Urban Skins Forum Your earliest memory

What is your earliest memory of childhood, and why does it stay with you to this day?


My earliest memory is of helping my grandmother scrub clothes on an old fashion washboard. Then wringing them out in an old crank handle wringer. Every time I smell bleach and lye soap, I am again 5 years old watching my grandmother's wrinkled hands sorting out the dirty laundry.

I was about three when I was hospitilized for pneumonia. I had a bunch of IV's, and was in a oxygen tent like thing, kinda like a clear tent over my bed. I remember my father reaching in, with gloved hands I think, and rubbing my back to relax me. That touch and cloudy vision have stayed with me, all these years.

My father, blue collar to the core, ex-jock, and half the time drunk, showed me some love at that time, in a physical way.

Now when my son wants me to rub his back, I feel the connection between me and my father. Before he passed, I was able to recall this him and I believe it made him happy that I remembered that little slice.

peace,

My earliest memory is -- I've been told -- from when I was about 6 months old.

In a family conversation many years ago, I mentioned that I remembered riding the train with my mother and meeting my aunt and grandmother (her sister and mother), their reaching out for me, even what I had on (a pink-striped seersucker sunsuit and bonnet). I was bemused to see the slack jaws as I spoke, because there are no photos of that meeting and no one had ever told me about it or mentioned it in passing. They asked me how old I thought I was, and I said I wasn't sure but that I was definitely still a babe-in-arms, which is when I was told that visit happened when I was 6 months old and Mother and I rode up from New Orleans to Raleigh. It's still a very clear memory -- I can even see their smiles and see them reaching out for me, hear and smell the train station environs, smell my grandmother's Lily of the Valley powder. This must have made quite an imprint on me because I've always had a fondness for trains, and one of my favorite original poems is about them.

My next earliest memory is bits and pieces from my first birthday party, but that's nothing to write home about :-).

My earliest memory is having a allergic reaction to Johnson & Johnson baby products that I smeared all over my face and being rushed to emergency......The green tiled room they put me in and slapping the needle away, they held me down and give me shot in the butt...I was 3 years old ::smile::

My earliest memory?

Birth.. I recall describing to my mother the color of the birthing room,
the position of the bed, the position of the window & the fact that I had hiccups
immediately after. What could she do but grin & confirm? Needless to say, I
remember little in between there, that is ~ until I learned to turn over..

::sleepy::