We are now home with our grandson, who was a super traveling companion yesterday. He and I drove out of Fargo Sunday in a ground blizzard for 100 miles west. It was an Oma’s worst driving nightmare, unable to see the road, which was rapidly filling up with snow and ice, trucks and cars trying to pass, and then realizing that the road was slippery. Grandson was very calm and eventually fell asleep for about an hour. I prayed as I drove. Husband had stayed home to take care of the dog, so I was on my own. I drove 80 MPH once with roads cleared and the winds died down west of Jamestown. I just wanted to get home.
Security for grandson is a special quilt and a couple of stuffed animals-a plush elephant named Ellie and a plush T Rex named Sue. He wrapped himself in his quilt and hugged Sue as we drove. I remember having a special security blanket my mother had to wash when I was sleeping, since I didn’t want to let it out of my sight. I eventually left it on a fence post near Two Harbors when I was 5. I also stopped sucking my thumb then. Our grandson is being so brave, and we are having a great time with him.
What were your security objects when you were a child? What helps you feel secure now?
Trail Baboon 
I also had a blanket and sucked my thumb. I have a photo of me at three standing by the blanket that was hung to dry on my grandmother’s clothesline. I don’t remember what happened to the blanket, but sucked my thumb past five years. Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”
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I don’t remember anything like that as a kid. However, I do think the satin edging on the bed blanket is my comfort at night. I still run my fingers along that edge.
I wonder if it’s a texture thing, and if we had that blanket as a kid, maybe texture is still important to us today?
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I had a yellow blanket with satin edging that went everywhere with me. I still have the blanket but all the satin is worn or torn off. I was never a thumb sucker – instead I sucked the 3rd and 4th fingers of my left hand. Can’t remember exactly when I stopped – sometime before starting school. I have a small, floppy, brown stuffed dog that was given to me as a gift for my first birthday. Most of the fur has rubbed off, the button nose has been sewed back on several times, but the rattle is still in the tail. The eyes are a strip of black rickrack. It’s never had a name or defined gender, but it lays on the end of my bed to this day. I’ve told my family that when I die, I want the dog to be cremated with me (if possible) and not just tossed away.
My younger sister was so attached to her blue blankie that Mom finally had to cut it in half so it could be washed. My older sister didn’t have a security blanket but she sucked her thumb while twisting her hair into tangled knots.
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My blankie was yellow with a satin border, too! Maybe it was the same brand. I wore that thing to shreds by the time I was seven or eight.
Chris
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I don’t remember one, but my sister had a blankie with “feel” on it – the satiny edge Ben mentioned. I remember a stuffed doggie or lambie – he had no back legs so it was hard to tell exactly what he was, but it wasn’t a cherished or a security thing.
What makes me secure these days is to get the hard things off my to-do list. When possible, I do the hardest thing first so I won’t have it hovering in the background of my mind. I was just reading from The Ladies #1 Detective Agency series, and I am like Mma Romatswe in this aspect. : )
Also, being able to go food shopping before the big storm last week helped a lot. Really didn’t have to leave the house for several days.
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There was a great series in Peanuts when Snoopy tried to break Linus of his blanket addiction… don’t have time to find, but there’s this:
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/Linus%27_security_blanket
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Oh shoot – it’s just the picture of Linus with thumb and blanket.
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I had a pacifier for some time, apparently, and I slept with a stuffed animal (my Animal Fair Henry, who I still have) for years. Members of my birth family had the gall to criticize my adoptive mother for not taking the pacifier away from me, but she told them “She’ll give it up when she’s ready,” which of course I did. I admire her self-restraint in not telling them that they were the reason I needed a security item in the first place and they’d forfeited all right to criticize anyone’s parenting choices the moment law enforcement got involved, but then, she was a good Norwegian who thought a whole lot more than she said…
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I cannot remember any item. There is a black cat in many old photos. Maybe that’s kitty security.
Drawing full Social Security is helpful so talk about the repercussions of the US defaulting on the debt is a bit disconcerting.
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Your comment on Social Security made me think of Rosalie Sorrels. She released “Report From Grimes CreeK” on my birthday – April 27 – back in 2006. It’s one of my favorite albums. I can just see her, sitting there in her cabin, reading this. Scroll down to track #5 to hear the Social Security chapter. All of the uneven numbered tracks are excepts from Rosalie’s mother’s journal. I can’t recommend them enough, they are so lovely. Give them a listen, they are well worth it.
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Correction, I just listened to the whole thing, and though all of the uneven tracks are of Rosalie’s reading, most of the readings are from her own journal. The track “Querencia” contains an excerpt from her mother’s journal; great stuff.
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I used to have that album. I don’t know what happened to it, but I’m thinking I may have had it in cassette tape form and it went the way of obsolete media.
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I also had a lot of stuffed animals that were comforting. One of my most tragic memories is when I was about 5, and my mom was vacuuming in my bedroom and I heard a huge commotion and saw my mom run through the house and out the front door carrying my favorite brown bear that was in flames. It was a large bear, and the vacuum had malfunctioned and set the bear on fire.
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Oh DEAR!
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Just being home is my security these days.
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I was scheduled for an MRI this morning but had to cancel. The temp was 31º F and it was raining. Every horizontal surface was covered with a thin layer of water on top of ice, treacherously slippery, I wasn’t about to venture out in that. Bernie didn’t want to go outside, either, and he hasn’t been out yet, though I don’t think it’s falling that he’s worried about.
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How frustrating!
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I had a soft blanket and a teddy bear. I don’t have either of them anymore. I also sucked my thumb. My parents must have been embarrassed about me and took them both away before I was “ready”. I remember looking all over but not finding my comfort sources. I think I needed it even more when my brother was born. All the attention immediately went to him, which is understandable. I was an insecure child. I’ve learned to rely on myself. Being home with Pippin is very comforting and secure for me.
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We are expecting a snow storm tomorrow and tomorrow night, with up to 5 inches of snow. I just can’t believe this weather! Husband won’t drive to Bismarck tomorrow, thank goodness, and is rescheduling his Wednesday clients to next week. I am so relieved he won’t try to slog his way there. That sure helps me feel more secure.
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A tornado past a few miles west of me this afternoon. I’d taken an afternoon nap and heard no alerts. Sleep must be my security.
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If I had something specific when I was a kid, I don’t remember it. And Nonny has never said anything. I do have several of YAs stuffed animals in the attic and I bring one of them down every now and then. They can’t all stay downstairs because Guinevere has trouble telling the difference between a cherished stuffed animal and a chew toy. For security now? Actually, I sleep with what I like to refer to as a huggy pillow. It’s just a regular pillow but I like to sleep snuggled up against it.
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Like many, I had the aforementioned yellow blanket with a satin edge, as well as a brown teddy bear named Bruce. I wore both of those out. Didn’t suck my thumb that I remember, but I was a nail biter. 😦
Comfort today is a good meal at home, a fireplace fire taking the chill off a January night, snuggling with my wife, or reading a good book in my rocking chair with music on softly in the background.
Chris in Owatonna
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