Curls — October Memoir Challenge
I’m participating in the October Memoir and Backstory Challenge hosted by Jane Anne McLachlan. October 1 was about my infancy, Baby Speed Eater – October Memoir Challenge. For October 2, I covered funny stories my mother told about when I was little, Two Tales — October Memoir Challenge. Today is for age 3. If this looks like fun (it is!), it’s not too late to join us — the challenge is for 25 posts in October, so there’s room for some skipped days.
I have a feeling that this will be the first of several posts this month about hair. Do other people have childhood photos of the backs of their heads, or do only girls with curly hair get that treatment?
Here’s my mother at about 18 months:
Sara Ann, age 1 1/2 yrs
And, here’s me at age 3:
Joy Weese, May 1965
I recognize those bushes from my grandmother’s yard. Although I have no memory of this, I’m pretty confident that it was not my mother who formed those ringlets. While my mother had some curl in her hair, it wasn’t as curly as mine and she never had much patience working with my hair. At grandmother’s house, there would have been aunts or cousins to get fascinated enough to create a Shirley Temple look for me.
Speaking of curls, how about a curly-haired girl feeding a curly-haired lamb? That’s my grandmother helping me out.
Joy, May 1965
The nipples fit onto the glass bottles that soda came in at the time. It’s hard to tell if I remember feeding the lambs or just the pictures. There’s a glimmer of a memory. The unexpectedly strong sucking power of a lamb. If the bottle wasn’t available, the edge of my shorts were perfectly fine to suck on. Small fingers grasping dense soft lamb’s wool. If those are real memories, then my first memory is from right around my 3rd birthday. When are your earliest memories?
