> Enema, the word, does it give you a thrill?
Yes! The word 'enema' has given me a thrill since that day long ago when I first heard it and shortly after hearing it, found out to my great pleasure what it meant.
Actually, I misheard the word when my father first said it. I was five and it was some time before I understood the proper pronunciation. What I heard Daddy tell me one afternoon was "Your mother and I are going to give you an enn-NIN-a-mah" (accent on the second syllable). Shortly afterwards I got my first 'enn-NIN-a-mah' kneeling nude on my hands-and-knees with Daddy holding the red bag and Momma inserting the cold-cream lubricated black nozzle and clicking hose clamp. It was absolutely wonderful. From that day on I would often think the word and, when by myself, excitedly repeat it aloud to hear the thrilling sound. I would say things like "We're going to give you an enn-NIN-a-mah tonight" or "Do you think you need an enn-NIN-a-mah?".
I don't really know just how long it was before I realized the proper pronunciation was 'IN--a--ma' but the word in either form thrilled me. I believe my father himself had a strong interest in enemas and, that when he and mother had decided to give me my first enema, he excitedly stuttered as he told me that they were going to "give you an--an--an enema" and I misheard it as "give you an enn-NIN-a-mah".
Aside from the delightful occasions when my parents would announce to me that I was going to receive the treatment I craved but couldn't ask for openly, I didn't hear the word 'enema' very often. But when I did hear 'enema', it never ceased to grab my attention and to thrill me. It still does even all these years later.
I also remember the sensations that overcame me the first time I saw the word 'enema' in print. I must have been eight or nine when I was leafing through the big Sears-Roebuck catalog and happened upon that wonderful section on hot water bottles and fountain syringes ('rubber goods' as they were called). "...for enema" appeared and I was stunned. I had looked in the catalog many times before but only at toys and boy things and seeing enema bags and the words 'enema', nozzle', and 'adult and infant rectal' was thrilling.
I also discovered that the big 1930s-era family medicine book my parents kept and consulted frequently had a marvelous five-page section entitled "The Proper Use of Enemas and Suppositories." I was riveted by the two illustrations accompanying the text: the first was of an infant in diaper-changing position being given an enema with a bulb syringe and the other was of a nude child on all-fours getting an enema from an enema bag. The authors strongly urged parents to make frequent use of the enema with their children and gave detailed instructions for administering enemas to children of varying ages. The use of suppositories and bulb-syringe enemas was recommended for toilet training. When completely trained, the child was to be switched to the enema bag. A paragraph that particularly fascinated me recommended that when it was time to change from the bulb, the parents not wait until an enema was needed but to pick a convenient time when the child was feeling well and administer the first bag enema gently and slowly. The idea was to make the child comfortable with the enema process so that all future enemas would be easy for both parents and child. I am sure that my father had read this passage carefully before he made that wonderful announcement to me.
There are other enema hearings and readings I remember with fondness but I've gone on too long already.
But just for one last thrill: E N E M A ! !