Alona Tester on LoneTester HQ created a new 25 question geneameme. Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings took it one step further by dividing up the questions for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here are my responses for Part 1, a couple of days late with the holiday weekend.

1. Do you (or your parents) have any memorabilia from when you were a baby? (ie., baby book, lock of hair, first shoes, etc.)

Yes, I have the baby bracelet I wore in the hospital right after I was born. I also have the original newspaper clipping announcing my birth.

2. Do you know if you were named after anyone?

I wasn’t named after a person, but the song “Linda” was very popular in the 1940’s and my parents liked the name.

3. And do you know of any other names your parents might have named you?

Originally, my parents planned to name me “Marie,” again because they liked the name, not because I would have been named after anyone.

4. What is your earliest memory?

My parents had two chests of drawers in their bedroom. One was quite high and my mother used to put jewelry, keys and who knows what else up on top of it – maybe to keep little hands from getting into things. I was about four and there was something up on top. I don’t remember what it was, but there was no chair nearby so I came up with the idea of opening the drawers. Each of the bottom few drawers would become my steps to reaching the top. Good plan, except for the fact that my weight was enough to unbalance the dresser. It tilted forward slightly, but I was quick enough to jump off and it didn’t topple over. I remember being very worried about being caught by my mother, but she probably would have been a lot more worried about the dresser landing on top of me.

5. Did your parent/s (or older siblings) read, sing or tell stories to you? Do you remember any of these?

My mother read stories to me on most nights before I went to sleep. I remember The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright, The Little Engine That Could and when the holidays rolled around, my favorite was The Night Before Christmas.