Really, my earliest memory is this

One other very early memory that I have (I absolutely would have to be three or four for this) is actually just an image or two of life from the first time we lived in Shreve (I lived in Millersburg, Shreve (twice), Wooster (Madisonburg), Walnut Creek growing up).

I don't remember what the house looked like when we lived there, but I remember the full-size black poodle we had as a pet. And I remember going across the street to visit "Grandma and Grandpa" Hostetler. If you've had an elderly couple for neighbors when you were a kid, you might remember them in the same way.

Even after we moved to Madisonburg, we would still go to Shreve to visit them. Over the years, I also remember

• Sitting on the floor in their house, admiring the oddities of their plush orangish-brown shag carpet while my parents played Euchre with them.
• "Grandma" cooking up corn-on-the-cob and cutting down each row before rubbing the stick of butter and shaking the salt on it. Cutting the corn like that was weird to me since no one else I knew did that, but my mind made the corn taste better when she did that.
• Looking at the age spots on Grandma's arms and wondering if that's what my horrible freckles were going to turn into.
• The old entry doors they had (including one with the card table for playing Euchre blocking it at times) and the old-style steel keys that they used.
• I can't picture any of it konw, but I remember marvelling at their old furniture, hi-fi stereo system, and the various trinkets "Grandma" had strewn throughout the house.
• I was a very curious boy (still am) and would go into any room I wanted to, sneaking into their bedroom to see what kind of stuff they had in there, too.

I loved the Hostetlers very much and considered them my grandparents even after I figured out and confirmed they were, indeed, not biological grandparents to me. Grandpa died while I was in college (the first time), I think, and it was a very sad time for me, even though I had not kept in touch much anymore.