Red Hots and My First Memory?

I think the first thing I remember is when I was about two years old. I know that we lived on Valley Road and that Dad pastored Valley Road Baptist church. We lived in a house next door that passed as a parsonage. (It's gone now.)

I remember, I think, the power going out one night. My brothers were in the living room playing checkers with an oversized checkerboard. I went into mom & dad's room, just off the living room, where mom was in bed reading and eating "Red Hots." I'm sure I asked for some and she gave them to me.

So much of it seems like a memory from that time. Still, other things seem to stand out in my memory also.

I remember the church, a little. I remember playing in the yard with some of our usual playmates, the Moore's. There was a tree in the front yard, maybe to the side, and we were somehow convinced that an old “colored man” was buried under and we could somehow talk to him. (Yes, that was the correct term for the time.)

I can also remember being at the Jackson's house. They had a floor fan, so it must've been the summer. I can visualize sitting on the floor making noises through the fan and thoroughly enjoying the effect it had on my voice.

I remember visiting old Mr. Kennedy. I somehow think that I realized he had the same last name as the president.

I truly believe these are real memories. They are just too vivid and the places and people I still know to this day. At least those still living.

Our time at Valley Road Baptist was short and sweet. Still, the friends our family made there, along with the memories, have stayed with the Davis family for more than five decades now.