Question:
What are your earliest memories?
Answer:
This is actually a pretty tough question. I had to go back and look at some photos to get the chronology right and it turns out what I
thought was the earliest was a year or so after another memory. Which means, my earliest memory would be Easter 1980. To be exact, Easter fell on April 6, 1980 so I was just three days past being exactly 3 1/2 years old. I was visiting my dad's eldest brother in Fort Meade, Maryland where he was stationed and we were doing various Easter activities. We dyed eggs, played games, ate way too many marshmallows, and had a nice Easter dinner (at least I'm sure it was nice, especially if my aunt was cooking it).
I remember they had wicker furniture which I always thought was weird. Their driveway was medium sized and you would turn left out of it to leave the neighborhood (I think they lived on a corner lot too). They had a nice backyard with a fence I think where I did the Easter egg hunt thing. And I remember my aunt letting me eat a bunch of marshmallows. Like almost a whole bag of them.
On a side note, there are other events that I
think I remember when I see them in pictures, but I'm not sure if I remember them or if I remember the stories people told me while showing me the pictures.
Photos:
In the photo, you'll see the goofy kid in the dog sweater, that's me. On the right is my uncle. But pay attention to the counter. The eggs are there, obviously, but there's a crayon that I remember using to write on the egg before we dipped it in the dye (so the dye wouldn't stick to the egg). There's also an old bottle of Joy dish soap, old Pyrex mixing bowls (we had a set like that for the longest time), and some White House apple vinegar. And don't forget to check out those old curtains.
References:
- Numerous facts were gathered from the private Richard Family Estate collection. These facts span numerous sources of information and contain genealogical data, photos, and newspaper articles.
