Sunday, July 24, 2011

Just Curious: Your first memory!



It's high time for another edition of Just Curious! This time, I'd love to hear about your first memory.

My first memory, as far as I can remember (ha ha!), is from when I was about three years old, or perhaps I had just turned four. I was playing hide and seek in my house in Michigan with my older sister and a little boy who was a friend of the family. I was hiding under a bed. We were days (maybe weeks?) away from moving to another state, and it's about the only memory I have from Michigan. It's a hazy memory, not even in full color, but a pleasant, happy one. The house seemed very big, but I know now that it was actually quite small.

One other memory from around this time is of my mom making me macaroni and cheese.  :)

Your turn!



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35 comments:

  1. I think I was two or three, sitting under the dining room table, pressing the buttons on my talking Winnie the Pooh book. :)

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  2. Falling down the basement stairs- I must have been around 3.

    Sunshine

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  3. I was probably about the same age, and we were moving out of our house. I dropped something (a green and white plastic wallet that my great-grandma had given me) behind my bed and couldn't get it, but my brother assured me that mommy or daddy would get it for me. This is my only memory from that house. So strange!

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  4. I was between 2 and 3. I had just gotten my toes sewn back together from getting them stuck in an escalator. I remember the doctor giving me a sucker for being such a good patient...although I don't think I was :)

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  5. I must have been around 3. My sister, same-aged cousin, and I were in the backyard at your plastic picnic table eating peanut butter sandwiches. I probably remember this so well because we did this almost everyday. My mom and aunt were so close and both blessed to be stay at home moms.

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  6. I remember my brother being born. I was three. I was the 4th child so us other kids were downstairs watching the movie, V (a scary movie where I think they take their faces off?!) and I kept climbing up and down the stairs in anticipation of the new baby. My parents were upstairs in their bathroom (my mom had her babies in the tub with only my dad there as the "catcher", she was always adamant that babies deliver themselves). I remember them calling us all upstairs when it was time, and my dad holding my brother in his arms. (I have lots of other hazy memories from this time period too, like running in the field next to my house, throwing our barbies out the upstairs window, sending worms down the slide and sitting on the basement stairs being fascinated with the daddy long legs :)

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  7. More Than Anything,

    That is scary! Do you like escalators? I'm not crazy about them, especially for the little ones but I never heard of anyone actually getting hurt like that or stuck in one!

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  8. Mine would be falling alseep to the sound of 8pm news on TV. I must have been very little, 2-3? We lived in a tiny apartment with only one room and a small kitchen. It took me years to learn to sleep without any sounds, like TV and conversations when we moved to a bigger appartment and I got a room to myself (I hated having my own room, too!)
    you should do scariest memory thing, too, though I don't think too many events can beat loosing toes to escalator.

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  9. I think that it is my father's cousin's wedding when I was four. I remember being in the building, the watching the two up front, and catching my uncle falling asleep. It might also be my most complete memory of that age. Interesting enough, she (The one that my father's cousin was marrying) turned out to be one of my favorite people, so it might be a selective memory.

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  10. I have a freakishly good memory. Well long term, my short term memory isn't so good. Anyway, I have lots of memories from when I was around 2 or 3 but my timeline isn't so good so I don't remember which came first.

    One of the ones I remember vividly from that time was when I was using one of those little red tricycles as a scooter on our carport. Apparently there was some broken glass that indidnt see. I was barefoot and cut my ankle open. My grandfather was fire chief so my mom called him. He cam over and I remember him holding me over the sink because blood was everywhere. I don't remember anything after that except being strapped down to a bed in the hospital so they could staple my ankle back together.

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  11. I remember posing for a picture on my fourth birthday, with my cake. I remember I held up four fingers, to show how old I was, but I held them literally right by my face, smushed into my cheek. What's cute is my mom still has the picture!

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  12. I lied. I can remember my sister Amber being born. I had just turned 2. :)

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  13. More then Anything....AUGH!!!!!!! So my mother's warning EVERY time we got on one of those was true! You CAN get caught! AUGH!!!!

