April 25, 2013

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You Are Getting Very Sleepy . . . (Just a Suggestion)

I was quite young when I was born, and spent the first months of life as a baby. It seems that nothing much happened in those earliest days – at least nothing memorable – because I remember nothing.

My parents told me that I caused them a lot of anxiety, going to the hospital with pneumonia when I was seven months old. You would think I would remember something like that, but I don’t. During later childhood, I seemed to be get bronchitis each year. My Mother told me it was probably because the development of my lungs was adversely affected by the pneumonia. I accepted that suggestion and continued to come down with bronchitis, just as was expected of me.

Since that time, I have run more than 30,000 miles; so I believe the lungs are fine.

Our family moved from my Moline, Illinois birthplace to Irving, Texas when I was less than a year old. At least that is what I was told – again, I have no memory of it. My first real memories are of Texas.

I recall a quiet street with what I thought of as a forest at one end. I remember playing in a sand box with other children in the neighborhood. I remember that our dog Tripper was lost and we had to drive around in the car to look for him.

I had a small toy football that I would hold until my Dad would say “Throw it here, Doak.” Then I would throw it. Doak Walker was a standout football player at nearby Southern Methodist University. Apparently I was suggesting that I wanted to be a sports hero like him.

When I was two or three years old, some friends of my parents were visiting, along with their son, who must have been five or six. He was one of the big kids who was actually going to school. That gave him quite a lot of credibility. Combine that with my childish suggestibility, and when we were in the back yard and he said, “Let’s have a rock fight,” of course I said, “OK.” Continue reading →