I don't have particularly strong memories of my childhood. Most of what I do recall is in isolated bits. Here are a few select fragments from when I was very young.
1. One week at church, my mother suddenly grabbed my hand. This was something she usually did when she thought I was squirming around too much or otherwise misbehaving. As I did not feel that I was doing anything of the sort, I told her to let go because I promised to be good. She didn't let go. I told her more loudly and started thrashing around trying to get her to let go. She still didn't. This all seemed very unjust to me at the time. But now as I think back on it, I think she was just holding my hand during the recitation of the Lord's Prayer. Sorry, Mom.
2. When I was in preschool, during some sort of free play time, there were too girls playing with a plastic board that had a picture of a dollhouse on it. There were decals similar to window clings that you could move around to show the people in the house. Wanting to play along, I reached out and tried to move one of the people. One of the girls glared at me and yelled, "Leave it alone!" I found this to be so mean that I still remember it.
3. When I was in Kindergarten, I remember taking the CAT (California Achievement Test). The Kindergarten version of the test consisted of the teacher reading questions out loud, while we circled the answers. The choices for each question were pictures. I remember one question in particular where the teacher asked, "Which one is a piece of clothing?" I was befuddled at first, because none of the choices were anything obvious like a shirt or sock. But suddenly it dawned on me that a hat was a piece of clothing. I was so excited by this deduction that I forgot that we weren't supposed to be sharing answers out loud. I waved my hand in the air, trying to get my teacher to call on me. Luckily, I did not actually say the answer out loud.
4. One Christmas morning, my sister woke me up and excitedly told me to get up and go downstairs. I asked why, and she said because it was Christmas! I remember still being sort of confused as to why I should have to get out of bed. I walked down the stairs and was completely surprised to see a pile of shiny presents under the tree. We had opened a few presents on Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed that night thinking that was it. It was like I forgot there were more presents on Christmas morning. This was not the first Christmas I remembered; I really have no good explanation for forgetting what happens on Christmas except that I don't think I ever really believed in Santa. (Sad, I guess, but I just never really bought it. I never found it upsetting or anything.)
5. When I started second grade, I was at a new school. I was timid and afraid, and when recess came along I was wandering around the playground by myself. A girl, Nicole Elliott, came up to me and asked if I wanted to play on the big slide. I nodded and started to follow. She turned and saw me walking, and said, "Come on, run!" Thinking back, what made this truly remarkable was that she also had the other new girl with her. At age 7, she had made a special effort to make the new kids feel included. She was a gem, that Nicole. And likely still is to this day.
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