What do you remember?

What is your earliest memory?  You know, the first thing you recall as a child.

Mine is probably quite different than most.

I was sitting on the floor by the sofa.  My Dad was lying on the sofa watching TV.

TV back then was small and black and white.  My Dad liked to put his hand on my head and pet me like a dog.  I know that’s weird sounding but he said my hair was really soft and I think it’s how he watched me with out having to “watch” me.  It would make me sleepy instead of running around like I usually did.  I remember wanting to be near my Dad when he was home.  I was, I guess, kind of awestruck by him.  He was tall, with dark hair, and handsome and I thought of him like a king and mom his queen.

Anyway, the memory is - he was watching TV and I was watching with him. I know now the movie he was watching was Ben Hur.  It was at the part where Jesus was crucified on the cross.  I started crying.  My Dad said to my Mom, “Nell, she’s crying!  Do you think she understands?”  My mom who was in the kitchen, which was kind of open to the room where the TV was, said, “No, she’s too little to understand.”

Dad seemed unsure.  He seemed to think maybe I could understand.   What I remember was thinking, why would they kill him?  He was good and they killed him.

Didn’t they know who he was?  They wouldn’t have killed him if they knew who he was!  Everyone was hurt and crying because of it.  I didn’t think they should do that.  I understood God was not happy. When my mom said I was too young to understand I remember thinking, “no, I’m not!”  But I don’t remember trying to tell her that.  I just remember crying. 

When I think back on this, I felt like I belonged to God.  I know that’s a lot for a child to understand but it was simple in my mind. 

I also think back to this scene and remember that Mom was pregnant.  What I can’t remember is – who was she pregnant with?  If it was Terry, I was only around a year old.  If she was pregnant with Stuart and Trish I was around 3.  I have thought that made more sense but you never know.  I also described to my Mom, in trying to figure out if this was actually a memory or maybe a dream, what the place looked like.  I told her where the TV room was in placement to the kitchen where she was working and she said yes that it sounded like the place we lived when we were in Texas.  We moved to Texas sometime in my first year and lived there until I was 8.  So, that's my earliest memory.  What's yours?

Random other things;

The other night I thought I would try doing "zentangle".

After, drawing this and then coloring a copy I researched "zentangle".

According to some websites it is repetitive patterns but

others say it could be something like this.  Now I'm confused

as to what it really is supposed to be but this was fun.

I did a lot of this in high school 

and I sold quite a few to other students.  

Minion waiting for his mommy when she takes a shower.