My First Memory

I found this "30-day writing challenge" on Facebook. And since I'm always looking for ideas about what to blog about, I decided to use some of the prompts. But I won't be posting once every day for thirty days, more like once a week until I run out of prompts I like. For instance, one prompt is "What tattoos you have and if they have any meaning." Well, I have no tattoos because I've never thought of anything I wanted to permanently etch into my hide.

So let's get started. The first prompt I'm going to do is: "Your earliest memory."

This is an interesting (and somewhat controversial) subject.

I don't know how old I was, but quite young (probably a toddler). I was in bed and my mother came in to my room with what looked like a huge pair of scissors. She said (this is my memory), "I'm going to cut your feet out of your pajamas." Which I interpreted as she was going to cut my feet off. I remember saying "No!" and "Don't cut off my feet!"

Finally, she explained she was going to cut the feet of my pajamas off because she thought I was too warm with them. So I calmed down and let her do it.

Many years later I asked my mother if she remembered that. She said she did. But, she added, I couldn't talk. But in my memory I distinctly remember talking. That's the controversy.

I have another memory and I don't know if it's before or after that one about the pajamas. And no one in my family remembers it. But I remember the neighbor across the street having a huge candle with a gigantic flame in their front yard (maybe for a Christmas decoration). My brother or sister would hold me up to the window to see it, but it scared me and I would yell. I don't remember talking in this memory. I just remember being scared.

My first memory of a news event was John F. Kennedy's funeral. I turned on the T.V. one day and was disappointed to find that both channels had some parade. At first I thought it would be fun to see a parade. But the parade was boring and I turned it off. Years later I saw pictures of the funeral procession for JFK, and realized that's what I was watching. I would have been three years old.