My Earliest Memories

That's me there in the center. The one leaning awkwardly to the left. I've always had to be different I suppose. 

While looking over a list of "questions to ask your spouse" this morning, one caught my eye. 

"What is your earliest childhood memory?"

The first picture to flash in my mind was me as a young child, sitting in a high chair at a restaurant. Apparently I was hungry, as I was banging my spoon on the highchair demanding food. 

Then I remembered a dream I had of my grandpa, my dad's dad. It was not long after he passed away (when I was five) that I dreamed of Papa Mason. In my dream, I was out and about in town and came across Papa. I took him back home with me, and we all had a cookout to celebrate the fact that I had found him. Then, I remember we got in the car and drove him back to where he had been found. I begged him to let me go with him, but he told me that I couldn't go where he was going yet. 

I've often wondered why I had this kind of dream about him. I was only five when he passed, and I don't really have any memories of the man himself. I remember what he looked like. I remember being in the hospital with family when he passed. I remember my grandma scolding me for coloring on the newspaper before he had a chance to read it (Yes. I colored on newspapers. You kids with your fancy coloring books don't know what you're missing!). But I don't have any memories of spending time with him, except for in that dream. 

Then I turned in my thoughts to an earlier time. Before I started school, I spent time with my dad during the day. He worked nights, and mom worked days, so he was an early version of a "stay at home dad." I fondly remember spending our afternoons together. We would watch My Favorite Martian and Flipper.  Then he would spread the old quilt on the floor and would lay down with me for my nap (and his I suppose since he worked all night and took care of me during the day). 

At some point, I spent my before school days with the above mentioned grandma. I have LOTS of memories of spending time with her, though most of them involve her telling me what NOT to do. A fact which probably says more about me as a child than it does about her as a grandma. I was NOT to climb on the kitchen cabinets. I was NOT to color on Papa's newspapers until he had a chance to read them. I was NOT to go down to the old barn/ shed by myself. I was NOT to slide down the pole (antenna stand) that stood so temptingly close to the edge. So many NOTs!

The year of the big March Blizzard, 1993. I"m in the middle (again) , the one in the red jacket standing behind my dad. 

Most of my elementary years are somewhat of a fog, but I seem to remember having had a certain knack for innocently replacing one word for a completely wrong, and sometimes inappropriate, word. For example, I remember watching a news report about bad weather headed our way, then running through the house screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! A tomato is coming!!!" 

Another time, I remember overhearing a neighbor kid say a word that, in my brain, translated to a picture of the StarSHIP Enterprise. Imagine my surprise when I was scolded for using the word at the dinner table that night! Apparently it didn't mean the same as SHIP at all...

Those are my earliest memories. What are yours? Do you recall anything from your childhood that you look back on and laugh at now? Please do share in the comments below. I can't wait to hear from you!

--Miranda