One More thing about Flip Flops

They used to be called thongs.  A story I have been told by my parents was about a pair of thongs.  I must have been very small as I cannot recall this on my own.  They had bought me a new pair and apparently I loved them.  I wore them all day and that night I insisted on wearing them to bed.  As I would fall asleep, my feet would relax, and they slipped off.  I woke each time and cried until they were put back on my feet.  What patient parents I have!

More Early Memories

The other memories I have from before age 5 are mostly about a house on Katrine in Haltom City.  I remember a lot of random things about that house. The part of the street it was on was near an intersection that was a triangle.  It had a cyclone fence that I played Barbies through with a girl next door.  There was a sidewalk in front of the house and I think my mother and I would walk next door on occasion.  We walked to the triangle area too.  The front porch was small with about five steps.  The posts were iron railing with scrolling leaves or something on them.

Inside the house, I remember the hardwood flooring throughout the house.  I remember the hall closet because there was a clothing barrel in there with my toys in it.  I would jump up with my stomach on the edge and lean down into the barrel to retrieve my stuffed tiger.  If you know me at all, you know I love the big cats and the little cats.  The tiger was my favorite stuffed animal.  It was smallish and yellow with black stripes like a real tiger!  After my little brother, Timmy, came along we shared a bedroom with twin beds.  My picture in my head of that room is the doorway from the hall.  You could see in there and see the twin beds.  They had wooden headboards in a light color varnish.  That is my memory, not sure how accurate the description is.

There is a memory from that time frame that is a story told by my parents. Saying that to say I am not certain I remember the incident or if I remember the story my folks tell.  It was summertime, I think, and we had relatives or close friends over but I don't recall who.  Mom, Dad, and the guests were inside playing 42 or something.  Timmy and I were either in bed or just playing in our room.  Apparently there was a scream outside coming from across the street.  All the adults went out on the front porch to see what the commotion was all about.  Not sure if someone at our house or a neighbor called, but the police were called.  911 was not dialed, as that did not exist.  You actually had to call the police station.  Anyway, the story went that a teenage girl and a friend had staged a pretend kidnapping at a car across the street.  The girl was admonished by the police that this was not funny at all.  She was trying to get some attention from her parents I guess.  Anyway, I remember this as a highlight of our time at the house on Katrine.  We lived there until June of 1963.

My Earliest Memory

Picture in your mind a stark white room with very bright lights.  That room is my earliest memory.  I was lying on a table and the lights were in my eyes.  My parents were in the room and so was a man in a white outfit.  He put a tissue over my eyes and told me he was taking a picture.  That is all I remember.

My parents tell me what happened that day.  This part is not my memory but theirs.  It was a Sunday morning and I was 2 years old.  My parents bed was next to a window and I was jumping on it.  Then I fell and hit my forehead on the window sill.  Apparently I bled a lot.  So they took me to the emergency room. I got a butterfly type bandage, no stitches for the tiny cut in the middle of my forehead just below the hairline.  The scar is still there but you have to be looking for it to see it.

So, just a few years ago I asked my mother about that picture they took.  I told her what I remembered about the tissue and the man placing it over my eyes.  I wanted to know where it was.  Did she have it?  I don't remember her exact words, but no she did not have that picture.  That was an x-ray, not an actual picture.  I was, I don't know the word I'm looking for here, but I was upset that the picture didn't exist!  Wounded or mortified?  One of those words.  How dare them!  Not my parents but the doctors.

That memory is so vivid that I truly believed there was a picture somewhere I had not seen.  Between 2 and 4 years of age, I have no vivid memories like this at all.  The trauma must have somehow caused me to remember that incident above all else.

The Folks

Our folks are good Christian people and raised us to be good Christian people.  I call them Mother and Daddy or Mom and Dad, depends on what is going on.  My dad is retired from the federal government.  Mom was a stay at home mom until after I married.  She worked for a pharmacy and then a local pediatrician's office and quit when Dad retired.  They are busier now than when they worked!  Mom sits my grandson once a week and makes my brother's piano tuning appointments.  Dad takes care of his mother's finances (she is 96!) and my sibs tax returns.  Dad still plays softball.  I have lost track of how many teams he is on currently.  He plays in a seniors league.

They are active members of their Sunday School class.  They stay pretty busy.  They host 2 birthday get togethers each year and Thanksgiving every other year.  Our tradition for Christmas is to gather at their home on Christmas Eve. 

What else?  My dad has 2 brothers and 1 sister all younger.  His sister has 3 kids, all married with kids of their own.  One brother has 2 girls with kids and a grandkid.  His youngest brother has 2 boys, one about to get married in May.  His dad, my granddaddy passed away in April, 2001.   Mother has five siblings.  Two of her brothers have passed away, one nephew, and brother-in-law have also passed away.  She has a sister with 4 kids and tons of grandkids and great grandkids.  She has two brothers left and they each have one kid, neither are married.  My mother's parents passed away in 1977 and 1988, her dad, my granddaddy first, and then her mother, my nana.  Her brothers that have passed have 3 daughters between them. 

So, there is a lot of family! Our folks love the family stuff, getting together and visitin'.  I enjoy it too.

We, my family, use to live around the corner from our folks.  We moved less than a year ago to a neighboring city.  We were there for more than 19 years.  Sometimes I miss the ease of going through the gate in the backyard to their back door.  Especially when I need to "borrow a cup of sugar"!  I think Mom misses it too.  But I love our new home and visits are special.

Maybe I will get to my kids tomorrow...