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The memory goes like this:
I am very young, and I am in the car with my parents. Dad is driving. We come to a place that is familiar. There are small buildings on either side of the road. The car slows, then comes to a stop. Sometimes there are other cars there too. Sometimes not.
This has happened before and it is always like this. Dad rolls down his window, and as he does so as a man approaches the car and peers inside. They exchange some words. Then the man goes away and Dad drives on. The whole encounter lasts no more than twenty seconds.
We are not supposed to remember events from very early in our childhood due to infantile amnesia. Nonetheless this ritual happened so often I can still see it in my mind. It is not my only memory from that time. The Elza Gate photo by Ed Wescott is dated 25 Feb 1949. Less than one month later, on 19 Mar 1949, the gates at Oak Ridge are opened to the public. On that date I was 1 year, 4 months, and 12 days old.
