The Beginning

As the good Charles Dickens once penned for David Copperfield, “to begin my life at the beginning of my life, I record that I was born . . . .”  To say such may seem redundant, for among the merest of mammals, birth would be the beginning and the mammal in question would not exist to tell a tale had she not been born.  However, as with most, the tale begins before birth though that portion which does not pertain directly to early childhood will be omitted for now and returned to later. 

I was born, as previously stated.  Late one evening, apparently a Wednesday, my mother labored briefly before I made an appearance.  She states that I was born holding my head up as she had been taking calcium shots during the pregnancy to stave off leg cramps.  While that may be a brief exaggeration, she has also noted that upon returning home the next morning, my father had to go buy crib bumpers as I could and did scoot along the mattress and they feared I would harm myself.  It would seem I have been moving ever since. 

Oh, I suppose in my early youth there were times of quiet, but they seem to have been imposed upon me do to my own action.  I was quite young when I found myself at the bottom of the pool, staring up through the water at the bright blue sky.  I had wanted to reach for a ball that was floating, and being but a toddler, I fell into the water.  My father was unaware I had followed him into the pool yard as he had gone to get some tool or such.  Fortunately for me, he had been a lifeguard in his youth, and was able to retrieve and revive me.  He has often said that if looks could kill, my mother would have struck him dead when she saw him crossing the yard with me, and both of us dripping wet.  There were no long term repercussions from my early water experience, as I became a bit of a water rat in my growing up years.