Memories That Make You Wince
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16676)
Boston, Massachusetts
November 18, 2015 3:13pm CST
Memories can be beautiful things. As we remember lost loved ones or the day we brought home that baby bundle of joy, we are filled with happiness. Our eyes may even well up with tears (though not so many as Oprah is shedding over the page right now).
There are bad memories, too Those memories may cause pain and heartache.
But then there are memories that just make you wince. Times when you did something really foolish or said something really foolish - the times you felt stupid or embarrassed. Or when you thought that something would be funny, but turned out badly .
I always remember the day that I had one of the neighborhood kids riding on my handlebars as I rode my bike down our dead end street. And I thought it would be funny to go from riding fast to suddenly stopping. You can probably guess that he went flying off to the pavement below. Luckily he just had scraped hands and knees, but it could have been worse.
I rode my bike every day, but it is this day that sticks in my memory and whenever I remember it, it makes me wince. I wince in empathy for his pain. I wince at my own foolish act.
Do you have memories that make you wince? Confess them now. We will be your Oprah. We will listen to your story, cry a bit, then forgive you and give you a courtesy makeover.
Actually, I am just kidding about the makeover, it's a ploy to lure you in.
24 people like this
25 responses
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
19 Nov 15
I remember many such things but one sticks out. It was 7th grade I was in the competition to be class representative. I decide to be nice and vote for my opponent, you guessed it I lost by one vote. How dumb can you get?
4 people like this
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
19 Nov 15
@jaboUK lol Thanks Janet and I think staying out of politics is a good idea but I was disappointed at the time.
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
19 Nov 15
There was a kid that used to always bother me and my 2 other friends in primary school. One day I thought I'd take "revenge" so I put glue on his seat. Now I think that was really mean. 
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
20 Nov 15
@cahaya1983 So, he isn't still glued to the seat? Well, that's a relief.
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
20 Nov 15
@Rollo1 I've no idea where he is and what he does now.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169449)
• United States
19 Nov 15
Reading a few of these woke up my rememberer. let us just say that I was younger than ten, probably, when I knocked my little brother's loose tooth out. He laughed, and being the enterprising young man that he was, he used that incident and a couple of others to black mail me for years, until we were too big for it to matter.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238298)
• Walnut Creek, California
19 Nov 15
@Rollo1 The ones like running across the tracks to sneak on the trains from the South Side of Chicago to the North Side I'm secretly proud of. It's the "mean" ones, like laughing at a another's misfortune when I was very young, that make me wince.
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
19 Nov 15
I don't mean to go all Ben Carson on you, but when I was a schoolboy I stabbed another kid - with a pencil. The lead broke off in his arm and he had to go to hospital. Oh, and I've also ridden my pushbike into a parked car by not looking where I was going.
1 person likes this
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
19 Nov 15
@Rollo1 - It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "eat lead!"
@chelseaearnsmore (208)
• United States
18 Nov 15
I always wince when I think of losing my third grade spelling bee.
Teacher: "Spell 'Shadow'."
Me: (completely confident and cocky) "Shadow. S-H-A-D-O-Y. Shadow."
Yes, I spelled it with a Y. In third grade. My mouth made the sound before I even realized it was the wrong one. Oy. Ugh. Wince every time.
1 person likes this
@chelseaearnsmore (208)
• United States
19 Nov 15
@Rollo1 I did know the right spelling! Just said the wrong thing. Such a horrible feeling. And it's not senility, it's a "creative reconstruction of the English language" :)
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (502376)
• Italy
19 Nov 15
I know how you feel, I did something similar. The kid of the neighbor continued to throw the ball in our garden and then he knocked my door to ask me to recover the ball. After a couple of hours and dozens of door knocks, I got the ball and threw it in the small brook in front of our house. Well I do not feel so guilty, for some magic he never threw again the ball in our garden.
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
19 Nov 15
yeah, and sometimes its hard not to beat myself up for them
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
19 Nov 15
Oh no, this was in the good old days when kids played outdoors and got dirty and scraped their knees and banged their heads and didn't bother parents even if bleeding - unless it didn't stop. In fact, when I was 11, I walked around for hours with a broken arm because I kept expecting it to stop hurting. It didn't and I finally told my mother that my arm hurt.Six weeks in a cast.
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
19 Nov 15
Oh yes. I've done many things that make me wince and just wish they never happened. The funniest and most embarrassing moment in my life was when I was in Boot Camp. I didn't want to cut my hair, so the only other option I had was to wear a regulation length wig. I was in class one day in Boot Camp - it's not all drills and formation - and the teacher decided to wake everyone up. She dropped the thickest book she had - it must have been at least six inches - on the floor. I was very wide awake, but it made me jump a foot and my wig ended up on the floor leaving my head exposed to the stocking I had around my hair. Since that day I anchored my wig with bobby pins so that wouldn't happen again. I haven't worn a wig since my oldest was a baby.
1 person likes this
