Childhood Memories

I am Doris Oden Darrow, born in the late 1920s in a coastal suburb of Los Angeles, California, known as Venice. In the 1980s, my grown children asked me to write down as many memories from my childhood as I could. In 1987 I sat down at our old Royal typewriter and began my first blog. It is reproduced here, as faithfully as possible. The dates are manufactured, as Blogger's tools only allow dates as far back as Jan 1, 1999.

Saturday, September 11, 1999

Dishes

My sister Mary always washed the dishes, sister Rachel and I dried them. We used two huge dishpans at the corner of the table, which was covered with an oilcloth table covering. Eventually, the oilcloth would wear thin, so it would have to be turned to the opposite corner.

Friday, September 10, 1999

My Earliest Memory

Our kitchen table seemed huge. Mom was washing dishes in the pan on the corner of the table, and I stood beside her, my eyes barely able to see above the table edge, and I asked her my name. She told me, "Doris Gertrude Oden."