Writer's Block: My earliest memory

Sep 28, 2010 00:32


Ok, so I don't actually have writers block, but I wanted to share a couple memories, two quite stand out but I'm not sure exactly which way around they were.

The first is a memory I have of our old house in South Africa. It was a town house over the shop that my grandfather owned, a house my father lived in for 40 years. It was my grandparents, my ( Read more... )

looking back

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miconazole September 28 2010, 14:34:07 UTC
This is I think my earliest memory by a fair bit: I am lying on my back in my parents' room. They want to go to sleep so they're trying to turn off the light but every time they do colours and shapes appear in my field of vision, always coalescing into (for some reason) a red cartoon car, which (for some reason) terrifies me. So every time the light goes off I make a fuss, they turn the light back on, try to comfort me, turn the light back off, I start insisting they turn it on again, etc. I think I have some sort of understanding that the light needs to go off but I don't want the dark so I keep fussing. I can understand my parents but I can't talk very well so I'm probably 2 or 3.

A later, but interesting memory: a friend of my mother is visiting with her son who I think is just old enough to stand. I am upset for some reason and start crying, and the friend tries to cheer me up by balancing her baby on her hand, standing on her outstretched palm. My mother is a bit alarmed at this (we had bare concrete floors!) but her friend keeps trying, saying "flyyyy!" in a sign-song voice with a big cheesy grin on her face. I am also kind of worried she's going to drop her baby but I'm still upset and want the attention so I keep crying.

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pseudophonist September 28 2010, 14:37:04 UTC
I think i'm buying you a red car for your next birthday.

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miconazole September 28 2010, 14:42:48 UTC
Lol, I wasn't scared of cars then or now. I don't know why I kept hallucinating a car in that instance.

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miconazole September 28 2010, 14:41:59 UTC
Oh, another one: I'm with my dad in our bedroom and he's drawn a skull and crossbones in chalk on the concrete floor and asks if I know what it means. I don't think I actually know that it's a representation of a human skull (or what a skull is for that matter) but I find the symbol very menacing all the same. I don't remember what his explanation was, though. Possibly he was trying to teach me poison labels, or maybe he just wanted to draw a skull and crossbones on the floor.

Come to think of it I remember a lot from 3-4 onward, probably too much to bother writing down.

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