WatersMoon110's Journal

I was born in Wooster, Ohio. At home. My mother still owns the bed I was born in, though she doesn't use it. My youngest brother does, when he sleeps at home. My mom was in labor with me for something like 23 hours. She says she didn't want to give birth to me until her mother got there. I was the first birth that my grandmother was present for (including her own, because they knocked women out during birth back then - they didn't know any better).

I was a planned birth. The only one of my siblings that was (the rest were happy accidents, I hope). My mom said that she needed a second girl to keep my older sister company. I guess I was a hard pregnancy. My mom did yoga, but still had problems.

I was born sometime around 10 pm. My sister, then 2 1/2 years old, saw my birth. I would have gotten to see my next youngest brother being born, but he was born early in the morning, while my sister and I were sleeping. I saw him soon after, his face was purple and he had red hair. Then his face turned red too when he cried. My mom says he was a pretty easy baby and todler, always able to occupy himself. Not like my older sister, who needed a lot of work to keep her happy. And I was always crying, needing attention (but not always getting it).

My earliest memory, after my newborn brother, is crying on the back porch of our house in Wooster. I think I had done something wrong or something, then cried about it, so my mother sent me out back to calm down. I just remember feeling so sad, wanting my mom to comfort me, and having her ignore me. Eventually, I figured out that sometimes I just wasn't going to get attention, even when I felt like I needed it.

Some time after that, my mom's dog had ten puppies (and one that died after birth). Tessa, the dog, was a pure bred golden retriever. The puppies' father was a neighborhood "black dog". I'm not sure if my mom had ideas about breeding Tessa (she was, after all, pedigried) or just didn't get around to fixing her. But she had adorable puppies. Most of them were long-haired, a couple were short-haired, two of them were blond and the rest were black. I remember that the blonds went first, as they looked like little goldens. Then the long-haired puppies went. We kept only one puppy, Charlie, who looked like a black lab.

From that part of my childhood, I have only a few more scattered memories. I remember that the house had an attic with a hole in the floor that my sister and I would drop marbles down, until Charlie fell down and made it a big hole. Riding on my Dad's back as we walked to the butcher shop at the end of the street. The nice old neighbor lady, Doris, who had a pet pidgen. The rodadendrin bush in front of our house, and the big flowering tree. My dad teaching me to ride a tricycle (I was scared). Playing in the Toy Room while my mom worked in the Food Co-Op for her membership. Story Time at the Library. Watching ThunderCats and Voltron and Transformers and The Smurfs.

Next Time - Part Two: Moving to West Salem