Return of Memoryfest - Day 6/31

[bironic]

6. Elementary School

My friend A. and I were playing Nintendo at her house and eating Jolly Ranchers. Something exciting must have happened in the game, because I took a sudden breath. The Jolly Rancher caught in my throat. Before I could choke on it, I swallowed. The whole thing went down.

I didn't take medicine in pill form for the longest time. When I finally did start, I reminded myself that I had once swallowed an entire Jolly Rancher when my throat was smaller, so I could certainly manage a Tylenol.

About the Memoryfest

Comments

[perspi.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! I'm very glad you didn't choke on that Jolly Rancher, my dear!

And the memory that evoked for me: I grew up on a dairy farm, and my brothers and sister and I had plenty of chores. During the summer we unloaded hay bales into our barn, and because this is a hot, dusty job, we always tried to be sucking on candy or chewing gum. One of our preferred candy types was Jolly Ranchers--generally I could make one last through most of one load of hay. So, high summer and unloading hay is what I think of when I eat a Jolly Rancher now. :)

And that's more than you wanted to know!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Not so! Now I know one small thing about you and about growing up on a dairy farm and that unloading a hay bale takes just a little bit longer than a Jolly Rancher lasts.

And I'm glad neither of us choked. :D

[perspi.livejournal.com]

Ah, not just one hay bale--a wagonload, like this. (This is a random picture I found on the interweb, but it looks just like one of our haywagons!) The small bales stack nicely in the barn, but they're a lot of labor to get there. When I was in college my dad finally decided to sell the baler and get a round-baler, which makes haybales that are MUCH bigger and need a skidloader to move. Didn't do ME much good! :)

Sometimes I forget that not many people have experience with farms or large animals. :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realized I'd said one hay bale instead of a load of bales after I posted the comment, but... was too lazy to re-post. *g* That'd have to be one big bale to outlast a Jolly Rancher. (Jolly Farmer? Somewhat-less-exhausted Farmer?)

Nice photo. Heck, you could have pretended that was a relative of yours and I'd've been none the wiser. That's funny about your dad getting the machine(s) that would have gotten you out of a disliked chore as a kid.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I used to LOVELOVELOVE watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Once I was given a mixed bag of the candy for one holiday or another -- Easter, I suspect -- and I saved all the watermelon ones for last because ... that's what I do. Save the best for last. But, in that typical little kid way of overdoing things, when I finally did get around to eating the watermelon ones, I ate them all in one afternoon. Now the taste of them makes me sick and I just can't eat them anymore. Or any other watermelon-flavored candy, either.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

*Shudders* I can't understand how people can dry-swallow pills; I need a huge amount of water and I still worry about choking.

Your memory triggered this one about food-related injuries:

I was about 10 years old and helping my mom bring food from the kitchen to the living room table for dinner, and we accidentally bumped into each other. Mom was carrying a glass (or Pyrex) dish of buttered sliced potatoes that had just come out of the broiler. The potatoes ended up all over my left arm. I don't know what degree of burns I had, but I did have to go to the ER to have it taken care of. Luckily, this was before mandatory child abuse reporting, so my poor mom didn't come under suspicion of abuse (at least as far as I know).

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

Eek! I hate that feeling of almost choking. One time, I think I was 12 maybe? I was eating/sucking on an ice cube. For no reason. And then... I accidentally swallowed the whole thing. But it was too big to go all the way down, and got stuck in my throat, and for about 3 or 4 seconds, I couldn't breathe at all. And then, it must have melted/slipped, and went down my esophogus, and I could breathe. But my chest ached for the next hour or so.

A very unpleasant experience...

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

I can imagine how scary that must have been. I choked on a marshmallow of all things when I was 11 or 12, but managed to cough it up on my own.

Around the same time, I decided that I wanted to learn to dry-swallow pills, which was a little odd, given that the ony pills I took were chewable vitamins. I started by putting the pill in a piece of masticated marshallow and swallowing that. Then I gradually convinced myself that swallowing the pill on its own was no different than swallowing it in the marshmallow. For years I could dry-swallow any pill (though I seem to have lost the ability recently - must find marshmallows).

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

Gods, I hate that feeling.

When my mother and my siblings moved to washington state, my mother was working for the melaluca company, which sells things made from tea tree oil. I remember the Children's vitamins most vivdly- Large, and muted-colorful, but tasting like chalk dust. Or what about the sudden intrest my mother took in natural remedies? She started putting bee pollen in our oatmeal and downing fish oil capsules. I still won't eat plain oat meal for the memory of bee pollen.

