I wrote on Tuesday how the 2.87 mile block in Davie that I used to jog around in my late teens (about 35 years ago) seemed to have shrunk a bit when I ran it on Monday. Naturally, the obvious conclusion to this is that I have grown since then, so things would seem smaller. But I had already grown up to the bodily dimensions I now have, so that isn't so.
The same can be said for just about any place that I am familiar with in South Florida, especially my old house that I lived in from 1960 to 1977. The back yard, which seemed huge when I was twenty, now seems very confined and cramped. The residential block on which my old house stands seems now to be incredibly small.
Distances from one point to another seem to have shrunk as well. I used to think that it was very far between my old home and my school. But it really isn't anymore!
Of course, nothing has shrunk. My perception of this points to an interesting (to me) conclusion. We tend to form, early in childhood, conclusions about distances and size that we are reluctant to abandon, even as we grow up (as long as the exposure to that setting is continuous). So even though I was no longer five years old, a part of that experience was still within me as I viewed my back yard at age twenty. As a fourth-grader going by bus to my (then) distant school in 1965, it seemed like quite a trek (although I wouldn't learn the word "trek" until the following year on television). But it was only five miles, a very moderate distance, from my house.
Now, at age 52, I can still remember my old perceptions, but can now apply my more realistic interpretations of distance and size to my old childhood settings.
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I feel the same way about the distance from my old house to Nova. It took 20 minutes to get there on the bus, and I used to think it was really far. Like, the idea of riding my bike to school would have been unthinkable to me.
ReplyDeleteI drove the path a few years ago with a grade-school friend, when I was down visiting my mother. And I realized that it's only 8 miles! I could probably do it in the same 20 minutes, or maybe just a little longer, now on my bicycle (though not on the one-speed that I had at the time).
Heck, I could walk it, round trip;[1] I hike that far in a day all the time. But back then, I'd no sooner imagine walking all that way than walking, say, from Gainesville to Tallahassee.[2]
It's funny how that works.
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[1] I wouldn't want to, of course; it's not a pleasant route.
[2] For other readers' benefit: Gainesville to Tallahassee is a long way, some 150 miles.
I actually did walk to Nova once in my senior year, in February 1974 on impulse. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although I arrived at school about 45 minutes late (no one seemed to notice). Once, during the tenth grade in April 1972, I was in a rebellious state of mind and decided one afternoon to skip the bus ride and walk home from school. But on Davie Road,about halfway between Griffin and Stirling roads, Mrs. Hyde, a kindly teacher's assistant (and a wonderful human being) pulled over and offered me a ride the rest of the way home. How could I refuse? It was then that I realized that there were people out there looking out for me, even if they didn't always make their presence known.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, I remember Mrs Hyde! And Mrs Bist... I was so sad when she died, and it was the first funeral I ever attended.
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