TOD: I guess I'll have to ask my mom which motor skill came first and at what age.
I do have a memory of being told to shut up once too often. I had curiousity and was always asking questions. I guess my dad got fed up. I wasn't idly curious. I probably wanted to know where we were going and what we would be doing when we got there.
I was told to shut up and I'd find out when it happened.
This order was made with such rage (it made me feel worthless) at the time, that I made a conscious decision at that point (I was 8 or 9) to hold all my thoughts to myself. And I've stuck to it my whole life. My folks began wondering, when I was 17 and 18, why I wasn't as forthcoming about my hopes and dreams and desires like other parents said their kids were (at the same age). I couldn't very well become the confidant they suddenly wanted.
I think the lesson is clear: If you want your child to grow up to be not only a son or daughter but a friend you must be tolerant of them through all the formative years or you'll lose that part of them.
Just thought I'd share that with y'all, since the TOD stirred up the memory for me.
First movie: There's not just one. I have strong memories of three films seen in 1956-57. The first of these may have been "War and Peace" (based on having the earliest release date). The other two were "The Ten Commandments" and "Anastasia".
I remember parts of these films vividly, especially "War and Peace". All three films were released in the latter part of 1956..."War and Peace" in August, "The Ten Commandments" in October and "Anastasia" in December.
I know there were other films, including serials, that I saw on Saturday afternoons at the Johnston SC movie theater...and in 1955 and 1956. But I just can't recall any of them. I remember seeing a "Coming Soon" poster for "The Opposite Sex" that I wanted to go see, but we moved before it opened (this was in August 1957). After that, movies weren't as frequent a treat. We had moved from a small town to a city. Both my parents worked...and worked long hours. We would, on occasion, go to drive-ins, and it was there that I saw such things as "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Sayonara". I know there were others..."A Bell for Adano" in re-release, for instance. As for trips to theaters, my mom took me to see "Old Yeller" one night in 1959. HUGE treat! And I was also allowed to see "Sleeping Beauty" when it opened in Greenville SC's Fox Theater (Because I was only 10, I was to meet up with an older boy who was the son of one of my mom's co-workers. He was meant to be a chaperone, of sorts. He said he looked for me when he arrived after the film started. I was sitting in the theater. He never went there, and he left. My mom was okay about it, but I didn't go to movies alone until I was 14). That's where I saw all the Disney films back in the 1960s.
Once I was old enough to go to movies alone, the sky was the limit.
