May 3, 2013
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First Memory
@loneywanderer2 asked about a first memory.
So I sat back and thought for a while; and then a while more.
My earliest memories are just snippets of sight, sound, or remembered aromas. In my memory my first kitten grew up overnight. I can “see” the kitten, and almost immediately, the fully grown kitty. (I’m two, nearly three) Whoosh… I can see my newest baby sister, a mass of red curls crying, crying… and I sure didn’t like it. I wanted another kitten (I’m not quite three). My dad is angry; I’ve played with the door handle (maybe my fourth summer) and fallen out of the car.. from the front seat, while the car is moving. I don’t remember that hurting. The spanking did, though. I’m playing in a box in the back garden. (I’m maybe five). The box was constructed with those hugh honking staples. I carry a scar on my left knee to this day. Oh, no … I didn’t make it home in time and I wee’d myself. (I’m four and walking home from school for lunch) Yes four… Mom had just had another baby, my only brother, and I’m in Kindergarten. I’m swinging in the back yard. The pear tree is in bloom… I can smell the blooms, I can hear the bumble bees. I’m frightened but not frightened enough to stop swinging.
But the absolute earliest memory is more of an impression, a scrap of emotion. I’m upset, sad, feeling a bit put out. I’ve been displaced from my sleeping place with mom and dad. I’m alone in a room… and something else is in my place. That something else was sister two, wee red curly top was sister three. I was 11 months old when sister two, the usurper came along. A memory? I don’t know…. It seems impossible that I could remember that. But I know that I can still call up that emotion and then again 18 months later after I had finally acclimated to my lonely status only to have to share the bed when sister two got the boot, lol. I’ve not ever, ever, had my own room again. Sigh.
Mem’ries,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time re-written every line?
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me, would we? Could we?
Mem’ries, may be beautiful and yet
What’s too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget
So it’s the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember…
The way we were…
The way we were…
Comments (3)
I’m hoping the hundreds of photos I have, all in chronological order in albums will help my three young’uns to remember their early days. Loved reading your memories.
I think my earliest was from age 2. Your memory is awesome!
I was just thinking of some old memories today, and how they are snippets, really; a sense of place, a fleeting emotion; not sure I could even attempt to date them; I’m just “me” in them. Yours are really wonderful; my brother remembered far back to his very younger years, too.