~N~

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I had to google "Jolly Rancher" - cue mental image of you attempting to swallow a tiny sugar cowboy figurine here. I mean, no wonder you almost choked on it :)

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the late showing; I'm definitely in denial about January, 2007, life, etc.

Since I want to do it right this year, I'm going to go back and give you memories for the entries I missed. But first of all... well, the first memory that came to me reading this is a strange one to start with, but it's sticking (hah) in my mind.

I was sitting at the dinner table and the peppermint I was sucking threatened to go down the wrong way. I started coughing and the situation righted itself; at the same time, my father reached out for me, asking, "Are you okay?" I laughed and stretched my hand out, saying, "I'm fine," and he growled in a fiercer voice than I'd ever heard from him, "DON'T push my hand away!" Afterwards, my mother said softly, "Daddy was really scared, you know."

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I had a weakness for most of the red ones, and went through a watermelon phase too. Luckily I didn't overdose on them. I'm sorry you have been forever banished from the land of watermelon enjoyment.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yow. Do you have a scar? I had a friend who, as a child in Russia, tipped a pan of boiling water onto her left arm and still has a sizeable burn scar stretching up and down from her inner elbow.

I can't understand how people can dry-swallow pills

I can't do it either. I can't always get them down properly with a good swallow of water as it is. mer_duff's got a marshmallow trick.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Eek. Well, you probably couldn't have done better than an ice cube in that scenario.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Neat trick. I find it ironic that you used the food you choked on to help you not choke on something else.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Heh. Meant to hyperlink that, but forgot. Glad to have allowed for the image, though.

(It didn't even occur to me until today to look up why they were called Jolly Ranchers. The official website, as you may have seen, said it was because the candy company originators wanted something that sounded down-home rustic Western.)

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I still enjoy real watermelon, at least! It's just the artificial flavor that turns my stomach.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*hug* So glad you're here.

That's a very powerful memory. I sort of choked up at the end there, with your father expressing his fear as anger and your mother explaining it to you.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ick. One thing I don't miss about childhood is being forced to eat things against one's will.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

I can't understand how people can dry-swallow pills

You know, I don't understand it either, and I can actually do it. hahaha I can dry-swallow multiple pills, even. I take four pills daily, all at the same time. If I don't have water I have to do the three little ones in one go and the fourth one in another go. If I do have water, Ican take them all at the same time. Actually, if I have water I can take those four pills and three aspirin all at the same time. And yet I have a tremendously sensitive gag reflex; if I let the pills sit in the middle of my tongue for too long, it's triggered. They don't even need to get near the back of my throat. WTF. I'm weird.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Huh. I may try your method of quick-swallowing. I'd been assuming that letting them rest on the tongue allowed the gag reflex to settle down, but it doesn't always work that way.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

Also, it's easier if you're not literally trying to dry-swallow. A little saliva (ugh, ew, I hate bodily fluids XD) really makes a hell of a difference.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. One step at a time.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

Do you have a scar?

I did for quite a while, but luckily it faded over the years. Now all I have is a patch of slightly discolored skin that you can only notice if you're looking for it.

[stephantom.livejournal.com]

Heh. I suppose that's very true. An object of the same size that didn't melt would not have been a good alternative... might have died. Would have needed the heimmlick at any rate, I think. On the other hand, the fact that it was freezing was part of what made it really painful and traumatizing. But still, better than really choking.

I have zip idea what a Jolly Rancher is!

[ryokophoenix.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, I couldn't swallow pills at all. I'd retch them back up.

One of my cousins suggested practicing with grapes.

Funnily enough, I still can't swallow them all that well.

I'm behind on memories! Too busy. >.<;

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hey, whenever you can make it, drop on in. Doesn't have to be every day.

In the intermediate period when we'd outgrown liquid and chewable meds but couldn't manage to swallow pills, our parents crushed them in applesauce.

A grape seems like such a big object to practice on. A peeled one, maybe.

And, sorry! Jolly Ranchers (http://www.sweetfactory.com/store/images/jolly-rancher-wrap-candy.jpg) are small, fruit-flavored, brick-shaped hard candies.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

When I was six and we lived in Bahrain, my sister was often sick. And because she was so little - only 1½-2 years - they gave her liquid penicillin. She didn't want it, but I liked the taste of it. There was lots of sugar in it.