CHATTAHOOCHEE, Daddy, CHATTAHOOCHEE
To go from our house in Marietta, Georgia, to Atlanta, Georgia, you have to cross the Chattahoochee River. I was born in September 1947 in Atlanta, Georgia. Being my parents’ first child they were anxious for me to excel at everything which I did except for talking and walking. When they thought that I should be talking baby talk, I just stared at them. They began reading all of the road signs to me and the names of everything else that we saw or crossed while in the car. I was in a jump seat between them in the front seat of the car. This went on for quite a long time. One day coming back from Atlanta my daddy forgot to say, “ Chattahoochee, Molly May, Chattahoochee”. I promptly said, “Chattahoochee, Daddy, Chattahoochee”. Daddy promptly turned the car around and drove back across the bridge while staring at me. I just looked at him and Moma. I thought why should I say it to you again because I just told you what it was!!!! Thus I began to talk and have not stopped to take much of a breath in 76 years!!!
Walking was a problem also because I could crawl so fast. Daddy and Moma tried everything to get me to walk by myself. I would hold their hand and walk, but I would not walk by myself. One day Uncle Laymon and Aunt Lula came to play Canasta with my parents. I was crawling on the floor before the card game started. Uncle Laymon held up a silver dollar coin and said that he would give it to me if I stood up and walked across the room to him. I stood up and walked across the room. Then Moma who was on the other side of the room held up another silver dollar coin and I walked over to get it in my new white laceup high top shoes which I still have. I have been in a vertical world ever since.