Blog 17 - Earliest Memory

What’s your earliest memory?


Some people have amazingly detailed memories: they remember having their diapers changed, standing up in their crib and crying, or their mother reading them a story at age one. Others have a difficult time remembering last year, let alone their early years.


Think back: is there one memory that you see in that distant past? What is it? Does it include people speaking to you, or is it just a picture? Does it have other sounds in it—for example, people laughing or shouting? Explain it in detail.


Are there other ancient memories you can bring up? Do they relate in any way to each other, or are they random?


Write about them.

I have one memory that popped into my head when I read this blog topic. At the time, I was two years old. My family lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Two years olds usually do not have astonishingly great memories, but I have one simple memory that always boggles my mind. My memory has no sounds. No laughing, shouting, crying, no nothing. It is one picture in my head. There are no people in this picture. The memory is actually very silly and most likely pointless, but I feel like if it was pointless why would I remember it now when I am eighteen. Sixteen years later, I always picture the doorway to my old house in Carlisle. In the way I see it, I am standing with the door open, directly in the door way facing inside. I was two, so if you try to get a visual it was only two feet up from the ground. Nothing important is in this image-memory of mine. All I see is a light green welcome mat. It doesn't have any words or cool details, just a plain old rug. I asked my parents one day, and they told me that, yes, we had a green welcome mat, why? they asked. I had absolutely positively no idea at all. I am curious to know how a rug is symbolic for anything about my old house or something from being a baby.

I know some people that can remember childhood things very well, but I am not one of them. Recently, I have been watching home videos, some from before I was even born. And then eventually, it got to nineteen ninety-four (the good ol' years) and I saw myself as a small child. I thought it was so adorable and I loved seeing myself. While I want to remember those events when I watch them happen on my television, I can't. I remember weird details that have no important meaning to me. I remember when my family moved to Lakewood, New Jersey. I remember what my old tree house looked like (mainly because it was pretty kick-ass). I remember being in kindergarten at Holy Family School, and having to do the pledge of alegiance and then pray. And then things get more vivid as I got older and I eventually moved to Bayville. I hope that I keep all of the memories that I have from all my years here, because they have been more fun than I could ever even ask for.