    My first memory is at the age of 2. I was sitting on the couch with my Dad and he was having me lick the stamps for the envelopes. I now recognize this for the dirty trick that it was...but at the time I thought I was helping. :)

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  14. I was about 3 and living in the Philippines on base across the street from the jungle. I was in the front yard with my brother and the maid when a huge snake came out of the jungle and slithered under the neighbor's car. The security guard ran after it and threw a huge rock at it. The rock hit the car denting the roof and then landed on the snake. The guard picked up the snake and beat it to death with the rock.

    Ahhhh..the happy memories of childhood. :) Aren't you glad you asked?

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  15. I'm not sure how old I was but I remember being laid down in a crib by my mom. I remember seeing the ceiling and the mobile. Then she left the room and closed the door and I remember wishing she would come back. I could hear the adults in the living room talking and laughing.

    I know it sounds a little too young to have a memory like this, but this for me, is a first memory! I can even remember what the room looks like. I've had this memory as long as I can remember, as uninteresting as it is.

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  16. Wow, I'm a little concerned I don't remember being 2 or 3! lol

    I have a few memories that could be my earliest one, but I don't remember how old I was in any of them. I remember having a dream that somehow I grabbed hold of my grandma's ceiling fan in her dining room and spun around and around and fell. lol

    I have another memory of falling asleep at Mass while I was leaning against my father's side. I remember feeling very pretty because I was wearing white tights and a black velvet dress. :)

    I have ANOTHER memory of firemen burning down the house by the river for some reason, which was right down the road from us. I remember it was rainy and the sidewalk was slippery and I was wearing fancy dress shoes and a dress (I think it was white), and I ran down the sidewalk to get a closer look and I slipped and got a huge gash on my upper thigh. A fireman put a "butterfly bandaid" (is that a real word? lol) on it, and I still have the scar. :)

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  17. It's hard for me to know which was "first" because it seems like there's a flood from all around the same time. I remember my twin sister and I playing our storytelling game (one would start a story, the other would seamlessly pick up the next scene, and we'd trade off, often taking on various characters. I think we used some of our "language" too). I remember my mom calling us into the kitchen to have us tell visitors about our game (called "Hey-Said"). We were about three. I also remember our beloved babysitter, Jackie, who had short hair. I asked mom if Jackie was a boy or a girl! :)

    Memories started to get more vivid around the time my little sister was a few months old (when we were about 3.5 years old). Then there's a whole bunch. :)

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  18. I was about 3 (probably a young 3) and I was beating my older brother in a game of "Concentration" (that's "Memory" played with a regular 52-card deck of cards).

    I had/still have great spatial memory and picked up that game very quickly and my older brother was 7 while I was doing this...he wasn't too thrilled, but my dad was quite impressed. :)

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  19. I was two and had to have eye surgery and I remember the gas mask they used to put me to sleep. I remember yelling at my mom "They are trying to kill me." I think I thought they were suffocating me. It was so scary. This memory just came to mind this week as one of ur godchildren are being evaluated to see if she needs the same type of surgery I had :(

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  20. Aw, these memories make me a little teary-eyed. My nephew is almost 2 and my niece is 4, and they are moving across the country this week. I wonder what kind of hazy (if any) memories they'll have of living near Auntie Sarah (or their fantastic house that they're trading in for what we all affectionately call The Ugly House.)

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  21. These are all so interesting! I wonder why certain things stick with us? A lot, I see, is related to injuries. I do remember breaking my arm when I was four, falling off a jungle gym. My dad was my doctor (a new orthopedic surgeon at the time)! But he thought it wasn't broken, and I told him I was sure it was! When the x-rays came back, I was right… heh heh heh

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  22. I have pretty good long-term memory. I was around 2 when my family moved from Massachusetts to Ohio. I remember sitting on the kitchen floor watching the movers take the furniture out of our home. I was wearing yellow Winnie the Pooh pajamas. Crazy the things you remember.

    So happy to have found your blog. Love it!

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  23. Also a memory from around age 3...

    my mom cloth diapered my baby sister, and there was a dirty diaper soaking in the toilet and my 2 year old brother flushed it...

    and I knew that would be really bad and even though I was so scared (because it was gross!) I reached in and held the diaper up out of the flushing toilet and yelled for my mom...

    who came in and praised me to high heaven!!!

    which must be why I remember this (the combination of terror and being so proud I made mommy so happy)...

