Saturday, April 22, 2006

My Earliest Memory

I know it was in Longview, Texas. That's where I so graciously lived with my parents and older sister before all of us packed up and moved to The Big City in 1958.

I was sitting on the floor of our kitchen; Mom was on the telephone, above me. She seemed upset, then she began crying. It somehow affected me to see my mother crying while she was on the telephone. Quickly, Dad appeared on the scene and the phone call was over. I can't remember the dialogue, but I know that my Mom had just found out that a favorite aunt and uncle had just died. In a car wreck.

I was 3 years old. Possibly 4.

What is your earliest memory?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't remember Dave, I'll have to see if I can remember. But I like how your post shows that kids really do pick things up on a very intuitive level from a very young age. Children and animals are both VERY perceptive.
Hope you have a lovely Saturday. It's a gorgeous day over here..

JJ said...

This is no lie....we had just moved into the house were I spend my childhood and I was sitting on a box (because we just moved in) in what was to become the living room and I was watching T.V. My Mom was also crying (My Dad was working) and we were watching the news. JFK had just been shot.
I was 2 years, 2 months, 9 days old.
I see you,
JJ

Unknown said...

I remember getting tpo finally help my Dad bring in the milk bottles. I dropped mine. I'll never forget the look on my Dad's face. Utter disappointment. (Pun not intended - just came out that way). Age ??? had to be 2-3 year range.

Mary Christine said...

I remember finding a jar with the bottom broken out - and putting my hands into both ends like a muff! I got badly cut and my mom was mad. This was before I was three because we moved from that house when I was three. Thanks for asking!

Trudging said...

Going to pick up my older brother at Kindergraten, I was about 18 months old. I was wearing a pink snow suit

butterflygirl said...

Learning to tie my shoes with my mom in what would be the closet of my room in the house my dad was building-4 years old

Shannon said...

I love this Daave thanks
I was about 2 1/2 or so and my little brother was about 1, my mom had made us some fried egg sammiches and I liked em, just not the crust, and I threw the crusts behind my little wading pool.

Later that day my little brother was found behind the pool eating the sammich crust, covered in ants... it was soo gross they were crawling in and out of his nose, and my mom screamed! and had to put him in the bath. I wanted a bath too, because well I was a waterbaby... LOL I guess I didnt realize it was gross... LMAO
we were living in Redwood City California at the time

Lee said...

Dunno which was the earliest (although both were when I was 2) so I'll post both:

1) My mother taking me to visit her father at his office. She was holding me on her left arm and he was standing next to his desk. That was the first and last time I ever saw him.

2) My mother was getting me and the bath ready to go. I was standing naked on the hamper in the bathroom, my sister opening the bathroom door and quickly taking a picture and the flash startling me.

Scott W said...

I also have more than one, all from 3 years old:

1. I had a dream that the moons in my fingernails had popped out of the nail and were growing upwards, and it was very painful.

2. My brother seeing snow for the first time.

3. Bad Eye, the squirrel, that used to show up at our kitchen door and feeding him. He only had one eye, hence the name.

BUT, I wanted to be in a pink snow suit!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I remember sitting in the kitchen watching my Dad make breakfast for my older brother and sister and me. My birth mother died before I was 1, so there was a period there when it was just us and Dad. It's just a flash of a memory, but I think that's the earliest. I couldn't have been older than 2.

Unknown said...

Check this out.
http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/infantile-amnesia

Jackson said...

In 1962, Springfield, Illinois my two older brothers were practicing swinging at a baseball which was at the end of a rope. Somehow I was just within the range of that circle.

Playing with this red toy, you put marbles at the top and watched them spiral down. It went smash. I remember the surprise quite well, and some indecision whether to cry. It would get me some sympathy, but that was a boring toy. :]

thanks for this prompt, good post!

Daily Piglet said...

First memory would be a "buzz kill" so I'll opt for the nicer one.

Having a hernia attack in our carport in Florida in the middle of a hurricane. I got terrible stomach aches from the hernia (I was born with it).

And picking citrus right off of the trees in our neighborhood.