Most of my memories of the time before kindergarten began are missing. Psychologists call this 'childhood amnesia.'
And yet, my earliest memory is from well before that time. To this day, I still remember it quite clearly. There's nothing traumatic about it.
I'm a baby or at least a toddler. I'm in my parents' bedroom with my sister, Susan, and her friend Penny. I'm in the middle of my parents' bed and the two girls are good-naturedly fighting over me because one of them would have to play house with a doll and the other would get to play house with a real live baby.
Me.
In my mind's eye, I can still see them. Still feel the contentedness of being in that room and of being wanted.
I'm not sure why this memory sticks with me. But it gives a glimpse into a time when I may not have even been able to talk yet, so I'm grateful that I can travel that far back in time.
What's your earliest memory?
What a great memory! And how lovely that the feeling of contentedness has stayed with you all these years.
ReplyDeleteIn my earliest memory, it's colours that are the most vivid - in fact the only vivid - images. I was two years old, and I can recall the exact shade of the bright red trousers I was wearing. Mum wrapped me in a white towel and held me in the back seat of the car, and after we got to the hospital, at some point during my stay somebody put me into a green cardigan.
That was the day I picked up the kettle by its lead (yellow and black) and tipped freshly boiled water all down my leg.
I love that! My son did nearly the same thing when he pulled a freshly poured mug of tea off the kitchen counter as a toddler. I'll have to ask if he remembers...
DeleteThe interesting thing about your memory is it doesn't read like a trauma. What I pick up on is security in your mum's arms. Thanks for sharing!
I have a vague memory of being lost and wandering off a mountain. When I asked my mother about it she told me it really happened when I was about three and we lived in California. My parents owned a gas station on a mountain near the desert - my father had been in the Navy stationed in CA and recently retired so they bought the station. Mom had used a long rope to tether me to a close line as she tended the gas pumps and I managed to untie myself and started walking down the mountain. All ended well and very quickly I was caught.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story. I can visualize that very easily. It could open a novel...
DeleteMy earliest memory goes back to 1975 in Oklahoma living in a green house. I was five years old at the time and there was a cat that would always visit me and then leave after he got his fill. The one thing I always remembered about that time was hearing The Four Seasons "Dec. 63, Oh What a Night" and the cat's purring. The cat eventually became ours until he died in a few years later. But that is what I remembered the most.
DeleteThanks. I also lived in a green house in a state beginning with O, but it was Ohio for me.
DeleteI vividly remember being about a year old and sitting in my highchair in the kitchen being fed by my mom with my dad looking on. We lived in a second floor apartment in a small house on a quiet side street. I can hear the downstairs door open, and the clomping of a child's feet as they came running up the stairs. My cousin Sue, about nine or ten at the time, came into the kitchen and I can remember my folks saying, "Look, Tommy, it's Susy!" This would have been like 1947.
ReplyDeleteWow...I wonder why that stuck with you so vividly. There's certainly a sense of security there, in my opinion....
DeleteI remember the Christmas when I was 3 years old. We had gone to our grandparents to celebrate so I was feeling a little out of place, but very loved. We had opened our presents. I had gotten an enormous stuffed dog, some kind of inflatable toy and other things. My sister tried on the cowgirl outfit she had gotten among her presents and managed to walk over my inflatable toy with her spurs and ruin it before I even got to play with it or even check it out very well. No one taught me the art and necessity of forgiveness that early either. I carried that resentment a long time.
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