Nancy G. Turner:  

I am 68 years old and, on most days, feel younger than my age. I retired in 2003 and lost my husband of 49yrs + 9mos in Feb. 2009. I am long-winded when I talk and it seems that there is no difference in my writing. At least I warned you; I can see no sense in writing little snippets here only to have people ask for more information later. My Youth: My earliest childhood memory was an incident that happened at my third birthday party. My mother did not believe it when I told her this; her comment was, "No, Nancy, you've seen the pictures of your standing out in the yard behind the cake at a little table; it's not possible that you remember that birthday; you were too young. You just think you do because of seeing the pictures." I explained to her that it's true that I've seen the pictures but that I really don't remember that cake or my standing there. What I remember is that there was a mean little boy named Bracken at the party who got mad about something, went out to the edge of the yard near the street and began bawling and throwing rocks at all of us children. This incident upset me greatly and it is the only memory that I have as a three-year old. My mother was shocked that I remembered Bracken and recalled his name. She had forgotten him completely until I recounted the story. At age four I remember my new baby sister being brought home from the hospital with my mother in a big white ambulance. I got upset because that day a friend of my mother's kept teasing me that she was going to take the new baby home with her and keep it. I started crying and pled with her not to take my new baby sister. All the grownups thought this scenario was cute and amusing. At age five I remember the day that FDR died. We had a huge floor-model radio that was more like a piece of furniture than anything else, and it kept saying "President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is dead". "The President is dead". My mother was wringing her hands and crying, and I felt the pain of that day. I have many fond childhood memories but all the good ones began at age five. The earlier memories just lingered because they were associated with incidents that had a negative impact on me. It may seem trite for one to post such memories here from that far back in time. But we need to realize that children recall later in life both who was good and who was bad to them. The bad becomes monumental in their minds and is reason enough for us to treat them gently and with much love. My family moved to Jacksonville,FL the summer before I went into the fourth grade. I later attended John Gorrie and went on to Robert E. Lee graduating in 1959. Throughout Jr High and Sr High I loved languages: English, ASL and French. And I was always in the band playing oboe. Playing the oboe and the Glockenspiel when we marched got me out of gym which I hated. I've never cared for sports. I was flat of my back in the hospital for 31 days during the Spring of my senior year at Lee. That's when a man came to visit me in the hospital with an offer of a full four-year music scholarship to Weslyan Memorial College in Macon, Georgia. They wanted me to play oboe in their orchestra. He...Expand for more