3

1974
The year of my birth. At this point in time there is little to remember. November of 1974, late in the year at that. The only clear memory that I have is of screaming.
A man, not unike Kasey Kasem was standing above me with dark sunglasses on. I remember his hair being almost black and his skin very dark. Not dark as in African American or from India, but dark. He wore a light colored jacket. I remember his smile which slowly spread across his face as he reached down for me. Then I remember screaming, screaming so very loud and high pitched. I suppose he frightened me. That man was my grandfather. The first and last memory that I have of him.

Many things occured in 1974. This was the year of the Watergate Scandal, the year that the Rubix Cube was invented and also the year that 'Lucy' was discovered by anthropologists. As it seems it was also the year that Haile SAlasie was deposed by the Derg.

Of course I was oblivious to it all. I entered the light called the real world then cooed into the year 1975. While the world was changing around me, I was comfortable in ignorance...and innocence.
While October 31 was Halloween and November 1st, Day of the Innocents, was the first day of the dead, El dia de los Muertes. November 2nd, All souls day and second day in the Day of the Dead and that leaves my birthday..NOvember 3...One day after the Coronation of Haile Salasie, which was also on November second.

November 3rd of 1974 seems to be quite uneventful except for my birth. The higher powers must have known a great secret that I did not. Maybe my birth took too much energy from the cosmos, because my mom almost bled to death and I almost died from some sickness no one elaborates on. Guess it was just an exagerated story of the common cold which struck an infant.
Most things are exaggerated when tales are told, but one thing is for sure...I was born, born in 1974 to Ester and James and an older brother named Allen and a much older sister named Joyce, who would marry soon after my birth and move out.