Bandaids & Smiley Faces

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just start smiling out of no where because of a memory that you were thinking of?

 I've been doing that quite often.

Like the other day, I was on my way home and was just sitting there thinking and a random childhood memory popped up into my head. 

And oddly enough, it was about smiley faces on bandaids. 

See, when I was younger, like years ago, I used to be really clumsy. I was always scrapping my elbows,knees, arm,,leg... what ever got in the way of what I wanted to do ended up getting scrapped cut or bruised, somehow. 

I guess most would consider it normal for young kids, but those memories still stick in my head. Antibiotic ointments and peroxide became my enemies and bandaids became my friends. 

I remember the first time that I was allowed to ride my bike out on gravel. I was so excited. I took off down the alley way, thinking in my head,"This is so cool!"

There are no words to describe the way that I felt those few moments that I was actually riding my bike down the alley way.

Yes, I do mean a few seconds.

Because,it was only a few seconds before I went crashing down on the freshly laid gravel in my neighbor's driveway. 

The stinging pain I felt will always stay embedded in my mind. I remember getting up, tears streaming down my face, picking up my bike, and walking back into the yard. I wasn't crying because I was in pain, I was crying because I hadn't of succeeded in making it all the way down the alley and back. I was so determined. In fact, I almost just turned around and was going to make a second attempt but, my sister Melissa saw that I was all scraped up. She told me to go up to the house and have my aunt take care of the scrapes. 

Cue the hysterical crying because I started crying like it was the end of the world. I hated peroxide at that age. It was my enemy. 

I'll spare you the details of cleaning up the scrapes, not to mention washing down my neighbor's gravel driveway and returning their pebbles that had lodged themselves in my skin when I fell... I'll just say that it required lots of peroxide, cotton balls, antibiotic ointment, and plenty of bandaids, with smiley faces of course.

I really don't remember when she started putting smileys on the bandaids.Maybe she started it when she realized that it made me stop crying. I hate to admit it but it worked. 

She'd make a big deal about it, and every time, the smiley was different. Sometimes, they'd just be a simple smiley, or they be more elaborate with hats,tongues sticking out or they'd have weird noses. 

It might sound cheesy but I miss when things could just be fixed with a bandaid and a pen drawn smiley face. 

Now days, just to make myself smile, I'll put smiley faces on my bandaids, to remind me of those moments.