Two Questions For You

I like that my blog gets a reasonable number of hits, and that a few friends post comments. But I’m hoping to get a big response to this one, because the subject really interests me.

What was your first memory? And what was your most magical dream?

Most people I talk to say they cannot remember anything before five. But my first memory – and yes, it is very vague – is of actually being in my crib. It was one of those with the sides that slide up and down, and I can remember it being down. And I looked out into my parents’ bedroom.

I can’t recall exact chronology, but I remember various things before I turned five. I can remember reaching for a door handle and finally, aged four, being able to reach it. I remember my mother teaching me the alphabet so that I’d have a head start before starting at (then) primer one (strangely, it was pronounced “primmer”). I remember my fun toy car. I remember being spanked for wetting my pants – which was vastly unfair because it was the fright of seeing the woman who spanked me that caused me to wet my pants in the first place!

And I remember my most magical dream. This was around age four and I was in my own bed. I dreamt of a witch coming to get me, but she was on the other side of a pond. The fright of thinking she might get me caused me to wake up and seek the security of my parents’ bed.

They had a small window in the wall just behind their bed. A streetlight outside shone vividly through the curtainless window and onto the big mirror on the vanity unit. I remember lying there, awake, afraid to go to sleep because the witch might be there waiting for me.

I can only assume what happened next was a dream. Yet it was so real I remember it in detail to this day. Above the bed a circle of golden dust appeared and began circling clockwise. Then all these great toys – I particularly recall a red firetruck – appeared in the golden dust.

Like Damocles Jnr, I knew that if I reached for them the whole thing would disappear. So I just watched for a while, and then they faded back into nothingness. Sad that the firetruck got away. I never wanted or had a red firetruck in my toy collection – but that one would have been nice.

So, what was your first memory? What was your most magical dream?