I’ve Been Meaning to Ask You is an interview series where Kathryn Mockler invites people to answer questions on being human. Read it here.

“Kathryn Mockler: What is your first memory of existing?

Don Pyle: Almost all of my earliest memories have photos to back them up, so they cannot be trusted to be the first. Two that don’t have photos are of my Great Granny Smith holding my hands as I sat on the crook of her foot. She sang “Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross” as she kicked up and down to simulate riding. I keep meaning to look up what a Cock Horse is. The other is of laying in the dirt between rows of tomatoes in my mother’s yard, the tomatoes like tall trees around me. With one ear pressed to the ground and looking at it sideways, I gently stroked the head of our pet alligator. It snapped its head and bit my finger. I leapt up screaming and shaking my hand, causing the alligator to fly through the air above the tomatoes. The last I remember of the alligator is seeing it silhouetted by the sky.”

Granny Smith photo by Shirl