overnight at the hospital.Back at home I remember my mother calling several people on the phone.One was most likely my father,and the other my grandmother who lived on the other side of the province.She explained how we were waiting for the screw to pass through my sister,and as I listened,I tried to imagine what this would look like,how it was accomplished.It was simply a concept that my mind could not accomodate at the time.We went back to the hospital and after a couple of times,we brought my sister home with us.My father returned too,after a few days and we were all together and safe again.It must have been a very stressful time for my family,though I didn't seem to have much grasp of any danger related to the incident.I guess when you are small,your mind works very differently than when you're grown.
My sister never did stray out onto the road,at least when we lived in Redmondville.And that is a good thing as ,surely there would have been no hope with the way cars went speeding by our house.But that is not to say she was never in any danger from the misadventures of early childhood.At some point during the year or so we lived there,she found and swallowed a screw.Actually,what she swallowed I would call a bolt-long and thin with a square end.I saw it a few years later when my mother was showing us both our baby books and I was amazed not just that such a thing could pass through a small child,but that it could be swallowed in the first place.At the time,as I recall my father was away to a funeral,likely in Springhill.I don't recall how we got to the hospital,but I do remember being there.The halls there were wide and the room was very cool as we waited.The doctors had taken my sister and I didn't know where she was.I don't recall being concerned or having any appreciation of danger associated with this event.Mostly I sent my time trying to escape and explore the hospital,which was unlike any place I'd ever been before.My mother certainly seemed uptight as we waited for what seemed like a long time.Every time I would try to wander off she would herd me back into the waiting room and make me sit down on one of the seats until I would try to sneak off again.Eventually we went home and left my sister at the hospital.She wasn't there long.It was simply a matter of waiting for the screw to do what food does naturally.But in those days you weren't allowed or encouraged to stay overnight at the hospital.Back at home I remember my mother calling several people on the phone.One was most likely my father,and the other my grandmother who lived on the other side of the province.She explained how we were waiting for the screw to pass through my sister,and as I listened,I tried to imagine what this would look like,how it was accomplished.It was simply a concept that my mind could not accomodate at the time.We went back to the hospital and after a couple of times,we brought my sister home with us.My father returned too,after a few days and we were all together and safe again.It must have been a very stressful time for my family,though I didn't seem to have much grasp of any danger related to the incident.I guess when you are small,your mind works very differently than when you're grown.
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