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Childhood memories…aren’t they great? Well….some of them are great, some are hurtful and some are downright embarrassing. This childhood memory happens to be one of the embarrassing ones.

As a young girl, about 5 years old, I loved to do girly things. I loved to fix my hair, sneak into my mother’s makeup, play dress-up, wear Momma’s high heeled shoes and take a bath.

I loved to primp and powder and puff. A friend of mine calls me Prissy and I guess you could say I used to be (my sister would beg to differ on the words "used to"). I could never be too pretty, or anyone notice me too much. You remember how some kids would show off when company came over, well I was one of those kids. I would do anything to attract attention. I would sing off key, try to dance, play guitar, recite poetry, try to impress folks with my great knowledge. That backfires sometimes, as you will see.

My aunt Irene and uncle Layton would often come to our house for a visit, as they didn’t live more than a few miles away. One particular summer evening they came by for a visit while I was in the bathtub. Now school had already started and I was paying particular attention to my personal hygiene. I would love to soak in that tub, and read a book, or daydream until the water got cold.

My Dad was working late and had not gotten home yet, so I felt that I could take as long as I wanted to in the bathroom. I put a ton of bubble bath in the water, threw in my wash cloth, got my book all ready and jumped in. I had read for awhile, and the water started to get cold, so I thought I might should start thinking about getting out of the water. I grabbed the soap, though Lord knows why I needed more soap, there were enough soap bubbles in that water for five bathtubs full. I lathered my wash cloth until I could hardly hold on to it, and washed my face with it. At the same time I sneezed and can you imagine what happened? Soap bubbles went through the cloth into the air.

Oh, how magical. I had my own personal Lawrence Welk’s show in my little bathroom. I had found a new toy. So I would lather that wash cloth up and hold it up to my face and blow through it and these soap bubbles would magically float through the air. I was so prissy that I even thought to myself that no other girl in school had her own soap bubbles in her bathroom! I played on until the bathroom was quite sticky with little bubbles of soap all over the place.

During one spectacular soap bubble attempt, I coughed. Big mistake. You know how you kinda breathe in, sucking in air after you cough? Well I sucked in bubbles instead. Another big mistake. Those soap bubbles had gathered in the back of my throat and covered my windpipe. I couldn’t breathe!

I jumped out of the tub and began beating on the door of the bathroom. The door was locked on the inside and in my panic I didn’t think to unlock the door. I kept beating on the door, and Mom came running, asking me what was wrong. Of course, I couldn’t answer, and after a few minutes….well it couldn’t have been minutes….but it seemed like it….my uncle Layton broke through the door .

I must have been a sort of sick colored blue because my uncle knew right away that I was choked. He yanked me up and ran with me to the front porch, turned me upside down and held me by my heels and whacked me on the back repeatedly. Now this might not seem like a big deal to you, and he did save my life, but I was bared to the world, hair all matted and wet, and nekked as a jaybird to beat it all!

When I finally caught my breath he lowered me to the floor, turned me upright and my momma rushed over and hugged me, so relieved that I was alright. I was just relieved to be breathing again and not on display anymore.

I still don’t like soap bubbles to this day and always caution my kids whenever they buy those soap bubbles with the little wand inside the bottle, please don’t sneeze or cough. Bad things can happen!

I think the whole soap bubble thing was a bit over rated. I’ll let Lawrence Welk keep his nasty old bubbles. They aren’t worth the embarrassment. Besides, my brothers teased me for a year about it. Oh well, you live and learn. I learned you should always keep soap bubbles in the bottle and don’t take a bath nekked!