Who Is The Blonde Man?

Last night I had a dream or more like a memory, because my dreams are rather complete stories.  But this one is pieces of something that must have happened in 1956 or 1957.  Yeah, most people can remember a little from being three years old, however I have vivid memories of the locust invasion of 1957, which made me two at the time.  But, this precedes even that and this memory has repeated throughout my lifetime!

It all revolves around a family my parents apparently knew quite well at the time but mother's memory is pretty much gone so no clues from her, now that I actually can remember this in an awake state!  The father was blonde, good looking, worked with my father - so that made him German and in on the nuclear program.  His wife was also blonde and very German in appearance, I thought her lovely.  They had two children whom were older than me, I remember nothing about them, I was but a toddler.

Now the dream or memory always starts out the same way: baby grouse all bunched together, some sitting on the backs of some type of spotted feline (bobcat kits?).  At some point I have a basket full of these chicks and am hauling it through the grass.  The chicks keep falling out and the woman is laughing so hard as she gathers up these chicks and drops them back into the basket.

But, what the heck was this from?

I know the woman's face well, as well as my own mother's, so I must have seen her quite often, even though I was probably pre-verbal.  Her husband I had a great liking to - but whom is he????? I can still see him standing there in a livingroom, light colored slacks and a knit wool sweater that is white or beige, I can remember the cabling on the sweater even!  And have no idea whom he is!  I do not even remember my parents being there in this memory, so perhaps they were baby sitting me and had a farm of some type?  Or perhaps I really was adopted as I have long suspected (like since second grade!).

So very strange and yet so intriguing!  Driving me crazy where this could have been.  That year, father's work had him in Portland, Castle, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia Labs, White Sands, Iceland and Hungary (as I found out a few years ago) .  Well, Iceland and Hungary I can eliminate, as I was never there.

I do remember being at all of the others, except for White Sands.  I do not remember any grass in New Mexico and Sandia was a just a huge kitty litter box - albeit with a cool underground I remember being in often.  I would eliminate the California locations just because of the heat and a sweater would have been a bit much.  So, that leaves Portland.  It could be but outside of Von Braun, I just do not remember any other Germans ever stopping by, or my spending time with anyone other than American families after I turned three years old.  Outside of the Germans at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia in any event ... they were an awesome source of humor to this little guy!

So, a mystery to ferret out one of these days.  It was probably Otto the shoe repair man anyways ...  LOL