30.5 years ago I was born.
20.5 years ago I had my first real kiss. Her name was Jules.
18 years ago I smoked my first cigarette.
17 years ago I got drunk for the first time.
16 years ago I met my husband and basically told him to get lost.
16 years ago I got my first non-babysitting job; paid under the table as a barista.
14 years (almost) ago I attended my first homebirth.
12 years ago I moved out of my parents house.
11 years ago I married my husband.
9 years ago I gave birth to my son, E.
7.5 years ago My family and I moved 1200 miles from Oklahoma City, OK to Pittsburgh, PA.
2.5 years ago I found out that it was okay that I hated Friends, because so did William and now we could both stop watching that horrid show — yes, we were both convinced that the other one liked it, so we watched it just to be supportive.
1.5 years ago I broke my leg or more specifically, I shattered my left tibial plateau (that sucked and still does).
I’ve been thinking a lot about time recently. How our lives are just collections of little moments. The irony of which moments we remember and which ones we have forgotten is often quite humorous and always revealing. It’s interesting which memories we seem to never forget, especially if they come from a time when we were so young that most people assume we can’t really be remembering them, but rather remembering someone else talking about events from our past.
I have a distinct memory of climbing out of my crib and walking around the corner from the room my crib was in and looking at my father sitting at a kitchen table and then him looking up at me. This was from when I wasn’t even one year old yet and my parents lived in a tiny little apartment on the cusp of Edmond, OK and Oklahoma City, OK. I don’t know why I remember this moment or why I can’t remember anything else from my surroundings in this memory nor can I remember anything that happened after my father looked up at me. Did I get reprimanded for climbing out of my crib (because I preformed the act like I was a pro at it)? Was my father happy to see my face peeking at him from around the corner? I was probably avoiding a nap that I didn’t want or need; I hated napping or sleeping when I wasn’t actually tired, like all children (like all people). Why this memory? It’s the oldest definite memory that I have of this lifetime to date.
What’s your oldest memory? Leave me a comment; I’d like to hear what you can remember and why you think you can remember that moment in particular.
I remember our old house in Miami. Petting he cat, Lucky, whose food bowl was near the kitchen. I remember where the couch and aquarium were, the view from the sliding glass door to the backyard, and the hallway that lead to our rooms. I remember trying to pick up Lucky one day and my mom worrying that he would scratch me. We moved out of that house when I was two.
I remember playing with my new box turtle in my back yard, surprised that the neighbor boy was afraid of it. I recall the certainty that it was called a box turtle because it lived in a large green tupperware box. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned I would have been around 18mos old – my family only had a box turtle for a few months, around the time my brother was born.
My oldest memory is sitting on the counter in my grandmother’s shop, where I lived with my parents until they could afford their own house, aged about 2. I was telling customers I was shy. That’s it. Just that one moment. I have no idea why I remember it, it’s just completely random.
i wonder just how shy you really were if you were sitting on the counter telling customers that you were shy
i wonder if you have other memories from your grandmother’s shop — seems like you could.
Ha ha, yeh good point.
Yeh just a few. Eating pink vanilla ice lollies (every time I smell vanilla essence it reminds me of those lollies), playing on my tricycle in her yard and falling off… That’s it I think. I get confused because later someone new took over that shop and I used to buy sweets there as a child, so my memories of that place are jumbled.
wow, thanks so much for the comments! those are all great memories. i think it’s neat that two of them involve animals — i’ve heard lots of stories and memories from other people that involve an animal (other animals are important to us & leave lasting impressions).