Early Memories

These are some of my earliest memories, in no particular order.

It is my third or fourth birthday. It is morning. I have just arrived at daycare. I tell the caregiver that it is my birthday, and if there are to be cupcakes after lunch then she had better get started on them right away.

My older sister is on a local pre-school television program. There is a black and white console set in our living room, and we are watching my sister on it.

I have been put to bed in my sister’s room to take a nap. I am not tired. I don’t like it. I stare at the ceiling. Obviously I have been bothering someone.

My mother takes me to Hesterman Bowl for her league games. I am deposited in the childcare area. There is a plastic toy steam locomotive. It is large enough that I can sit on it. We have the exact same locomotive at home.

I want to play “Bozo’s Circus” with my mother. After some pestering she finally acquiesces. We play the Grand Prize Game. Maybe we do a sketch. Then it’s time for the Grand March and I ask mom to play a song on the organ (she has a Hammond organ). She plays something wholly inappropriate like “Moonlight in Vermont” and I am very disappointed with her.

One of my favorite books is a giant book of planes, trains, and all kinds of motor vehicles. It has no page numbers, so I add them. After page 100, I write 1001 (one hundred and one), 1002, etc.

I am curious about my urine and I decide to collect it, to see how much there is over some time. I use an old coffee can, and put it under a step stool in the bathroom. By midday my mother has discovered it. When confronted about it, of course I have absolutely no idea how it got there.

Our furnace is in a closet with two sliding doors. There are two notches for your fingers on either door. The notches are almost exactly the size of a penny. My sister and I enjoy putting a penny in one of the notches and then taking it back out. Then one time I cannot get my penny out. I am devastated. When we visited the house about 25 years later, the penny was still there.

It is the end of one of the last Apollo missions, probably the final one. I am watching the splashdown and recovery on the color (!) Motorola console TV in the family room. The command module has a couple of spherical things on the top, and they look like Mickey Mouse ears to me.