Monday, August 5, 2013

"Mom, What Is That?"

 
I was eight or nine years old and working my way through (not straight through, but rather fast-forwarding through) my maternal grandmother's old encyclopedia set which came into Mom's possession at Grandma's death.
 
Face to face I found myself with the mysterious - and to a child, rather scary - sphinx. Not like the one in the illustration above, but rather an old black and white picture of the Great Sphinx of Giza - before it had been dug out of centuries worth of sand.
 
I didn't know how to begin to pronounce the word. I had never encountered that mix of consonants in any of my school readers. Mom put her face close to mine so I could I watch her mouth, and she slowly pronounced it for me.
 
Egypt held an especial fascination for me, no doubt because I was fascinated (and terrified) by the old Universal Mummy movies. I still remember strolling up my grammar school librarian and asking for a book about mummies. She told me that subject was a bit too gruesome for children, but she did give me a child's mystery novel that involved a whispering mummy. Yay! (Not really.) It was some years later, as a teenager, that I was able to check out some real books on the subject at our large public library.
 
I didn't realize that the Sphinx of Giza was missing it's nose. That face haunted me and actually figured in a recurring nightmare that featured that face atop a mummy's wrapped body. As if that wasn't terrifying enough, the Sphmummy of my nightmares was as tall as a tree. (Boy, was I glad when I outgrew that dream!)
 
Sometimes I think I stretched my limits as a child. (Sometimes I probably still do.)

5 comments:

  1. Cute. I'm trying to remember when I first learned that word...HEY, can you read the letters on my blog ok? A reader emailed that she can't read it. I am able to enlarge what I see on my blog, are you? I lost your email address, sorry to hog up your comments.

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    1. Your blog looks fine on my browser (Google Chrome). I'm sure I could enlarge what I read on my blog - I'd just have to remember how.

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  2. Oh good. I THOUGHT people could enlarge as needed on their computers. I can read your posts perfectly...I'm afraid I am on a "need to know" basis with my computer, so no clue how to enlarge, luckily my eyes are mostly ok. Thanks.

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  3. My interest in Egypt continues to this day. While a teacher, I had my kids in World History to figure out their own names in hieroglyphics when we studied Egypt. The Egyptians were so far ahead of others in science.

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    1. Sadly they interest me a lot less these days, but their history is rich and interesting.

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