Recently, I was thinking about some events that occurred when I was four years old, that have apparently stuck with me since that time. the first I remember sitting at my Aunt's house watching Uncle Tom's Cabin--the dramatized film version, and wanting to go to the Goodson-Smith family reunion, but my mother wouldn't let me go. Secondly, I remember going to Harold Washington's funeral. I remember them in this pattern because the two things happened very much in the same time period as the other. I also link the two because, as I remember it, I had polished my dress shoes and gotten all of my clothes ready and then my mother told me I couldn't go to the family reunion, which made me mad...and I remember it that way, and also I remember polishing my shoes in order to go to Harold Washington's funeral which I remember as being very grave and solemn. We were at my Aunt Johnnie's ( Aunt Bertie's really) house, which was right across the street from ours, and I remember my mother checking my shoes to make sure I had polished them properly (which, I believe was the main reason I didn't get to go to the family reunion) and then we made our way to the funeral. I remember there were thousands there and the atmosphere was grave. I remember very little else about it, but it was quite profound and it has always stayed with me.