EY#1: When and where were you born?

Back again!  Don't get too used to it.  It's new. I'm excited. So, let's do this two days in a row!  If it's like my scripture study, we might make it daily for two weeks and then it will taper off, but we'll see...

So, perhaps an explanation is in order before I begin. I've decided that the "title" of each post will be the question asked in my book.  "EY," as you'll notice above will mean it's a question from the "Early Years" chapter. "YA" will denote "Young Adulthood," "ML" will be "Married Life" and "LN" will be "Life Now."  When you see "WC," it means I'm throwing in a "Wild Card" stepping out of the box and addressing a topic of MY choosing or a random question that has been thrown out to me.  Got it?!?!?!?  Okay.  Let's get down to business!

I'd love to say that my birth was something monumental, but as far as I know, it was just a normal day: March 4, 1955, a Friday.  I was never supposed to be. Yes, I was the "accident."
After nearly dying in childbirth after my brother Allen was born seven years before, my mother was not supposed to have any more children, but I was loved and spoiled never-the-less.  I was two weeks late and my mother walked the 3-1/2 blocks from our home to Copley Memorial Hospital in Aurora, Illinois for the blessed event.

I was named Carol, after a beautiful little girl, with big blue eyes and blonde curls, that my mother babysat in high school. I never liked my name.  You see, I was jealous.  My brother William had a nickname: Bill (or Billy as I called him when I was little).  My brother Allen had a nickname: Al (or Zilch or Koochy-plunk as friends from school called him).  What kind of a nickname do you use when you have a name like Carol? I always wished my name was Carolyn or Caroline (like Pres. Kennedy's daughter) so that Carol could be MY nickname, but alas, just plain Carol it is.  My middle name is Ellen.  My father insisted on that part to name me after my mother (Mary Ellen). I was okay with the sentimentality there, until you put my whole name together: Carol Ellen Zielke.  All the "Ls" kind of create an experience in alliteration, don't you think?  One wonderful thing came from my name though! My oldest daughter, Meg, knew how I felt about my name and how I had always wished to be a Carolyn and when she gave birth to her first daughter, she was named for me in a way that would please me, combining my names: Carollen.  I love it. And I love "Cari." Alas, Cari hates HER name! I tell her that at least she can have a nickname.  She can be Carollen, or Cari or even "Roll-en" like Proud Mary!  But I digress!

So, check out this picture! Like it? I always hated it! Not the picture of ME, necessarily.  Actually, I think I was kinda cute, faux hawk and all.  It was the DRESS! I know you can't tell, but it's a very sheer light blue material with black WASPS all over it!!! I ask you! Who on God's green earth makes a baby dress covered in WASPS?!?!?! And if someone is silly enough to make it, who on earth is crazy enough to buy it????  A friend of my grandmother's.  That's who!  And when you ask your mother WHY on earth she had your baby picture taken in such a hideous dress the answer is that she didn't want to hurt the old lady's feelings!  For my children who think I make a poor fashion statement, perhaps you can blame this early trauma!  At any rate, I must confess to an early sin in my life.  My mother gave me this dress to put on my favorite doll; a hard plastic doll who actually bore a striking resemblance to baby Carol here, bald head and all.  Well, hard plastic dolls arms don't bend very well, you understand and, dang! If I didn't tear big holes in the dress the very first time I tried to put it on Cheryl!  I got in trouble, but it was an "accident!"

Anyway... if you can ignore the dress with the wasps and the faux hawk, not too bad a picture.  As I look at it now, I can see a few of my grandchildren in the shape of the eyes and one day, my Baker (Abigail, grandbaby #13) will recognize where her ears came from.

Back to the day of my birth... I haven't been a fan of my birthday.  Bad things always seem to happen a few weeks either direction from my birthday, but there is one that will go down in my history as one of the absolute best EVER!  I like to call it my "platinum" birthday.  The year I turned the age of my birth year.  You know.  Turn 55, born in '55 and that just happens to be the same year that Disneyland was born and I got to spend it with Brooks' family and Barton & Emily in the Happiest Place on Earth!

So, wow! This is long and I've been rambling! Not sure if this is the information Brooks was looking for when she asked that question, but "when you wish upon a star..."