When I tried to remember my first memory the thought came to me, The day I was born I opened my eyes and hollered “Turn off that bright light, I’m not going to open them again until you do .” Of course this didn’t happen but in this time of trying to remember my thoughts came to things that I have been told that happened but I don’t remember them.
Mom has told me that when I was just starting to get around they had a old stroller that they had removed the bottom tray that was there for my feet so I could stand up in it and push it all over the place. Well one day Mom said she saw me headed down the street, she guessed I was on my way to see my Grandpa Alflen. I could really make those wheels sing as she finally caught me 4 blocks away. My Uncle Harvey would come down to visit and was trying to help me learn to walk. He would push me in that old stroller and noticed that I would always put down my feet and never hit the wall. My foot brakes would stop it no matter how fast he would push me. After a while he was wore out as he couldn’t make me hit the wall.
On another occasion the family was down at an old swimming hole and I was just a baby. Of course I didn’t yet know how to swim. My Uncle Teak was holding me in the water when the water got to deep for him. Since the uncle Knolls are all quite short, the water didn’t have to get to deep. Anyway he started taking on water and in his panic just let me go. My dad had to dive in and save me. I guess he had to save Uncle Teak too. Dad was pretty upset that he just let go of me.
We seem to remember the things that happened to us that were traumatic. Or something bad that etched it in our minds forever. The first memory that I can remember was as a small child I always had the run of the whole house. But this one Sunday afternoon I tried to go into Dad and Moms bedroom and the door was locked. I banged on the door to no avail, crying and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let me in. This was a traumatic situation, I could always go to Dad or Mom anytime but they told me to go play with my toys. Of course years later I figured out why they needed that Sunday afternoon nap without me.
I remember that my Grandpa Knoll lived with us at the house we lived in on fifth street in Osborne Kansas. When we first moved there we just had an outside toilet but my dad put in the new bathroom inside. It was so nice so we didn’t have to make the cold trips out to the outhouse in the middle of winter. Well Grandpa Knoll didn’t really take a liking to the new bathroom in the house and continued to make those icy trips in the winter. Dad was afraid that he might fall in the middle of the night and freeze to death, so he tore down that old outhouse forcing him to use the inside toilet. He wasn’t too happy but at least he was safe. Sometimes at night we would hear Grandpa Knoll making a noise like he was crying. Mom asked him what was wrong and he said that he just got the joke that was told at the dinner table as he was snickering and not crying. He was a little slow when someone told a joke. He was a god fearing man and read his bible almost everyday. He was loved by everyone he met even if he was a little shy and quiet.
The next traumatic thing I remember was when my Grandpa Knoll died. I must have been around seven and didn’t quite understand what had just happened. I heard my parents talking about how I was old enough to go to the funeral. So we all packed into this church and they talked about my Grandpa and that he wasn’t with us anymore. At the close of the funeral we all went by this casket where there he lay asleep. They explained that I couldn’t see him anymore and that he was in heaven. That was my first funeral I remember and will never forget. Even though it was traumatic for me I believe it was good for me to learn about life and death at an early age.
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