Incase you missed it, the Steemit Blockchain Memory Project was launched last week and am excited about the comments and posts that are being generated.

A huge THANK YOU to all who have participated thus far!

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Memories make us who we are and follow behind us, like shadows, our entire lives.

No internet, no mobile phones...not even cable TV. Definitely simpler times.

Childhood in 1970’s lower middle class America wasn’t at all a bad experience for me. My family didn’t have much in terms of material things but now that I’m a little older and have traveled to other parts of the world I’ve come to understand we had more than most (and more than enough). As I think back, it felt like we existed in a bubble of safety and security.

Although memories from my first two years of life are a little hazy, a few of them have remained with me. I was an extremely shy and curious child and was allergic to almost everything. I lived life to a large extent inside my own head. This is probably how my imagination came to be so developed.

Our family owned one car (a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T) and my father took that to work so if my Mom needed to go anywhere we had to walk. I remember a few times a week my Mom would load me into a red wagon and pull me up to Young’s, the small neighborhood grocery store (it was more like a Bodega) about a mile away from where we lived.

Since my father worked during the day I spent most of my time with my Mom. The economy in America back then was such that families could survive on one income, but that was changing quickly. Life for us was simple, consisting of regular meals, playtime, story time, and afternoon naps. I remember eating a lot of macaroni and cheese and bologna sandwiches. My parents had a huge console radio with record player. Music was almost always playing softly in the background, mostly songs of the 50’s and 60’s.

Entertainment for us meant car rides through downtown on the weekends or stopping by the airport to watch planes take off and land. The only socializing I remember is with aunts and uncles.

My brother, Curt, was born in 1974 when I was three years old and I remember that day vividly. I can recall being confused by what was happening. Back then, before HMOs, hospitals kept women for a couple of days after giving birth.

Curt was a collicky baby and cried a lot at night. Since we shared a bedroom I was up most of the night too. I remember walking into my parent’s room and nudging my Mother awake and asking, “Can we take him back?”

Thankfully, the crying eventually subsided and my brother and I bonded.

I remember enjoying teaching him new things and trying to be an example to him. As he got a little older I remember playing “crash-up derby.” Each of us would sit at the opposite ends of the hallway and hurl metal Matchbox and Hotwheels cars towards one another.

We logged probably hundreds of hours laughing at cartoons, Three Stooges, Little Rascals, Laurel and Hardy, and Benny Hill together. We roamed the alleyways in the neighborhood on our bikes, building countless “forts” and “clubhouses”. These are the kind of things kids did before iPads and structured play dates and I’m so thankful for the memories made in these years.

Curt and I spent every waking hour together until I started kindergarten in 1976. I began to develop friendships with a few other kids my age but still spent most of my time with my family.

My brother and I have remained close despite twenty-three years of living almost a thousand miles away from one another, him in Ohio and me in Minnesota. I’ve watched him raise two children to adulthood-- now he's raising a third.

I’ve witnessed Curt transform himself from dropping out of high school (and subsequently earning his GED and college degree) to becoming a Vice President at Saks Fifth Avenue. Even more importantly I’ve witnessed, time and time again, his humility and kindness. To say he’s made me a proud older brother is an understatement.

Next year, we plan on making an exciting and epic journey together to England to visit the village our ancestors lived in before they came to America in the early 1700’s, Oxhill Parish.

I hope you enjoyed these memories! Have a great weekend everyone.

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Steemit Blockchain Memory Project Rules of Engagement

• Share any significant memory you’d like to. Think about things that have shaped who you are or may be unique in some way. Think about memories you’d like your great-great-grandchildren to read about....now write posts about these memories in your Steemit blog.
• Use proper tags (see below)
• Share a link to this post in all of your Blockchain Memory Project posts so others can find the rules.
• Share your posts with your friends and family on external social media outlets (optional but encouraged).

Tag Suggestions

We want your memories to live on forever. We also want those memories to be searchable by those who might be looking for them in the future.

For this reason, I suggest the following tags for your first four - “Story Life Blog BlockchainMemoryProject”.

Your last tag should be very specific to what you’re writing about in your post, something that will help people who are searching for it on the internet.

I'll be sharing memories of my own along the way.

Prizes

Each month I will comb through the posts tagged with “BlockchainMemoryProject” and choose my favorites. The post owners will receive a surprise in their wallets...a portion of a monthly prize of 10 Steem! Note: all rules of engagement must be followed for your post to qualify.

As always, I thank you for reading.

Yours in the Chain,

Eric

Please follow our official Steemit account for the film series @hardfork-series. Did you miss our last post? If so CLICK HERE to read it!

*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
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