Andi's First Memories

First of all, back in those days I was Anne, not Andi. I have some vague memories from age 3, which have been clarified and probably enhanced by stories my family has told me. In the summer of 1955 our family took a road trip north from Massachusetts to the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and we spent some time on PEI (Prince Edward Island, made famous by Anne of Green Gables). Yes, this was a road trip - there were ferry boats to the islands - you just drove your car onto the ferry boat. Two funny things happened to me there. I was sharing a twin size bed with my oldest sister Betsey (who was 13 at the time), and apparently one night I wet the bed. My memory is of dim yellowish lights in the middle of the night and lots of people making a big fuss when all I wanted to do was sleep! The other event, of which I have no actual memory but have heard the story MANY times, occurrred on a beach on one of the islands. It was low tide, and the shallow water (less than 6 inches) stretched out to a sand bar. I walked all the way out to the sand bar by myself, while the adults were watching from chairs on the beach. I proceeded to take off my bathing suit and, at the top of my lungs and raising my arms to the sky, sing "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" (the entire song) to the vast ocean in front of me.

Another vague memory from age 3 involves a mentally retarded woman named Arlene who had been living with our family for several years as kind of a maid/mother's helper. I don't know all the reasons why, but when I was 3 (and I was the youngest of 4 girls) my parents decided it was time for her to find another place to live and work. I remember her crying and hugging us all, and my older sisters were crying too. In later years we used to go visit her in her new home, but I never really knew her.

I have several memories, which have been helped by lots of family photos, of playing in our large yard on Chestnut Street, North Andover. There was a white wooden bench on which we used to lean one end of a very long wooden ladder - just on the seat part of the bench, so about 2-3 feet off the ground - and the other end would be on the grass. We would play on the ladder, walking up and down it, etc. It was always fun, although there were plenty of scrapes and splinters as a result. I remember having play group at our house with about 4 other little kids, and we would play on the ladder and then come inside for animal crackers and milk. I also have great memories of my Dad getting our clay tennis court ready every spring after the ground had thawed. It was hard work and took him several days. First he would rake and remove all the debris from fall leaves and winter storms. Then he had a big roller drum that would be filled with water to make it heavy enough to smooth out the clay surface, and he had to walk up and down the entire surface of the court several times, pushing that heavy roller. When it was smooth and hard packed, he would make the white lines with a lime substance and a push roller that had a little brush on the bottom - it was ancient! The last thing would be to hang the net and adjust it to be exactly the right height. We played a lot of tennis on that court over the years. Unfortunately, it had been built in the early 1800's, when tennis was a very sedate, gentlemanly game, and the players would stand at the base line to make most of their shots. Therefore, there was only about 10 feet behind each base line to the fence, so as soon as we got old enough to play a good hard game of tennis, it wasn't really an adequate court. However, my Mom taught lessons out there for years, including to all my friends from school for as far back as I can remember. I started at age 3.

I apologize for the length of this post, but Tiffany did say that one of her goals in setting this up was to get me to write my life history.....

Here's one more very early memory, although I might have been 4 by this time. I went to Nursery School at Mrs. Lewis' Nursery for 2 years, at her house, ages 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 (I started kindergarten when I was not quite 5). There were probably about 15-20 kids in the class, and I remember the one time I got in trouble. She had a canoe in her yard, upside down on 2 sawhorses, coverd by a large canvas. One day when we had been outside and she blew the whistle for us to go inside one little boy (this may have been the same little boy who got me into trouble in first grade.... ah, remember the umbrella story?) "made me" (haha) stay outside with him and hide under the canoe under the canvas. I don't remember how we were discovered, but I definitely remember having to stand in the corner and miss snack time!