I can remember snippets of other memories as well. Playing in the backyard with another boy roughly my age who was nicknamed, "Stoney". I can recall a black cat that used to be around the house all of the time. I remember picking grapes right off of the vine in my grandparents yard, not that far from our house. I remember going for rides with my dad and grandfather in my grandfather's old Dodge Rambler which was painted blue. I can remember going to the fire hall up the street from where we lived where my grandfather was a member and sitting in the trucks thinking at that time that was the greatest thrill in my life at that age. What young boy doesnt have thoughts of being a fireman at least once in his life? The small candy shop up the street from us as well is something that I can remember along with walks to each set of my grandparents who lived within walking distance of our house back then. In the summer time, I remember having the most fun playing around in a old metal wastub in the back yard filled with water. To a child that age, it was your own private pool.
Roughly a year and a half after I showed up, my mother made another trip to the hospital. This time it was to bring my brother into the world. He showed up on Christmas Day 1967. I don't remember too much of him during the time we lived at this house. I attribute that to the fact that by this time I was a toddler out and around while he was still pretty much an infant. Before he was able to walk on his own, the world as I knew it still was mine to explore on my own.
I can recall having my own little 'cave' made out of a sheet draped over a table where I would go to hide out and eat Cheerios from the box. Yes, life was undeniably good. Looking back during those first few years that I can remember bits and pieces of, the overwhelming feeling was one of happiness and love. I knew I was loved and wanted. Too many times today, children cant honestly say that. You can't possibly underestimate the effect of that to a child. I felt that there could be nothing in the world as I knew it at 4 years old that could ever bother me. Boy was I a naive for a toddler. Just as I was getting used to everything that life and our house had to offer, we moved a few months before my 5th birthday. That move opened a whole new chapter in my life.....