    PS I am still the very responsible oldest child who tries to do lots to make everyone proud of me ;-)

    Carla
    www.bringinghenryhome.blogspot.com

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  24. I remember my mom posing me for a photo at my third birthday party. I had to hold a present while standing in front of other presents. I did not look happy at all!

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  25. I remember holding my mother's iron up to my stomach to smooth out the wrinkles. I burned myself and remember seeing the mark. I told my mother that I remembered this (can totally picture it in my mind) and she was astonished. Turns out, I was only 16 months old. I also have a freakishly good memory!

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  26. I caught a bad case of pneumonia at age 3 (in 1947) when penicillin was just becoming readily available in the U.S. I remember the doctor coming to the house every 4 hours to give me the shots that were saving my life and starting to cry as soon as I heard him on the stairs.

    That same summer the little girl next door taught me how to scratch my back by rubbing it against the bark of a tree.

    I don't remember which happened first.

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  27. I remember climbing up the stairs at my Grandmothers house (a windy, dangerous, back staircase up to the third floor of her old Victorian). There was dark green carpet on the stairs, a musty smell and filtered light from a stained-glass window. I remember seeing the backs of her legs and my mother's ankles. I was about 2.5 or 3.

    Like that other commenter, I have a very good long-term memory for people and events etc., but a horrible short-term memory for where I put objects, like keys and cell phones etc. Apparently they are stored differently.

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  28. In my crib about one year old, a blanket caught fire and tow persons were talking about it and putting the fire out (my much older brother and a friend). It seems now like a dream. Years later I saw the blanket, it had a small hole from the burn, possibly from a cigarette. Amazing; that was 49 years ago.

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  29. I think my earliest memory is my third birthday party. I had a Garfield cake and I was absolutely thrilled about it.

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  30. Lurker speaking b/c I find this topic fascinating.

    I've heard it said that in an individual's earliest memory you can see a major aspect of their character &/or calling (e.g., animal lover, home-centered). I have to wonder if this is still applicable for pain-centered memories, since those ones have a non-identity source.

    My earliest memory is tiny me (I think it's before my brother was born so I would have been under 3) putting baby's breath flower clumps "to bed" in a little toy like an ice cube tray.

    I remember being inspired by the word "baby" in the name, and their delicacy. Theeeen I had an epiphany & realized that my sweetly nurturing story was actually killing the flowers. This began my lifelong tension between nurturing and stories.

    I *still* wrestle with how much time I'm "allowed" to spend writing fiction, and how much I'm supposed to sacrifice for my children.

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  31. When I was three years old I remember my father telling me to be quiet and to come watch the television with him. It was July 1969. Neil Armstrong was the first man walking on the moon.

    I suspect I remember this because he stressed what a huge event this was. That evening we went outside and looked at the moon so far away, although, that part I didn't remember.

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  32. My first memory is of me being about 2 or 3 and I was in the back seat of the car in a car seat. We pulled up to a gas station. The Exxon Tiger was there and he came up to my window and said "Hi, Lisa". I know I had to be at about 2-3 because I was in a car seat, and I don't remember my younger brother being there, and he was two years younger than me.

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  33. My very earliest memory I must have only been 2, and I remember being lifted up onto a horse and sitting there feeling so high off the ground. Everything else is hazy, just remember the being lifted up and looking down at the faraway ground. My Mom or Dad must have been holding me up there. The first clear memory I was late 3, early 4, I filled up my sister's crib with all our toys and got in there with her, pulled up the side rail and pretended we were in a boat. I remember it like it was yesterday.

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  34. i was two (my parents told me that part). i remember bouncing in my crib, until i bounced out onto the floor and broke my arm! then i remember crying. it was dark in my room, but i could see the light coming in under the door; music and voices, they had company over...i'm assuming someone came to my rescue, but of course, don't remember that part :)

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  35. I have an isolated memory from before I became one. I was sitting in my crib and reached up tear a picture off the wall on which it was hung. It is a dim visual and action memory which my mother remembered many years later.

    I have many memories from about 2 and a half years on. There is one which I can prove to be a memory, about as reliably as anyone can prove such a thing. It's a fascinating story that takes quite a lot of space to tell, so I will wait until I see some sign that this comment has been read. (The last comment before this one was over a year and a half ago.)

    I learned about this blog from encountering Leila Miller in Catholic Exchange.

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