Hmm, Tyrius' memories are similar to mine, I remember the crib too, and I think I remember being picked up and put down - and we are very different ages. Funny how memories last.
I think the only reason i remember it is because thats the only time i seem to remember when my dad actually cared for me.
Recalling my earliest childhood memory - BBB
Recalling my earliest childhood memory - BBB
The Stalking Room
By BumbleBeeBoogie
(A true story I was unable to write until age 65)
A bedroom in a small house, built before the Great Depression, holds memories still stalking its victim into her old age.
Spasms of nausea interrupt browsing through antique shops, stocked with the pewter hand-mirrors, polished mahogany dressers, yellowed linen runners edged with frayed tatting.
An innocent glance with a inward eye at a faded wedding-ring patterned quilt hanging on the wall causes sweat to run down her ashen cheeks.
Her heart pounds in her chest as memories flood through her veins. She cannot escape the diary of her mind, preserving forever the unspeakable acts of two nineteen year-old men who lifted the smiling, trusting four-year old from her crib in her parent's bedroom on to the wedding-ring quilt covering the bed.
The men disappeared, but the memories of that room do not fade. They stalk her still in unexpected places, at unexpected times, in still unexpected ways.
Osso, that is true. I don't know how long it took before I realized the lady-who-looked-like-a-skeleton was my mother dying of cancer. Or that green awnings with people singing was a burial site. These were merely pictures, somehow uncomfortable. I didn't live with my dad or see much of my brothers & sisters for some time after that.
We don't know these are horrible things, so young. I knew these involved my mother, just not why.
My earliest memory --
Stretching and kicking, warmth, closeness, turning, satisfaction.
I'm glad I wasn't circumcised or the shock may have
burned out such nice memories.
Trauma to a newborn withdraws their mind and dulls the senses.
Bumblebee, I hope you've flown high
tex
Tex, oh yes. Its just that i'm surprised what triggers memories to come flooding back---like wedding ring quilts in people's homes or in antique shops. I used to get so nauseated around quilts but I've worked hard to mentally overcome it even though the physical reaction still happens.
---BumbleBeeBoogie
Codeborg, I agree with you about that practice.
Imagine, too, doctors used to hold the tiny baby up by the feet, and smack its little butt. Welcome to earth, with love.
I have a friend who can remember before she could talk and walk. She has memories of being less than a year old.... I think thats crazy because my earliest memories are of me first going into preschool. (age 2 1/2-3)
I notice a few here about 4 yo.
My earliest memories are also from when I was 4. I remember being taken into my Grandfathers bedroom to see him. He was dying of cancer.
I didn't know why I was being taken in, I have since been told the reason.
My earliest memory is from about 2-1/2 yrs. old. I remember crawling on the bathroom floor (those little white hexagonal tiles, remember?) and sitting under the square pedestal sink, looking up and watching my Daddy shave.
My mother told me years later that I had always been fascinated by that. Curiously, I still like watching men shave.
Eva, I remember doing exactly the same. My dad boiled the kettle of water and took it to the bathroom. He proceeded to lather his face and the bit I liked most, he attached a leather strap to the basin tap and run his razor up and down untill he thought it was sharp enough. Then he systematically removed the stubble and lather from his face. I'm 54 now.
I'll be 49 in about 3 weeks. Your dad used a straight razor? My dad's dad used to do that, and I watched him shave, too. (He lived with us.) Coincidentally, that grandfather was Irish. My dad used the razor strap to spank us when we were little...just hearing him say, "You wanna go get the strap?" would strike fear into our little hearts, although he never really hurt us, of course. All my parents & grandparents are gone now, but guess what. I have the razor strap now. IT'S MINE, I TELL YOU, ALL MINE!!! (manic laughter) My siblings threaten to steal it every time they visit.
Well my grandparents are all gone as is my dad, the leather strap, well I will never know now what happened to it.
An Irish Grandad, they're everywhere.
In to-days society I think my dad would be in big trouble, say no more.
But I loved him anyway untill the day he died and still miss him.
PS. My birthday,Sept 6
smokingunne
smokingunne, welcome to A2K. Glad to see ya. Visit often, post a lot.
---BumbleBeeBoogie
Thanks BumbleBooBoogie for the welcome, I appreciate that.
I miss my dad, too, smokingunne. BTW, Happy Belated Birthday! (Mine's October 3.)
Oh! I almost forgot!...Welcome to A2K!
I remember seeing a Cemetery and sawing to myself Wow what is that place...am I allowed to go there?I must have been someplace between 3 and 5. Anyhow, I was curious what that place was and finally one day in late August I entered the cemetery.A summers day of rare poetic magnitude coupled by the place made me feel this is about the closest one can get to heaven. This place herewith the puffy white clouds the longshawdows,the smell of summers harvestin the country air....and the Cemetery,decorated with brilliant white stones and flowers lots and lots of flowers.For sure for me this place had to be investigated further, and I did for many many years to follow.
Re: What is your earliest memory?
Vivien wrote:
I .. can remember sitting in my grandmothers garden on the grass in the dappled light from the trees and i have to have been younger than 18 months -
That's interesting, Vivien. My earliest memory was from about the same age, maybe a little older ... And it involved a clump of plants of some variety. I think I was sort of CONTEMPLATING them! (
) What a strange little child I must have been!
