Early Days

My life, as far back as I can remember, has been troubled. I was always getting in trouble, but I never really knew why I did some of the things I did. One of my earliest memories was when I was very young, maybe 5 or 6 years old. The street in front of my house was being oiled. It was a paved street. First they would spray oil or some kind of runny black tar, then they would spread sand on top of it. It was a paved road, so when the hot oil was fresh and not yet covered with sand, it looked like a sheet of black ice. I only remember a couple of things about this. The first thing about it was I was riding my tricycle on the sidewalk and I was very interested in what the men were doing to the street. I remember my Mother saying something like, "don't go in the street". My next memory is of me trying to ride my tricycle in the oil and falling over and getting that oil all over me. The men started yelling and I started crying. The only other thing I can remember was my Mother scrubbing the oil off my body. She had to use kerosene to get it off me. Another early memory was an attempt to make wine or grape juice. I was intrigued with the neighbor's air conditioner, It was a modern unit for central air conditioning. It looked like a big green box with a fan on top covered by a grille. I would sometimes stand by it and wait for it to start. This was noticed by one of my sisters who warned me not to play with it. One day, I happened to be eating grapes while I was watching the air conditioner. This neighbor also had a large grapevine. Somehow I got the idea to stick a grape in the fan. I was delighted by what the fan did to the grape, so I proceeded to gather bunches of grapes and started to push them through the grille into the fan. It made quite a mess. The side of the neighbors house and the front of my shirt and face were covered with grape juice. The only other thing I remember about this episode was the fact that the neighbor had to have a repairman come to her house and fix the air conditioner. Maybe he only had to clean it out, I don't know. I do know that I was punished severely for this, but it didn't change my behaviour. Well, after 40 years, I have finally changed for the better. I will share more of my early adventures next time. Take care!