Tuesday, March 4, 2008

My Autobiography - a diary of sorts

First Memories:

I don't pretend to remember that far back, but according to my parents, I was two the first time I found myself lost. That's not to say it hasn't happened inumerable times since, but as the story goes... We were in the Los Gatos hills, at a birthday party my mother's friend was having for her daughter. My parents were enjoying themselves in the usual parental way. My mother gabbing away with the moms in the kitchen. My dad participating in some debate with the other dads. I was crawling on the floor with the kids, probably fighting over toys or discovering my toes, again. At some point, we all got comfortable. My father was the first to notice I was missing. He looked around, but it didn't take long for him to panic. He alerted my mother and ran outside to search. Another father was putting his own child into her car seat and had apparently seen me. My father, now on the verge of either a heart attack at the age of 35, or punching a man in front of his daughter, ran down the long driveway toward the other houses on the hill. He heard barking and just knew his little girl had heard it too. He came upon a wrott iron gate too high to jump over and too secure to break through. So he yelled. "Daddy?" He breathed a sigh of relief until he saw the size of the two Dobermans his 2 year old was playing with. As his little girl toddled her way back toward the gate, these two massive canines charged at him with full force. As they showed him how bad their bark was, he could only imagine their bite. He was half greatful for the protection of the large gate and half hateful of it holding his little girl from him. She had stopped dead in her tracks, now terrified of the ferociousness of these two dogs, who had been so gentle with her. "Daddy!" She cried. My father's heart was ripping apart his chest. What if the dogs turned on her in their wrath? Oh God, he could only imagine. His only choice was to walk away and hope that the dogs calmed down with him gone. As he moved around a corner out of sight, he heard the barking calm. The few minutes it took for his daughter to emerge from the gate were the longest he could bare. But the second she was safe from harm, he scooped her up and held her tight.

More memories to come...

If you have any early memories of me that you'd like to share, please do.

1 comment:

Sherryl said...

I love it....You write good