It was the "Golden Age" for my older sister Tess and me as we both liked enemas, me from 5YO due to a hospital enema when having my tonsils out, and Tess, who was aware of mom giving me enemas with the "red squeeze thing in my butt" before I remember. Even just knowing that one of us or our two younger sisters were getting an enema caused excitement
I was talking with Tess again last night about our life on the farm in the 1950s and how much simpler it was and she brought up an event where I was sick in bed and she kept telling our mother that I sounded terrible. Of course that triggered mom to check on me and even though I wasn’t feeling very bad I faked a stomach ache looking for sympathy.
As the usual cure for almost ANYTHING back then was an enema, I of course put up a token resistance. It didn’t take mom long to call me into the big upstairs bathroom that we all knew was “the enema room”. I vaguely remember this event as I was about 6 or 7 YO but Tess said she remembers it vividly. She saw mom go to the bathroom and open the window seat where the enema bag was kept when not in use, so Tess went to her room, climbed onto the porch roof, went over to near the bathroom window to watch and listen to the entire procedure!
I went in with mom, watched her get the red open top bag out, run water in the sink, use the 16 oz measuring cup and pour two of them into the bag. All this happened while I take my PJ bottoms off and lay them on the clothes hamper, mom hangs the bag on the hook next to the window seat, I lay across her lap, she takes the hose from the top of the bag, rubs Vaseline on the tip, squirts a little water into the sink, in the large mirror on the bathroom door I watch everything as the nozzle is headed for my butt, I feel the insertion, mom reaches for the metal clamp and CLICK I’m getting an enema! I now see Tess’s head in the mirror watching from outside the window, and I’m formulating a way to get her involved. After I was filled, and laid there waiting for the timer to ding, mom removed the nozzle, I jumped to the toilet and about twenty minutes later returned to my bed.
A short while later mom came in asking me if I felt better, I said that I did but Tess was teasing me about getting an enema. That was enough for her to call Tess in and Tess said that as best she could remember mom saying “if you find enemas so interesting while I have it out, maybe you should have one too”.
Tess remembers objecting, denying teasing me and she didn’t get one that day. She told me later that she should have admitted to teasing me, and she thought mom would have given her one as we were all threatened with an enema if we teased or laughed at someone getting an enema.
Reconnecting with my sisters keeps bringing up memories, especially with Tess as we shared our enjoyment of enemas, but both Diane and Robin hated getting them, or they were really good at faking it!
I’m still LostInThe50s