My Earliest Memory
A brief post to be read feverishly.
A lot of times people will ask me what my earliest memory in life is. They’ll say “Dave, what’s your earliest memory in life?” Just like that.
It can be an odd question, especially after I’ve already locked the bathroom stall. But now, from the comfort of my home office, where it’s just me, a few paper clips, and a concerning amount of dried blood, I will finally answer this question.
My earliest memory is from about the age of about three years old, whatever age you’re old enough to walk but still pissing yourself with a frequency that limits social invites. I remember I was wearing plaid overalls. The plaid was white and blue of some sort, almost teal really. Underneath it I wore a navy golf shirt even though then, as now, I had little interest in the sport. I was walking alone in the backyard and it had just begun to rain as it often did back then in suburban Northeast Ohio (and still does by all accounts). I decided I should probably head inside and get up to some three year-old type bullshit from the comfort of the family den, so I headed for the back door, which, as fate would have it, led directly into the den. It was then, as I stood outside the door waiting to be let in (I knew how to open it, but the diva tendencies had already set in by then so someone would have to open this door for me), I discovered a tiny slug resting on my soldier.
You’re probably assuming I began to scream or cry at the sight of the slug on my soldier, but I didn’t. Instead, I just gently removed the little fella (Danny, I called him) and set it down on the stones outside the doorway.
Then I went inside and ate some toast in that way that three year-olds tend to do, where they leave the table with butter and jam-covered cheeks and very little toast in their actual stomach. Everything has been kind of nuts ever since.
What’s your earliest memory? Let me know in the comments.
My earliest memory is around 3 years old. I’m on the beach with my family. I had on a blue and white gingham plaid 2 piece bathing suit. I was adorable. I remember staring at my father’s leather sandals and thinking they looked a lot like the kind the Roman soldiers wore from bible study. I asked my dad if he was one of the bad guys. He laughed and assured me that he wasn’t. I felt a sense of relief. His choice if footwear really creeped me out.
Prob my earliest memory as a toddler, standing in my crib, hearing voices and laughter, thinking there was a party going on in the living room and I was missing it! I’m sure now it was just some television show with a laugh track, but it was the moment my lifelong FOMO was triggered.
I think the next memory was a life changer for me, when my mom woke my sister & I up in what we thought was the middle of the night, to see the US debut of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. My coolest mom in the whole wide world had already bought the stereophonic record, Meet The Beatles, which replaced Alvin & the Chipmunks in our early music fandom. We knew every word to every song, and we danced to it daily. My brother begged for a guitar. What a treat to see them on TV, despite being indignant at all the screaming that threatened to drown them out. Tho this isn’t my first memory, it’s my favorite.