Friday, March 20, 2015

My childhood was a house of lies

Is that you Harvey??!!
My first pet was a parakeet named Harvey. He was a cute little green bird and I loved having a pet. We had him for a few years and then one day he was gone. I was very upset so my mother told me that Harvey had to go back to the pet store because he missed all his bird friends. Of course I then demanded that we go to the pet store to see Harvey. My mother brought me to the pet store down the street and she pointed to a parakeet in a cage and said, "See, there he is. Harvey is fine." Satisfied, we went home. 

I would continue to visit Harvey for a while until I forgot about it. Years later we were back in the pet store and I started thinking about Harvey. It was then that I realized that Harvey did not make it back to the pet store, but in fact died. My mother had lied to me! When I asked her why she lied she said, "Well, you were a very dramatic child and if I told you he actually died you would have cried for days". She does have a good point, I definitely would have done that.

6 comments:

  1. Man, your mom was lucky there was a bird there that looked enough like Harvey. What would she have said if there wasn't? "Oh, the colors of his feathers changed?"

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    1. Harvey was green and yellow which is the color the pet store had the most off so it worked out ha ha.

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  2. I had to change new gold fish to replace dead ones multiple times!

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  3. It's a thoroughly modern thing to try to protect one's children from the reality and finality of death. I don't get it. I think it's better to address it as openly as possible. Of course, that's easy for me to say as I don't have any children of my own...

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    1. I think my mother at the time just wasn't in the mood to deal with it and probably regretted this after I made her take me to the pet store.

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