 Hi, my name is Mitch Mitchell and I'm smiling already because I actually already did Almost this entire video only I didn't have it set on video That's just so goofy, but you know what that's life. Anyway today I'm actually going to reminisce about something that happened in my life. It seems to have affected Different parts of my life as it applies to my memory from 1963 until 1966 I lived in Tokyo, Japan. My dad was in the service and he worked at Takahachi Airbase and we lived in a place called Green Park and it was Interesting and that's the best I can say right now and you'll know why as I get further into it But in essence it was an apartment complex of sorts There were six or seven three-story buildings that we all lived in that the dependents along with you know Dad and you know the other soldiers who had families I don't know where the non-coms or the people who didn't have families had no idea because they didn't live in apartments So I remember that I remember that it was attached to this gigantic building where everything was self-contained In essence, there was a church in there. There was a grocery store. There was a movie theater in there There was an ice cream joint that was in there There was a pool place There were all kind of offices like mom worked for special services She even got a got an award for that for working there. So, you know everything though was self-contained Preschool was self-contained in there The only thing that wasn't self-contained was when it was time to go to kindergarten first grade That was right off the base and the reason that was right off the base is so Japanese kids could come to it, but it was a mess Anyway, my story begins one day and I can't tell you whether I was five or six. I really can't tell you And in between each one of the apartment buildings there were these white generator shacks I know what was there now, but back then we just called them little white houses Because that's what we thought they were Because we were kids we didn't know And they were basically taller than us, but we were kids So we knew how to climb up on top of them if we needed to some were higher than others But still you could get up on them And it's one particular day I was out there with a bunch of kids and it was one kid named timothy Who was pushing kids off of the shack, you know, this is a stupid kid thing and he was just pushing kids off Kids would scream and they would jump off So at one point I'm looking at something else not paying any attention and next thing, you know, I'm going down And there was a metal manhole cover there And I remember Going toward it I remember opening my eyes And some lady is coming to me And there's no kids around And I didn't know who she was I don't know if she saw me go down or anything She might have looked over and thought there was a dead kid laying on the ground for all I know And so She's talking to me and I have no idea what she's saying. I just I've got nothing And she walks me back to the main building And I don't know where we went. I have no clue. I don't know if she walked me to see a doctor I don't know if she took me to her apartment. I have no recollection of any of that What I have recollection of is that at some point When her attention was diverted elsewhere. I basically walked away Walked back to where I lived Walked into the apartment And didn't think anything of it didn't even really remember that incident at that time And the next morning Dad came to me to take me to the butterfly cage In japan back in the 60s. I don't know if they still do that do it now But back then one of the things that you did was you caught butterflies You had all these different color cages. You had all these different color Nets and you would go out you would catch butterflies and you put them in the cage And then you take them in the house and you'd feed them Grass and leaves because who knew what you fed Butterflies we didn't have internet back then and at that time I'd never been to a library So there was no researching it So anyhow, he had taken me to the cage and my butterflies had died Now this was a common thing, you know, we didn't know what we were doing with butterflies So they would die you would take them outside you'd empty you go get more butterflies But on this particular day I screamed and I screamed and I screamed And dad took the cage and took it out and emptied it And I never caught another butterfly as a matter of fact from that day I've been scared of bugs. I just own up to it. I'm scared of bugs. I don't like bugs I don't like anything. So everyone else thinks butterflies are cute. I don't I just don't people think lady bugs are cute. No, no, they're all bugs. They're all creepy I don't like any of them scared of all of them I will go to great lengths to keep them out of the house and if they get in the house I will go to great lengths to kill them. I just will And it takes a lot of effort for me to do it I have to put on a whole lot of layers of stuff Or get my can of raid and just saturate the heck out of those things We now have a contract with Terminex to come in Once a month and spray the entire house. That's how bad it is Now that's that part. Here's the other part. I remember the name Timothy But I don't remember what that kid looked like. I don't know if I knew any of those other kids who were there I don't remember Very much of my time in japan. It was there three years from Basically before I turned four up until before I turned seven so a little more than three years I don't remember much of it at all There's snippets. I remember here and there things that must have stood out for some reason, but I don't remember much of it I lived in in fort worth, texas. I was born in fort worth, texas. I was there until I was three years old And I remember basically only a couple of things there now, of course. I was younger So maybe you're not supposed to remember things But that's it. I remember a couple of things from texas. I remember a few things from japan And then we moved to the united states And there's things I remember but I've always had trouble