quirky

When I was kid, I used to spin things with my feet. No, not like a circus act, just a strange habit.

Stools were my usual victim and I would (using my feet) prop the seat upside down on it's side and holding the leg with one foot, use the other foot to spin the chair round and round. Continuously.

Carpet provided a nice cushion to prop the side without too much restriction. My toes clamped around the bottom of the leg as it rubbed up against my foot bottom.

I could do it for hours and I often did on Friday's when The Love Boat, Fantasy Island back to back episodes played. Not to mention Battlestar Gallactica or if there was a network special like Battle of the Stars. Oh yah, good spinning memories.

Cannot forget rainy Saturdays watching old movies on WLBZ from Bangor Maine. After school watching Eddie Driscoll and the Great Money Movies. Majority of time spent spinning.

It drove my mother nuts. Oh well, her issue, not mine. I think it was mainly because my brother was equally addicted to spinning and nothing beats two kids with furniture breaking habits. Between us, we probably broke every single one of those stools at least a dozen times.

They were mostly cast-off child-sized chairs or wood shop projects. But my Dad would always fix them, nothing some well applied wood glue and a strong clamp couldn't fix. Ain't that the truth.

Anyhow, I could go into my other habit of picking apart the armrest of the black vinyl couch in our rec room but I'll spare you. And uh YES, black vinyl and rec room - it was the 70's and there was also a lot of shag and orange involved - and an eight track player.

But back to the the spinning. It has been on my mind recently.

Bumper is a twirler. She twists and twirls her hair all the live long day. And I find it comforting for my own selfish reasons. I know I found spinning relaxing and reliable - almost like a special skill that I ruled at - a useless skill but a skill nonetheless.

And I think that's what she finds in twirling too: relaxation and comfort. She does it absentmindly sometimes, other times it's when she is faced with a new challenge, but mostly I notice it when she's asking a complex question - using new words. It's fascinating to watch.

So how about you? What was your comfort quirk when you were a kid (habitual behind locked door habits aside - I don't want to hear about that pleeeeeze). I haven't met someone yet that didn't eat paper or paste, bite their nails, split split ends, unstuff feather pillows or break lab slides in half (oh wait, that was me again) out of habit.