When I was 3 years old, Somebody put a pillow over my face until I could almost no longer breathe. When the pillow was removed, I could see myself, as though I was standing next to the bed looking at me. I can only describe it as deeper lines around my mouth. This came about when my mother announced it was bedtime.
When I was 4 or 5 years old my mother had to run right across the street to Mr. Dixon’s store. Oh boy, my chance to sneak into the chocolate prescription medicine we were taking at the time. As I remember, it looked like it had peanuts in it. Now that I think about it that must have been the medicine. Uh oh, mom returned before I could access the goods. I was met with, “Give me that and get out of that chair!” At that time, I was the baby of the family, #4 of 5. My little brother was to come 4 years later. My cousins lived down the street. There were 9 kids down there. An inherent safety net.
In 1968, the aunt that lived down the street passed away. She had given birth to a baby girl and shortly thereafter, she passed away. Of the 9 kids, 3 came to live with us-the oldest girl, the baby girl and a 4-year-old boy. One day us children returned home from school. My mother looked over the living room and told us to get our books and such and straighten up the place. Well, this 7-year-old thought, all of this stuff is not mine. I picked up my cousin’s shoe (the 4-year-old) and threw it at him. Of all the cubic inches on the human body, that shoe hit him dead in the nose. NOTE: This guy had nosebleeds just walking down the street. Uh oh, the commotion, the pandemonium!