with names from that point on always had trouble with names and There's a lot of things that will come to me and snippets, but I don't remember full details of a lot of things For instance, I knew every phone number I ever heard until I was 27 years old I remember every phone number I had ever heard not seen but heard if someone told me a phone number I'd never forgotten it. So I was 27 years old, but names I don't remember my high school graduation Don't remember it at all. The only thing I remember from that day is seeing my very first lava lamp and being entranced by it I don't remember a thing. I don't know if I was with anyone. I remember nothing I don't remember my college graduation The only thing I remember from the day I graduated college was that I spent the night with my girlfriend Who was doing some work up there and we walked to a sunrise and it was the very first sunrise out of four years Of college that I ever saw and it was amazing and I said wow look what I've been missing But I don't remember it And I think that it's one of those kind of things where The brain must protect you from certain things But maybe it goes into another mode where it blocks a lot of stuff I remember every single time that someone has wronged me If you're on my never forgive list, I remember it I remember all of that stuff if someone has irked me a little bit I remember every single word that you said I remember all that stuff. I don't know why but I do um so, you know, it's it's funny thing with memory, but I had this conversation with my wife saying do you think that maybe because I had this Little trauma thing here that it's affected my memory. She said it almost had to Because people remember, you know, maybe you don't remember a tons of stuff from before you were three years old But she said, you know, you flew across the world twice, you know, once going somewhere once coming back No recollection of it. Uh, I had adventures. I mean, I remember being on Mount Fuji I remember the ride up because it was one of those single lane rows as it kind of went around the mountain And you could see over the side of it where it was, you know, this large drop and it was scary I remember part of that and I remember being at If there had been sand you'd call it a beach where there are water coming up to the rocks and there were these gigantic goldfish And you we fed them popcorn. I remember that but I don't remember a lot of it I don't remember going back down I remember the typhoon I certainly remember the big typhoon, but I don't remember the earthquakes when according to mom We had a bunch of earthquakes. I just remembers snatches of it. I used to speak Japanese And I don't remember speaking Japanese after that anymore Of course, we moved to the states and there was no one to talk to But I don't I I lost it all. I I just don't know I don't remember almost anything from school. I don't ever remember being in a single class I remember once talking to some Japanese kids Because like I said families would send their kids to the school But they didn't speak English. I spoke English and Japanese so I used to talk to the Japanese kids But I don't remember any of the conversations. I really don't remember any of it Um, so I don't remember school I don't remember a surprise birthday party that I had. I don't remember any of it But I do remember Getting my first bike But I don't know if it was given to me at a party or given to me another time But I remember a bike And I remember the guy trying to drown me Trying to teach me how to swim stupid moron You push kids off of a diving board. You dive in you save them. You give them a badge saying they had Swimming training, please really? I remember that but that was kind of traumatic You know, I remember Leaving a group of kids that were supposed to be going to some event downtown Tokyo Walking into a building getting on an elevator and ending up In this Japanese couple's apartment. They must have been rich And I had to have scared the heck out of them and then when I spoke Japanese they had to freak them out even more But I remember sitting and eating with them But I don't remember us talking about anything We probably had to but I don't remember it and I remember Eventually being back in the bus And having someone show up Frantic because I had gone missing I remember once going to the tokyo zoo But the only thing I remember is mom Keeping a major eye on me and not let me do anything I don't remember graduating uh from kindergarten I don't remember who was supposed to be my best friend there. Just kid named Keith. I've seen pictures of Keith Mom said that was your best friend. You guys did everything together. No recollection whatsoever So it's interesting So I don't remember names, but I do remember faces So I remember the faces of kids who I went to school with Uh in second grade third grade through fourth grade because I saw some of those people years Later and I knew exactly who they were And just a couple of times I remember names and most of them was like wait, okay We know each other. Did you go whatever bam? And there it was So at least I remember faces even if I don't remember names But it's just you know a little thing that happened in my life that I don't tell people all that often because You know, how does that kind of story come up? But I thought I would share that it's just a little thing in my life And that's it. I just wanted to share that Show that I do have a human side. Okay, you probably knew that anyway, but still I just decided I was gonna tell that story Now it's down on video. I may share it one day with some other folks So anyhow, that's me. That's my story. That's what I live with I hope y'all have had a wonderful day. I hope you didn't get overly bored by this story And if you've lived in other places, you know what? Let me know if you lived in Tokyo Let me know the experience. Let me know if you've lived there You know more sooner or better sooner or sooner or more recent. That's it than I did Let me know if any of that stuff has changed I'd really like to know y'all take care. Have a wonderful day