Wednesday, January 06, 2016

On Being a Bass Ackwards Kinda Guy

When I was watching the kids at free skate just before Christmas, I once again pondered how bass ackwards I am ... and have always been.

You see, in all free skating, where people go around and around the rink, the direction is always counter clockwise. I guess this is because most people in the universe find it easier to skate in that direction.

I don't. Turning toward my left is a ponderous problem for me. Oh, I get around — eventually — and don't fall or anything, but it's a process as I chug around that long bend.

The last few times I skated — admittedly a very long time ago — I would wait eagerly for them to announce a change in direction. I loved it because I could turn right soooo much better than left. Too bad, this was always short-lived; a few times around, and we were soon sent back in the normal-for-others direction. At the kids skate, they didn't do this reverse thing at all.

I have a vague recollection of being kept back after school way back in grade 1 to practise my printing on the blackboard. Apparently, I was printing bass ackwards and needed some remediation. I don't know now if it was my letters or the whole word, but I assume it was just the letters.

When I took a few viola lessons as a kid, after the first session, I practised diligently, but was yelled at by the teacher in the  next class because I was holding the fiddle backwards. By that I mean the I was gripping the neck with my hand in a reversed position. To my credit, at least I was using the correct hand or wasn't trying to play the instrument upside down.

I was taught to tie my shoelaces by making 2 loops. That worked fine. But at some point I decided to teach myself the more adult way. So, I guess I mirrored what I saw others doing. When I say mirrored, I mean it literally because I now do everything bass ackwards to the way that most people do it — almost a mirror image as it were.

Once upon a time, I decided to say bass ackwards to my class for some reason or other, but it came out bass ackwards to what I had intended, and I found myself saying "ass backwards." Good thing nobody batted an eye, The bad thing is that I have often found something odd coming out of my mouth and not what I had intended. Admittedly, it's not always something exactly bass ackwards but it does point out that my mind ain't zackly normal, Maggie.

Humorously enough here in the very present, I just wrote the previous bass ackwards as back asswards ... which really demonstrates how scrambled my little brain is. And subsequent to that, the last sentence, I typed brian instead of brain. It is a miracle that I caught these things in proofing as I usually miss them.

Those are 5 examples or even 6 or 7, depending how you wish to add them up, that come to mind. There are probably all sorts of little ones of which I am unaware. I just seem to process things differently that most people. It's a miracle that I have gotten through life as well as I have.

13 comments:

ADRIAN said...

It makes we monder which way Spooner preferred skating.

Jackie said...

Your brain knows which way it wants to function best. Go with it....
Hugs,
J.

Marie Smith said...

Different doesn't make it wrong in my experience. Whatever works is what I say. It makes for a good story too.

TexWisGirl said...

dare to be different. :)

Country Gal said...

You bring up good points here, with the skating I never really thought about it just went counter clock wise with the rest on the ice but I did figure skate and play hockey so warm ups then were done clock wise lol as for the laces I did it what you call the adult way always have and for the phrase ass backwards my British parents used to say it to us kids all the time and I changed it to bass ackwards when I had my kids . Funny how one doesn't really think about these things till some one else mentions it and it makes you think lol ! Good post . Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !

Mara said...

I am just so used at seeing speed skaters going counter clock wise I never even gave it a thought. As for skating myself: I did it so little that that never got me thinking either. Plus we skated outside a lot as well and that just meant following the canal or wide ditch for a long time and then returning.

Tabor said...

I never realized that some folks like skating a certain direction. I guess this would apply to ballroom dancing?

Anvilcloud said...

I don't necessarily think so, Tabor. Balance is different in skating. Mind you, my experience in ballroom is limited. :)

Ginnie said...

You may be bassackward but it sure doesn't show in the pictures you take.

EG CameraGirl said...

Fascinating. I cannot skate well so I have no idea which way I would prefer to turn but I always turn left when walking around a circle, which drives my husband crazy. LOL Oh, and I also played the viola when I was a kid. I played just about as well as I skated. :)

Curtains in My Tree said...


LOL hello
I never met a back asswards guy LOL

KGMom said...

Are you left-footed?

Anvilcloud said...

I don't think so KG although I guess I have become that later in life. I remember playing tennis after I badly injured my right foot and making the deliberate attempt to lead with my left. It wasn't natural back then and long after I had that left turn problem with skating.