I was born at the start of WWII. We lived on the East Coast, in a Naval Housing Project in West Hartford, Connecticut, on Oakwood Avenue.

My earliest memory is of blackout curtains in the bedroom, big, heavy things, kept tightly closed at night. I was afraid of the dark, but my mother said we couldn't have a light on in the house after dark because of the German airplanes.

I remember peeking out of the curtains at night (we lived upstairs) and seeing an official car creeping along with its headlights painted black. No street lights; everything was dark and silent.

That's my earliest memory. What's yours?