Just a little story

[Laschwen]

My parents are currently visiting form Florida and a funny story came up at dinner last night.

I knew the part about having what we thought might be a broken elbow X-Rayed at the Vet's office because we happened to have to go there after I took a fall on the ice while skating.

I was 11.

I didn't know the rest of the story.

Apparently the Vet came out of his office after reading my X-Rays and told my Mother there was good news and bad news. The good news was that there was no fracture. The bad news was that I was not done growing.

Humph!

How Rude.

Apparently he knew the family well enough that it was not taken that way at the time. I think it was good that they didn't tell me at the time I could and would get past 6 foot. I might have done something desperate. It was horrifying to experience it as it came anyway and took years to get over...as much as I ever did anyway. I would still like to have quit at 5 foot 10 inches. It would have made life easier.

Of course then I would have no subject for my book project. Who knows? Maybe I can make some money from my experiences?

Anybody else in the over 40 crowd ever know of having been told when or if you were done growing? It doesn't seem that I ever heard of other kids being evaluated?

[jimpickles]

What's so wrong with being tall? For one thing, you can find your spouse easily in a crowd - you will see the other head sticking up above everyone else.

 

Jim.

[wembley]

I was evaluated by a doctor at age 11 to get a projected height (I'm 36). They predicted I'd be 5 foot- actually I'm 5 foot 1 inch (and a tiny bit!), so the prediction was a bit off.

 

My family always referred to me as "the runt of the litter". Always good for the self esteem!

 

When I was very young, the lady living down the road from us was the most elegant lady that I had ever met. She was 6 feet tall, with pure white hair swept upwards into a bun, and lovely and graceful. She had been a model for famous artists, and her house was filled with beautiful pieces of art. My ambition was to be just like her when I grew up! The only thing that I'm likely to succeed in is having pure white hair, and I'm holding onto that ambition!

 

p.s. Jim is so right. Being short you get lost in a crowd and it puts your nose at armpit level on public transport....

[MelissaGA]

I'm in the over 40 crowd and have a similar story to Wembley. I was about 12 and 4'8." We were happy to hear I had some more growing left to do! At some point in time, a physician predicted I'd grow to be about 4'10". I exceeded expectations and made it just a bit over 5 feet.

 

I am hoping dd takes after the other side of the family. My husband's sister is 5'6"

[Laschwen]

Here is the thing when you are an 11 year old girl. You want to blend in except for maybe wanting to be the first one to have a visit from the booby fairy.

No girl of that age wants to stick out in any way much less be a head taller than everybody in her class, or whole school for that matter. When it happens, ones self conscious stage kicks in with a vengence. I wished for invisibility.

Kids can be pure beasts when teasing other kids too. The bigger kids are forbidden to "pick on" smaller kids and some never learn to defend themselves verbally or physically because of that. You learn to suck it up young.

From what I hear these days, teachers and parents don't put up with the crap their kids dished out publicly in the old days. Self esteem was not an issue waaaay back when I was in elementary school. There was also no such thing as verbal abuse. It was the 60's and 70's. People patronized saying "Oh it is just teasing. It means they like you." Um Hmm. Not necessarily. I got abuse from kids I had never seen before starting in about first grade, and in front of several teachers usually.

All the adults back then and now rant on about what an advantage it is to be tall but experience teaches girls that it is only advantageous for boys. That Veterinarian knew it would be no thrill to be so tall as a girl and sympathized with my mother.

This doesn't happen every time I will admit, but I have known many others like myself.

My husband had a schoolmate who is now a 6 foot 1 inch woman. She grew early too. He said she never got picked on in school. I had the opportunity to ask her about this a few years back. She said my husband must have been blind and deaf not to have known it was going on. He went to a very small school and Graduated with about 50 other students. It is hard to miss much like that, but he is so generally oblivious to stuff, that he would have to have witnessed it close up to believe it. He is also kind enough that he would have defended her.

If a girl is blessed with an athletic body and participates on team sports life can be totally different. I knew the difference for the one school year that I played basketball on the team. Boys who wouldn't look at me before were starting friendly conversations suddenly.

Later on in life I was talking to a near 6 foot Niece who grew slower than I did and was on a swim team. She said nobody ever picked on her. I was amazed. I did find out in the course of the conversation that she was among those nasty kids dishing out the abuse. She was also not nearly the only one in her class who was especially tall.

Times do change, but most women I know would be thrilled to death to be 5 foot six inches and size 6 unless they are ballerina types. Personally I could go for 5 foot 10 and size 10 (for clothes and shoes). I would still fit in most cars, bus seats, plane seats, and locally purchased clothes. I would still stand out a bit too.

I did learn to like that....eventually.

I think I was about 16 when I started enjoying my height a bit.