Childhood Memories

My mother wanted to have my ears pierced to be pierced when I was a baby, but my father couldn't bear the idea of his sweet baby girl to be hurt. So my ears remained unpierced.

There's this idea that families in the United States were made of fathers who went to work while mothers stayed home to care for the children and clean house. Then when father returned, she would make him a martini and they would all have dinner together.

There are families who managed to live that way, but they were called "The Brady Bunch," "The Cleavers," and "TVs Ideal Lovey Doveys." My grandmother and grandfather both worked supporting their four kids, and my mother and father did the same. My father rose early in the morning to go to work while my mother took care of me all day. When my father came home, my mother left for work while my father stayed home.

Some days my mother would dress me for a walk downtown. Here's a photo of her dressing me when I was about two and a half years old.

I have no memories of our walks before my sister was born, but just before I turned three, my baby sister was born, and I have a flashes of memories walking downtown after she was born. I remember walking downtown when my sister was in a stroller. I had to hold onto the stroller while my mother pushed it. I also remember drinking hot chocolate at the counter in Woolworths with my sister being in the stroller. I have several different flashes of memory drinking hot chocolate at locations around town. I believe I have always been a chocolate oriented individual!

My mother liked to tell stories of my childhood, but she never mentioned my having to hold the stroller when we were walking downtown. However, we had to cross one large intersection to get downtown, so I assume I probably had to hold the stroller to cross it. She also told me about how I was allowed to get my ears pierced for my fourth birthday. She and my grandmother took me downtown to the jewelry store.

The jewelry store is gone. Woolworths is gone. Whenever I return to visit my family, it seems like more of downtown is falling to pieces. However, there are new stores on the outskirts of town: a Walmart, Sears Hardware, Kohls, Blockbuster, etc. I wonder if parents are telling stories to their children about the drive to Walmart, the time they spent sitting in traffic, how they were often cut off and barely missing accidents in the parking lots, spending time beneath the fluorescent lights, and buying a cheap cola from the vending machine on their way out.

Even if they do, it won't be the same as memories of walking downtown in the sunshine, holding onto the stroller, sitting at the counter and enjoying a drink, then walking home so we can all sit down for dinner at 4:00 p.m.