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Spirographica

We have a winner for the latest round of Lori’s Childhood Trivia. But before I get into that, I want to second Melissa‘s declaration of Fess Up Week, which “takes delurking one step further. ” As Mel says:

“So, since I tell you all sort of interesting tidbits from inside my head, it feels like a fair trade to ask you who you are. So let me know that you read this post and then you can go back to reading without commenting. And feel free to ask others on your own blog to fess up this week. Though I’ll admit this here–if you are on my blogroll, I read you. Either regularly or irregularly, I am on your blog. See, it’s not so hard to fess up.”

So, Michigan, Ontario, Eugene, New York, UK, Oklahoma, India, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Libya and people from other places who read but haven’t commented, please delurk just long enough to let me know you read.

Confession is good for the soul, don’tcha know.

***

So now I have to figure out how to say “mojito” in French. Any guesses?

Niobe, currently in Paris, popped into an internet cafe on the River Seine (Rive Gauche or Rive Droite?) during her lunchtime and guessed correctly, Spirograph.

I have a bittersweet relationship with Spirographs. I found them endlessly fascinating. I loved creating different designs with such small tweaks. I think that even as a young child, it appealed to my growing understanding of cause and effect, as well as relationships. How two gears fit together determined the how a thing came together. Small changes on one end meant a completely different outcome. The symmetry and colors kept me making more, more, more.
 

But I also associate spirographs with being sick. The year I was 5, I was in the hospital three times with pneumonia. I can still recall the devastation I felt each day when visiting hours were over and my parents had to leave. I was in an oxygen tent, which not only kept me isolated and wet (it was very humid in there, and the sheets were always cold and damp), but also I had to watch my mom walk away through the distortion of the clear and dewy plastic. As a grownup, I know now that my mom’s heart must have been breaking as well, but at that time it just felt, each night, like my world was ending.

People sent lots of gifts to me while I was in the hospital. Many of them were Spirographs.

Do you have a particular memory of a Spirograph?

Maybe this will help you search your memory.

And for more spiro-fun, click here.

0 Responses

  1. I confess.I don’t know if we ever owned a spirograph. I associate them with other people’s houses.

  2. Ok, I am fessing up. I have been reading for a little while, both here and at Drama. I love spirographs. We just gave out little ones as favors at my daughter’s birthday party.

  3. I confess.I don’t know if we ever owned a spirograph. I associate them with other people’s houses.

  4. Ok, I am fessing up. I have been reading for a little while, both here and at Drama. I love spirographs. We just gave out little ones as favors at my daughter’s birthday party.

  5. California, here I am!!! It’s a cloudless 76 degrees here today… do you hate me?We didn’t have a spirograph but I wanted one. My friend had one which I shamelessly appropriated for myself at every opportunity.I was thinking Hungry Hippos. Darn.

  6. I’m new here, but thought I’d fess up, anyway! I LOVED my spirograph! I found some at some website a couple of years ago and bought them for my nieces. They were less than impressed. Oh well….

  7. Fessing up right here. I mostly lurk on both your blogs but comment every once in awhile. I was never lucky enough to have a spirograph, always thought I had horrible parents who bought us books as presents so to me they were a forbidden fruit that I only got to have at friends houses

  8. ILLINOIS…..I FESS UP…but relatively new here to your blog so there may be another ILLINOIS…DebiP

  9. Also here from Ontario, & yes, we had a Spirograph. I loved it, especially using different coloured pens. ; ) Your hospital memories remind me of my own hospital stays when I was a kid. I had bladder & kidney problems which landed me in the hospital for testing several times & follow up visits at least once a year, up until I was about 12. I found it all extremely traumatic & my mother finally got the drs to agree that I didn’t have to go anymore. I eventually outgrew the problem, although one of my kidneys is slightly smaller than the other (I also have a bicornuate uterus, & apparently there is a high co-relation between the two… but, I digress!). It was years & years before I could set foot in a hospital again without getting the shakes. Dh & I visited his cousin’s little boy when he landed in the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children with a ruptured appendix. They had a cot in his room for his mom to stay with him, plus his own TV & VCR. I guess pediatric medicine has come a long way.

  10. California, here I am!!! It’s a cloudless 76 degrees here today… do you hate me?We didn’t have a spirograph but I wanted one. My friend had one which I shamelessly appropriated for myself at every opportunity.I was thinking Hungry Hippos. Darn.

  11. I’m new here, but thought I’d fess up, anyway! I LOVED my spirograph! I found some at some website a couple of years ago and bought them for my nieces. They were less than impressed. Oh well….

  12. Fessing up right here. I mostly lurk on both your blogs but comment every once in awhile. I was never lucky enough to have a spirograph, always thought I had horrible parents who bought us books as presents so to me they were a forbidden fruit that I only got to have at friends houses

  13. ILLINOIS…..I FESS UP…but relatively new here to your blog so there may be another ILLINOIS…DebiP

  14. Also here from Ontario, & yes, we had a Spirograph. I loved it, especially using different coloured pens. ; ) Your hospital memories remind me of my own hospital stays when I was a kid. I had bladder & kidney problems which landed me in the hospital for testing several times & follow up visits at least once a year, up until I was about 12. I found it all extremely traumatic & my mother finally got the drs to agree that I didn’t have to go anymore. I eventually outgrew the problem, although one of my kidneys is slightly smaller than the other (I also have a bicornuate uterus, & apparently there is a high co-relation between the two… but, I digress!). It was years & years before I could set foot in a hospital again without getting the shakes. Dh & I visited his cousin’s little boy when he landed in the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children with a ruptured appendix. They had a cot in his room for his mom to stay with him, plus his own TV & VCR. I guess pediatric medicine has come a long way.

  15. Lori…I came here to let you know that I tagged you but I can’t believe you posted about Spirograph!! I just found (last week) my old spirograph! I used to LOVE playing with it when I was a kid. < HREF="https://foreverparents.com/2008/04/10-quirky-things-about-myself.html" REL="nofollow">Here’s the post about the tagging!<>

  16. Lori — Hi!Thank you for your kindness to me the other day — your award — I plan on sitting down and passing it on this week — I love your blog(s) — everytime I open them I’m surrounded by the warmth of your heart.The image of the hospital is so powerful –spirographs…you know I remember this mandala coloring book I had…and I swear I had one of those plastic things where you put your pen in the hole and twirl it around and it makes…aaaaaaaaaaahaha…I DID have one. Well where was that memory hiding all this time?xoPam

  17. Lori…I came here to let you know that I tagged you but I can’t believe you posted about Spirograph!! I just found (last week) my old spirograph! I used to LOVE playing with it when I was a kid. < HREF="https://foreverparents.com/2008/04/10-quirky-things-about-myself.html" REL="nofollow">Here’s the post about the tagging!<>

  18. Lori — Hi!Thank you for your kindness to me the other day — your award — I plan on sitting down and passing it on this week — I love your blog(s) — everytime I open them I’m surrounded by the warmth of your heart.The image of the hospital is so powerful –spirographs…you know I remember this mandala coloring book I had…and I swear I had one of those plastic things where you put your pen in the hole and twirl it around and it makes…aaaaaaaaaaahaha…I DID have one. Well where was that memory hiding all this time?xoPam

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