TALES FROM THE CRYPT
                          By Wilma Robinson (Jan 1923 to Dec 2012)


Tuesday, March 28,2000

I have decided (with some reservation) to do as some people have
suggested and put down on paper, or in this case on the computer,
everything I can remember about the state of my surroundings and the
things that have happened in and around my life. So here goes....
The very first things I am going to remember are going to be personal and
will be of little or no interest to anyone else but nevertheless it is necessary
to get me oriented.
Some of the things I 'remember' may be things I have been told about but
have subsequently entered my consciousness as my own memories. Bear
with me.
My earliest recollection of my childhood begins in my parent's bedroom
(where I was born on a cold January day in 1923) and concerns my oldest
sister, Mary.
She was standing at the foot of my crib which was placed between my
parent's bed and the window. She had been shaking the crib repeatedly
trying to get me to go to sleep...! was apparently not sleepy but was lying
with my eyes closed, pretending to be finally asleep. She slowly backed
herself towards the door, being as quiet as possible so as not to wake me, in
the hopes of escaping back to her own world downstairs. I lay there
watching her through my eyelashes until her hand reached for the doorknob
and just as she began to turn it I began to wail! Her face dropped and she
resignedly returned to my crib and began shaking it all over again. I don't
know how old I was but I am sure that must have been the first time I felt
the pangs of guilt. Even to-day I still feel that way whenever it pops into
my memory. As I said, that bedroom was my birthplace, and my mother
told me the following story
: The doctor who attended my birthing was Dr. Garnet Morse and my
mother used to laughingly say that he was drunk at the time and no doubt
he was as he had that reputation in the town. After I was born I was carried
downstairs wrapped in a blanket and placed on the open oven door to be
kept warm while they "assessed" me. One of the things they gave particular
notice to was the length of my toes which were likened to the toes of a
monkey! Unfortunately that description remains true to-day. The stove, at
that time was a wood burning stove with two closed warming ovens
above the heating surface of the stove and a long narrow one below the
oven,,This longer one was used to dry out any kindling sticks we had for
starting the next day's fire. I remember one day much later when one of our
small kittens crawled in there to keep warm on the few sticks that were
there to dry out. Someone inadvertently closed the small door and it wasn't
discovered until someone traced the muffled wailing to the little warming
oven and released the now very warm kitten! Thankfully, the kitten
survived and we children learned to check the little oven before closing the
door.