Completely in the Dark

I wasn’t exactly one of them, but I totally understood thumbsuckers.

Fairly sure I haven’t made this confession here before, but I used to suck my curled left forefinger long after it was appropriate for any child to do so. And, unlike that patron saint of thumbsuckers—Linus—I didn’t carry around a blanket.

I never went anywhere without my pillow.

Casts a vivid picture, no? Little boy sucking his finger, a pillow clutched to his face, the moist comfort of flesh, the musty-sweet smell of the pillow—heaven.

Yeah, well, it cost me a world of shame at the time, as well as dental malocclusion worries from the Family Project. And while it might be argued that my “nasty habit” was somehow related to Mom’s breastfeeding—particularly its abrupt cessation—research seems to indicate otherwise.

I’m reminded of this now because of one artifact from the early Family…