Day eleven - Camera

One thing I know for sure is that there isn't a lot of my childhood mementos/keepsakes/photographs still extant. Again, these are things that were all either eventually lost or thrown away, who knows. So that means that there isn't much now that I can use to look at and try to see if I have any memories regarding it. Up until a few years ago, there used to be a box filled with photos and polaroids of me and my family from decades ago, but I've not seen it in ages. There is, though, a photo of my brother and two other kids - god knows who - and me in the background riding a tricycle. In it I am wearing the very same cap from the rollerskating memory - was I a cap kind of kid? I don't remember liking headwear all that much as a kid, really.

All this to state that prior to me going to first grade I don't have many tangible memories. I remember a gypsy family that lived in the same building my family lived in, and one day one of their dogs had a litter of puppies and they gifted two of them to me and my brother. My doggie was named Elias. But that there may have created a problem - Elias was also the name of a guy who lived in the building as well, and I'm pretty sure no one liked him. He was a kind of normal guy, I guess, not too tall nor too short, maybe skinny, and he either had light brown hair or was blond, and he sported a neatly trimmed beard. But whenever I looked at the guy, something about him creeped me out - I'm not saying he was the devil, but if the devil ever looked like someone, it would be like him.

From what I can remember, and because when we were given the puppies they were still very young and had to stay with their mother, one day someone found them dead - the rumour was that Elias - who was  a teacher - has poisoned them. I don't think we ever got to find out what really happened. 

There was also a contentious black family that got into everyone's nerves - even the other black families that lived in the building or who were neighbours to us, and one of the kids my age used to enjoy doing my head in. One day I just flipped and went into my house, grabbed a hammer, and bonked him in the head. I'd never do anything of the sort these days, but man, for that to have happened, that kid really must have made my life miserable. I didn't have many friends in the neighbourhood, if any at all. Oh, I knew them all, but we never reallly got along. I was already feeling out of place, and as soon as I learned how to read, I distanced myself from the other kids even more, though occasionally I'd still play with them.