I suppose my first memories start at age 4.
My family lived in Los Angeles.
There were tennis shoes hanging from the telephone wires. Dozens of them. It perplexed me how they got them up there - A ladder perhaps..
I spent much of my playing time with my cousin Ernie. Ernie was my closest cousin. My earliest memory of him is going to his house and realizing his toys were more macho than mine. He had muscular Rambos, and Ultimate Warriors. I had stuffed animals. Either way, he was my age and we got along somethin’ awesome.
That same year I stood awake past midnight for the first time during a New Years Eve party. My Uncle Tony gave me 5 dollars for winning the family Limbo contest that night. Five…whole…dollars y’all.
I remember almost drowning for the first time. I jumped in after seeing my dad swimming in the pool. He made it seem so easy. - Just move your arms, right? I attempted one stroke and sank to the bottom. My dad ran over and saw me holding my breath at the bottom. He reached down and grabbed whatever he could. In this case it was my massive amount of curly hair…Rescued by a hair pulling, I henceforth would remember this day always. Thanks pops.
I remember visiting my grandfather. - The only memories I have of him before his funeral. His front yard had tons of plants and lawn ornaments. The skin on his face was thin and wrinkled but underneath you could see strong handsome bones. His jaw, and eyebrows looked particularly strong. He was tall and had slender legs. At his funeral there was a smell of a musky cologne that I still associate with him and that day.
Next door there was a girl named Susie. Her parents were immigrants from Armenia and she was also my age. All I remember of her was that she was obsessed with me and obsessed with balloons. She had short blonde curly hair, big eyelashes, and little lips. I remember she reminded me of Madonna from the music video “Open your heart” - The one where that boy watches Madonna striptease and she kisses him…Well, I didn’t really like that music video and kinda thought it was weird. Either way, I remember being totally overwhelmed by little Susie and her constant requests to “gimme balloon”. Susie’s mom, who had an adorably thick Armenian accent would always rave about how much Susie was in love with me…
One day I woke up and walked to the living room. There were dozens of roaches scattered all around the house. I was scared and closed the door and pretended to go back to sleep…Shortly after, our family moved out of that house. I’m not sure if I ever said goodbye but once we moved away I never saw Susie again.
