My earliest childhood memory...
That is hard I remember the earliest time frame would be when I was around 3 maybe 2 but closer to 3. We lived in the house that my dad grew up in in Cleveland Ohio. I was about 3 1/2 years old when we moved out of that house but I do remember certain things in that house like my bedroom. It had tile floor in it and I would climb up on these shelves my dad made and sit there and many times as I was climbing they would fall over on me and I would cry; eventually my parents would punish me for doing it instead of comforting me because they had told me so many times to stop doing it. I also remember being in the backyard and finding a birds nest in a tree and bringing it in and putting it in a box on our kitchen table and going back later and opening it and looking at it. I also remember getting in a lot of trouble because a friend I had over convinced me to open up my bean bag chair and take all the little beans out of it. Those things are so hard to get cleaned up anyways on carpet let alone on a tile floor. To say my mom was not happy would be an understatement. I don't think that friend was allowed back over if she was we weren't allowed in my room.
In the back yard of this house there was a little house that my dads dad lived in and I remember being in it only once. I do remember though my grandpa came out the door yelling once that if my dad couldn't get our swing set to be quiet and stop squeaking he was going to take his chainsaw to it and cut it down. (my grandpa was a little rough around the edges) I also remember being in my parents room once in that house and a few other vague memories about that time. My memory comes more into play later that year as I got closer to 4. I remember moving over to our new house and helping my mom who was greatly pregnant at the time with my little brother get all my older brothers stuff moved downstairs to his room to make the upstairs room ready for the baby. I have a lot of memories in that house.
Grandpa remembers visiting Katie in that house. After we hadn't seen you for awhile, we went looking for you and found you had crawled into the old fireplace and was taking a nap on the floor. The fireplace was clean with ceramic tile on the walls and floor. Grandpa also remembers your redecorating the newly painted white walls of the hall with your crayons. One time at Christmas, you got a dolly size high chair. Grandpa put the teddy bear in the high chair. When you came back into the room, you grabbed the bear and put him on the floor. When you left the room, Grandpa put him back in the chair. You came back into the room, saw the bear, shouted NO! and tossed him across the room. Apparently the high chair was going to be reserved only for your dolly. Your dolly had no clothes on, none of them did. The first thing you did was to remove all their clothes, never to be dressed again. Your mom found out that her 3rd pregnancy was going to be a boy, but you wanted a sister. You would stuff one of your dollies under your t-shirt and tell everybody that you were going to have a baby too -- only your baby was going to be a GIRL. When asked, but what if your baby was a boy? You said, "Then I will flick him."
ReplyDeleteLater, when you lived on Trafalger one Sunday morning we had a heavy wet lake effect snow storm. Your momma stayed home with little Benjamin because he had a cold. You, Mike and your dad set out for Sunday school and your car spun out on the freeway. The following car could not stop on the fresh snow and T-boned your car. You were seated behind your dad and were showered with glass from the broken windows with numerous little cuts from the glass. Rus and Kathy Barth told us at church that they saw a car that looked like yours in a crash on the freeway. So Rus and I drove to the place and saw your bent-up car being towed away. We asked a policeman about the people in the car and he told us that you had all been taken to Euclid hospital. When we got to the hospital, we found they had put each of you in separate rooms, but we had no problem finding you as you were making quite a howl about the arrangements. You and Mike were gladly released by the hospital but your dad's injuries appeared more serious. The ambulance was waiting to transport your dad to Metro General Trauma Center, but his blood pressure was too low to transport. They thought he was bleeding internally and were afraid they could lose him during the trip. Grandpa and Rus went back to church to pick up Kathy to stay with you three kids so your mom could come to the hospital to be with your dad. When we got back to Euclid hospital with your mom, the ambulance had already left for Metro General, so we went there. We couldn't find your dad in the ER and it took several minutes to find him. He was doing fine and was in a room watching TV. He was able to come home the next day with bruises, broken ribs and all. The people at church had prayed for you all and the Lord had answered.