Earliest childhood memory meme

Earliest childhood cat:
Jasmine, who was part of the family when I was born.
(Photographed by my Dad, maybe even before I was born).

Was tagged by Mikey for this. Firstly I'd like to get it out of the way that I'm now a meme dead-end, so the five tags are out, but I will tag Patrick, who always has something interesting to say.

Aside from that, here are the rules for anyone else who fancies having a go- consider yourself tagged:

The rules for this one are simple.

1. Describe your earliest memory where this memory is clear, where clear means you can depict at least three details.
2. Give an estimate of how old you were at this age.
3. Tag five other bloggers with this meme.

I've already decided it would be impossible to declare that a single memory that I'm able to dredge up at a particular time would be my earliest- I'm one of those people who has totally random memory flashes to a really early time, but can't necessarily recall them on demand. I'm going to be greedy and list 3 I can recall:

1. Being made to go to bed in what is now the front room of my Grandma's section of the house at 7pm because that was 'bedtime'. The location puts the memory at me being younger than 6 or 7. I was resentful because, being daylight saving, it was still light outside. I still hate daylight saving!


2. Watching TV. This puts the memory (memories) at me being around 2 or 3 years old, as the TV died when I was that age, and Mum and Dad decided not to replace it- we didn't have another until I was 11 or 12. I remember watching Playschool and thinking it was for babies. I remember watching Sesame Street and loving every minute of it. I remember watching Dr Who with my Dad and thinking it was really scary. I also remember some show at 6 o'clock that featured some guy with dark hair and thick-rimmed glasses. I also remember my Grandma turning on the TV for my brother and I while Mum was away (at tech doing her sewing course, I think), and there being a blue screen- Grandma explained there was a strike at the ABC (I had no idea what a strike was, mind, and didn't ask... for years I probably thought 'strike' was whenever the TV didn't work).



3. Lingering in front of a gumball machine while shopping with my parents (in the credit union plaza in Kempsey, I think). An older boy (maybe 7-10 years old, but he seemed huge) asked me if I wanted one. I don't remember whether I said yes or just nodded and put out my hand, but I wound up with a big gumball in my mouth and then went running after my parents, who had exited the plaza. They promptly lifted me up and made me spit out the gum into a bin - again I think I was around 3 years old, as my brother was in a stroller and I had to be lifted up to be able to spit the gum into the bin. I don't think I tasted bubblegum again for years!

4. Another early memory (prompted by Mikey's story about throwing a ball in the pool!)... somewhere at South West Rocks (maybe Horseshoe Bay)- I was about 2 and had my little floatie (one of those ring-shaped ones), swimming around in the shallow water, when I spotted a bunch of older kids with a large inner tube they were sitting on the edge of and floating up and down on the waves. They looked like they were having a ball, so I thought it would be a great idea to sit on the edge of my floatie. It promptly tipped me backwards and upside down with my head underwater and my legs in the air over the edge of the floatie! I remember opening my eyes and seeing under the water, then all sorts of splashing and women shouting...

Mum told me that Richard was a baby and she had hold of him and that I had floated away- when I tipped upside down she couldn't reach me and another woman had to save me from drowning. I don't remember the nearly drowning bit at all, but I do remember thinking as I tipped upside down that it wasn't always a good idea to copy older kids...