I was 3 in 1956. We lived in Sunnyvale, CA, a town near San Jose in the Bay Area. We lived in an old orchardist's farm house while hundreds of 1,500 sq ft homes sprung up around us, seemingly like mushrooms, practically overnight. Miles and miles of beautiful cherry and apricot orchards torn out for affordable homes.
And this is where I think I may have, over the years, manufactured memories of climbing down into a new, storm-drain catch-basin. My brain tells me I cautiously examined for foot holds before climbing down (yeah, right!).
I think because of the retelling of the tale, I subsequently fleshed out the details and made it into a false memory. Apparently I was there for hours before my mother and a carpenter found me in the basin, crying my eyes out.
However, to this day, I believe my mother took me into the house and fed me Chicken and Rice Campbell's Soup, which became my favorite for years.