The Persistence of Memory

I have more recall than most of my childhood experiences, and I have built my blog around that in many ways. However, I sincerely doubt that anyone can genuinely remember what they wanted to be when they grew up at the age of 5. I know that more expert writers than me have written about memory, but I have a few theories based on my own experiences.

My first memory appears to come from a traumatic experience I had when I was six months old. Yes, you read that correctly! I was in a car with my parents in the days before seat belts and baby seats and I had a vague memory of falling out of a car. I mentioned this one day and it was confirmed that this was not made up, it had actually happened. So, I came to the conclusion that, for me at least, that memory was real and triggered by an event that was as far from normal as it was possible to get. The next memory I have was from a year or two later of being carried onto an aeroplane by my Mother. It was in an Arabic country, and it was confirmed that we had indeed flown via a gulf state. Why did I remember that? Well, as a child of under 3 the act of getting on a plane would not be particularly normal even when your Dad worked for the Diplomatic Wireless Service. Other memories from before my fifth birthday include a visit to a zoo in Malaysia where I saw this tiger in a deep pit and I was really sad for it. That feeling of hating animals being kept in captivity never left me. Finally I remember that we had a house in Singapore and two or three memories stick out. One was seeing a massive moth in the house, another was watching the moon landing with my parents and their friends and finally our last Christmas there a few months before my fifth birthday. I had been given some Meccano, which really didn’t appeal to me as I had no coordination and no logic to help put things together – something that has never changed!! – but my Dad and his friends sat there and built some amazing models from the kit that I had abandoned!!

So, if the memories you have reflect really important times in your early life, and things that are very much out of the ordinary, it’s perhaps quite natural that those memories stand out. During the year following my fifth birthday I can remember elements of our trip home from Singapore, but then we came back by ship so that shouldn’t be too surprising! I don’t remember much about ship board life, apart from shutting my finger in the cabin door! However I remember many of the ports and places we visited, Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Acapulco and Florida in particular. From the first year back in the UK I remember very little as my life started to move in much smaller increments. Odd incidents like laughing at the name of the town, Towcester, in class and being told off by the teacher have stuck. I couldn’t help it because it was pronounced ‘toaster’ and I had this vision of a town full of bread! My humour always has been considered odd though!! Also, as I found out when I did my Singing Together post I could remember a couple of the songs.

So, I don’t remember what I wanted to be at 5 but I hope you have enjoyed this trip through my earliest memories.