In the beginning

Almost seventy years ago, I was born.

Now that is an intriguing thing to me, because seventy years before I was born Thomas Edison invented the first version of the light bulb, the atlas bear had just become extinct and Jeanne Calment was four years old. She would become the longest living human being whose lifespan was verified when she died in 1997 at the age of 122 years.

I recently learned that half of the world's animals have become extinct during my lifetime, most since I was twelve years old.

I saw my first television program at three and the first man land on the moon when I was nineteen.

I remember much of my life from the age of two on, but when I was ten my father mentioned that something happened ten years ago and I thought, "Wow, I wonder what it is like to remember something that long ago?'

It was a shock to me when I realized that I graduated from high school fifty two years ago.

So what was it like when I was a child? In some ways it was very much like it is today. From a child's point of view. Except that I was never shuffled off to daycare, or preschool. Kindergarten was even relatively rare in 1955.  My parents moved so that I might attend a public one in Springfield, Illinois.

As a child of a predominantly well to do family I was fortunate to teethe on silver dumbbells and eat my oatmeal out of silver porringers alone in a huge dark dining room. I remember the milk often had wax chunks in it from the cartons it came in. Back then milk was still delivered by a horse drawn wagon and on Easter that horse had a fancy flower covered hat that she was allowed to eat later on.

I learned to ride my tricycle in one big double door of the living room, down a dark scary hallway and into the big double doors on the other end of the living room. My nursery had a wall of windows covered in semi sheer curtains where shadows moved in the moonlight. I hoped they were Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny and not some evil witch or other terrifying creature from the stories I heard.

And my dreams were vivid from the start! I remember waking up in my little youth bed with the rails half way down to keep me from falling out. There, right in front of me, were silent flames encompassing my whole blanket! I was terrified and wondered why they didn't hurt this time?