My Early Years...

I was born in Chicago on the 3rd day of the 3rd month.  Additionally, I was born on the 3rd planet from the Sun.  Bingo!  Numbers.  I've long had a thing for numbers.  I enjoy number patterns.  I like to play with numbers.  I enjoy math.  Numbers.  Math.  It's all around us.  I've often thought if we taught math in "real world terms," fewer folks would dislike math as much as they do.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

 

This is me at about 2 or 3 months old.  My mother was, I think, 22 years old at the time.

 

 I have some very vivid memories of my early years.  I have at least several from when I was in my crib so I'm assuming that goes back to when I was 2 or 3 years of age.  I have one unusual memory of standing in my crib that was in my parents' bedroom at the time.  I remember watching my father sleep during what I assume were the early morning hours.  I saw his hand twitch.  Hmmm.  I thought he must not be asleep because he was moving.  What?  How did I think that at such a young age?  I would love to know more about memory and how it works.  Did I actually think that at the age of two?  Or, did I later put words to a memory that I had from a year or two prior???  Hard to know.  

 

I have another memory of my time in the crib but that time my crib was in the dining room of our 3rd floor flat.  (It was a rather large flat that occupied the entire 3rd floor of a 3-story apartment building.) I was awake, the lights were on and firemen were in the apartment.  Thank goodness!  Apparently my mother wok up and somehow discovered that our gas (natural) operated refrigerator had been leaking.  I think that's why I'm so wary when it comes to natural gas still. 

 

I remember being a toddler and crying at the door after my dad left for work.  I can picture myself at the door (out of body?) and my hand didn't reach the door knob.  I guess I was about 2 or 3 years old.  Another "toddler" memory was following my dad's legs around the apartment during a thunderstorm.  I felt safest when close to my dad.  Maybe my mom too, but what I remember are legs within trousers.  So, most likely only, or mostly, my dad. 

Next I'll explain a bit more about my mother and father.  Those memories are just a couple of years later.  By then I was talking and, presumably, thinking a bit on my own.  Later! (If I keep writing, I'll never publish.  Gotta cut it off somewhere....)