The term “hyperactive” was not known when I was a …

Special to The Vindicator | published: May 7, 2015

The term “hyperactive” was not known when I was a child. My family described me as a child with too much energy and very imaginative. We lived with my grandparents until I was 3 on a 100-acre farm, where I had all the freedom I needed to run and play and keep busy. Then we moved into town, where my parents put up a barbed wire fence to keep me in. One day when my brother was watching me play in my sandbox, I told him I was thirsty, so he left to get me a glass of water. In the short time he was gone I managed to scale the fence and when he and my mother found me I was standing in the middle of the street. Use your imagination to know what came next when my mother grabbed me. Needless to say I never did that again. Sent by Beverly Costa Bowman, 71, of Boardman, and her mother Georgiana Costa, 96, of Salem.