Earliest Memories

"Where's the baby?" was the question of the day as the kids filed home from school. Not "Hi Mom, how are you?" I was #1 on the popularity charts from the 1st day I arrived from the hospital. Being the last of 7 children has its advantages. I was entertained, watched over, taught how to talk and read, played with, and generally spoiled rotten...I had a great time.

When I was something like a year old, we moved from Iowa to the Washington DC area (I think we lived at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Maryland) for about a year, then to Palmyra NY. I spent my childhood years (up to age 17) in the Palmyra - Macedon area.

I have scant recollection of my first few years of life. We lived (all 7 of us with our parents) at 407 Canandaigua St in Palmyra. The house is now some historical landmark of some sort. Just seemed like some big ole house at the time. We (us siblings) visited the place around 10 or so years ago, and the most common observation amongst us was how small the place appeared compared to when we was kids; seemed relatively palatial back then. I slept in a crib in a tiny side room off my parents' bedroom. I remember that room, though I was maybe 2 or 3 at the time. I have snippets of memory of Brownie, the dog. I remember riding my tricycle up and down the sidewalk in front of the house. I remember Mrs. Smith (May Smith) who lived next door or somewhere nearby, if not next door. She seemed old at the time; then again all adults seem old to a little kid. I believe she died in my early teens. Her son became a doctor, and was our family doctor for a time. We had a movie theater in Palmyra. I went to it once that I recall - Roger took me when I was 3 years old to see Bambi.

The winter of '66 was a snowy one in Western NY, as there was a particularly bad snowstorm early that year. What I remember about it was that snow drifted up and completely blocked in one of the doors to the outside. You open the door from the inside and there was a wall of snow. At one point, post snowstorm, someone was outside throwing snowballs into the house through the open doorway while someone else was standing inside launching snowballs to their declared enemy outside and using the drift as a shield. Whomever they were they were having a great time, as I recall.