We’re at the last weekend before Thanksgiving Day and somehow my free time has evaporated. However, there is always time for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun with Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings.

Here is this week’s challenge:

A)  What is one of your most vivid childhood memories? Was it family, friends, places, events, or just plain fun?  Your first memory?  Your most fun memory?

My earliest memory is when I was four years old. My parents had a highboy dresser in their bedroom and, at my age, I couldn’t reach items that were placed on top of it. I have no memory of what it was I wanted to get – hand mirror or keys or ???

However, since there were no chairs near by, I came up with the ingenious idea of opening the bottom drawer, then the next lowest drawer, etc. so I could use the drawers to get high enough to reach the top of the dresser.

The bottom drawer was fine, then I stepped into the second drawer. It was just about then that I felt the dresser begin to tip over. I jumped off and the dresser never fell.

I also think that Mom didn’t send me into that room to retrieve anything for her because I still have a clear memory of the relief I felt that she didn’t know what I had been doing!

Back in the old days when I grew up, pre-school wasn’t really in existence. My parents did try to provide me with some what we’d call enriching experiences. My next earliest memory was also from when I was about 4 years old.

Mom decided to enroll me in tap dancing lessons. I Loved the tap shoes and the little leotard outfit that I wore, but when Mom and I arrived for my first lesson, I just remember being overwhelmed and I refused to join the class.

Mom said she took me back several times, but I never would participate. I distinctly remember the black shoes with the thick silver cleats because those shoes were still in the closet years later. When I found them, they were still shiny brand new and, try as I did, my feet were way too big to fit in them.

I don’t know for sure where the dance school was, but I am guessing it was Dotty Locker’s in downtown Passaic, where, five years later, I happily took acrobatic lessons.

The last clear memory I have before I started kindergarten happened the summer my little brother was born. I wasn’t home when my parents brought him home from the hospital.

Instead, Aunt Barbara took the train from Boston to Passaic, collected me and then we took the train back to Boston. It was summer time, so that meant we all went up to Little Sebago Lake in Maine to spend time at the camp.

I don’t remember when I got home or even meeting my little brother. I do ave memories of holding him as an infant, but those are probably a combination of all the times I did hold him.

I was actually thrilled to have a little brother!

That’s it for my early memories. Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge.