Flashback Friday

I don't know that I'll do a flashback Friday post every week, but I had an idea for today, so I'm running with it! 

With the pandemic that has settled in for the last couple of years, I think it's sometimes tempting to forget that there are actually still OTHER sicknesses flying around. The flu seems to be a popular one in our general area right now, and several people I know have good-old-fashioned-honest-to-goodness colds. Some of them were genuinely surprised to find they had something other than THE sickness, which reminds me of a meme I saw last week that made me laugh. It said something to the effect of, "Everyone else is getting the genuine sickness, and I'm getting the store brand version." Right???

So anyway! As I've doled out advice (over the phone) to former tenants about what to do when they get the store brand version of sicknesses, it has made me think back to my own childhood and some of the staples of sick days back then!

* If I was too sick to go to school (or church), I was too sick to go have fun with friends or do anything else. Anyone else?? I remember the first time I chose to go "do something fun" after calling in sick as an adult. I felt SO GUILTY. I wish you could have seen that moment, because it was so funny. I was feeling much better from whatever had kept me home from work, and about 10 p.m. there was a HUGE fire a few blocks over from where I lived. One of my friends, who likes to chase stuff as much as I do, called to see if I wanted to drive around with her to see if we could find the fire. I told her I didn't think I could go because I'd called in sick to work and I probably shouldn't go have fun. I'm fairly certain she had to work hard at not laughing as she said, "Bekah you're literally a passenger in a car - IN THE DARK - to look for a fire that is around the corner." I went. And I confessed it to my boss the next day. #nerd.

* My parents both worked in the school system, so if I was sick on a school day, they had to figure out whose calendar would take the greater hit by missing work, so they could figure out who needed to stay home with me. But as I recall, regardless of which one went to work, they were both good about stopping at the Comet Cone on the way home to get me a Coke or a milkshake. (The Comet Cone was a little local ice cream and burger spot on the edge of town.) I always got excited to see that clock creep toward mid-afternoon, because I could imagine my little treat was coming soon!

* One super weird thing about me was that I hated (and actually still hate) broth soups. So while all normal people asked for and desired chicken noodle soup when sick, I asked for cream of mushroom. Mom would tell me that was not normal, but I did not care. It's what I wanted. I actually don't really eat soup at all now when I'm sick, but that was one weird thing about my childhood sicknesses.

* I also couldn't swallow pills until I was embarrassingly old. It was at least junior high, if not high school. If the medicine didn't come in liquid or chewable form, I was not a candidate. I'm pretty sure when Mom realized Children's Tylenol was just no longer a viable option for me, she had to bribe me with a gift to start swallowing pills. Fun fact: I still hate swallowing pills and have a very low threshold for the size of pills I can take. When I was on the antibiotic after my dog bit, we had to cut each dose into FOUR PIECES before I could mind-over-matter my way through it. 

* My childhood illness of choice was strep. Got it every single winter until one year I didn't...and I've only had it once since then. (In college. In the SUMMER. Mom had to hide those antibiotic pills in ice cream.)

* My favorite thing, when I was little, was that after I'd been sick for a day or so, Mom would send me to the bathtub to get all cleaned up and while I was gone, she'd put fresh sheets on the bed. I loved it so much. I just felt better after a bath and fresh sheets. 

* Another favorite thing from when I was little was when I finally felt well enough to relocate from my bedroom to the living room to rest on the couch. It felt like such an upgrade on the way to well! I always had to stay in bed until the worst of it had passed, and then I could go to the living room. Mom would make me a little bed on the couch, and I could socialize with the family until bedtime again.

* Worst part of sickness as a kid? Homework. When that absentee folder arrived, no amount of Coke or milkshakes could help. 

So that's my flashback Friday about memories of being sick when I was little. What was it like for you when you were a kiddo? Any fond memories?