Haley, My nine year old, is always
asking the most random questions. One time she asked me what I
thought Mika, our mini pin pup, dreams about. My guess on that was
bacon. The boy loves bacon treats.
Recently Haley asked me how people can
possibly remember when they were little. She wanted to know if I did.
I told her I remember blips of it. What I didn't tell her is that I
am probably not the best to ask this question to. There's a
possibility that I just don't want to remember a lot of it.
Actually, my first memory was sitting
in the back seat of my parents car with my two brothers and my
sister. My father was driving and my mother was riding shot gun. It's
also the only time I ever saw my father drive. I guess he quit
driving shortly after that.
I remember that the car was red and had
a checkered interior. My parents were arguing. I don't remember
anything I heard. Mostly I just remember that car. My guess is
because of the red color and the checkered design.
When I grew up I told my mother about
that memory. She was surprised.
“How in the world could you possibly
remember that!” She said. “You were a tiny baby! You were only a
couple months old!”
Then I was surprised. I had always
thought I must have been at least three or four. I had told that
story to quite a few people growing up and I always said I was about
three or four years old.
I have quite a few memories of when I
was two. That's when I cut all my hair off and my mother had a
conniption fit. I didn't really see the problem with it, but she
seemed to to think it was a major deal.
I remember sitting on my sisters back
while she laid on the floor and I would brush her her hair. I have
never been into doing hair and wasn't interested in it then either,
as you can probably figure out by the fact that I didn't even see the
point in having hair. I was a toddler and she's seven years older
than me. For me, it was just a way to be able to hang out with her.
I can remember swimming in the back
yard in one of those kiddie pools. My mom was sitting in a chair,
reading a book, trying to get a tan. I was playing with a coffee can
in the pool. I wasn't really paying attention to the fact that my
mother was looking for something, until she snatched the can, which I
had sunk to the bottom of the pool, away from me. She reached in and
pulled out her watch.
“My Watch! It's probably ruined now!”
Oops.
My brother, who was the oldest of us
four kids and eight years older than me, would spread out in that
pool leaving the rest of us to share half a pool. My other brother,
who was only two years older than me, taught me that splashing water
in his face would solve that problem. He couldn't stand it.
“Aw... don't leave mad.”
I remember my oldest brother had a cat
named Max. He was a mean cat. Max preferred to stay outside most the
time. He even hung out in the sewers. Not long ago I was talking to
my brother and mentioned that cat.
“You remember Max!” He said. “You
were like a baby then!”
“Hey, if you remember a cat, do you
remember around that same time your sister (He always address's our
family as if he too isn't related to them.) got up in the middle of
the night and said someone was in the house? She said they tried to
take her.”
“Um, no. Holy crap! Seriously?”
“Yeah, the cops came and everything!
You don't remember any of that?”
“No.”
“They had dogs and was searching the
neighborhood. You don't remember that?”
“No, I don't remember any of that.
What happened?”
“They didn't find anyone. How can you
not remember that?”
“I don't know.”
“Dang... but you remember a cat,
huh?”
So you see why I might not have been
the best person for Haley to have asked this question.
