| Early Beginnings | ||
| I was born on October 30, 1940, in
San Francisco and named Judith Ann Casad. My earliest memory is when my
mother was pregnant with my younger brother and pushing me in my stroller
in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco during the time of World
War II in 1942. Haight Ashbury was a nice retirement community at the
time. I was about one and one-half years of age then, and I can still
picture myself looking at the tray in my little stroller and determining
that I would always remember that moment. Actually, there was nothing at
all special about that moment, but I just decided to remember it, and I
did, even to this day.
Growing up in San Francisco, I also remember stepping on snails. I liked to hear their shells crunch under my feet. In my mind, this was my big sin as a little girl. But God convicted me of this practice when I reached the mature age of five. At Christmas of 1945, I was given a little book called, Secrets, written by Jessie Orton Jones (New York: The Viking Press, 1945, p. 8). Secrets talked about God and His wonderful world, even snails. From the moment my parents read the book to me, I decided to stop stepping on snails. But the book didn’t condemn my "sinful" practice; it gave me positive reinforcement and helped me not to feel guilty about the fact that I had been stepping on snails. Let me quote from page 8: I am glad I’m who I am;
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