News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Liz Ciancone

March 20, 2012

LIZ CIANCONE: Earliest memories of time and place

Over lunch the other day, my Best Friend and I were discussing our earliest memories. Neither of us could actually attach an age to our earliest. He informed me that while you could remember incidents, you must develop what he called “cognitive awareness” before you could associate the memory with a specific age.

He remembered walking with his Dad along the banks of the Rock River. He was 4, he recalled, when he found a toy. It was a stuffed duck, blue in color, and he cherished that duck until his mom insisted that he give it to a neighbor girl. Her dad was out of work and she had very few toys, and she really coveted that blue duck.

My BF still remembers how he hated to give up that duck. He still thinks about and remembers how he wanted that duck. I’m still looking for a blue duck to give him as a present. He so hated having to give it up.

My first “cognitive” memory also dates from when I was 4 years old. We had moved from Ottawa to Stockton — memory inducing for sure. A grandmotherly woman who was our new neighbor asked me how old I was and I held up four fingers.

Still, I remember isolated incidents before that: crawling into Dixie’s dog house and curling up in fresh straw next to her new brood of puppies. Dixie wasn’t pleased.

I remember carrying my blunt-nosed scissors to a field beyond our back yard and picking dandelions to cut into yellow squares. I left those scissors in the field and remembered where. The next spring I went to get them and they were rusted and no longer cut — dandelions or anything else. And, I remember getting a sandbox filled with white sand. I thought it was sugar and licked a mouth full off my small shovel.

I think I remember another incident. Dad liked to go out after a heavy rain and pick up worms so he could go fishing. I liked to go out with him on the hunt and rushed to him with a triumphant claim that I had found a really big one. It was a small garden snake. Dad went into orbit and maybe that explains my aversion to serpents.

My BF and I asked Number Two son his earliest memory. It involved a police car. He had wandered away from home to view a hobby horse in a toy store window. The police brought him home. He said he especially remembers seeing the gun on the policeman’s hip.

For what it’s worth — he DID get that hobby horse for Christmas that year.



Liz Ciancone is a retired

Tribune-Star reporter. Send e-mail to opinion@tribstar.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Liz Ciancone
Latest News
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
AP Video
Johnson: Don't Blame Islam or UK Policy Raw: Scuffles in London After Hacking Death Raw: Aftermath of Deadly Attack in London Chain-Reaction School Bus Crash Injures About 50 Okla. Teens Get Video of Deadly Tornado Overhead Texas Students Coach Teachers on Fitness Raw: 80-Year-Old Climbs Mount Everest Britain Attack Believed Linked to Radical Islam Wash. State Man Arrested Following Ricin Scare Meet MJ, the Bike Riding Tabby Cat New Forecasting Tool Eyed for Hurricane Season Man Shot While Questioned in Boston Probe Obama Offers Drone Strike Defense Oklahoma Family Reflects on Lost Son Today in History May 23 Raw: Heckler Interrupts Obama on Guantanamo Weiner Launches Bid to Become NYC Mayor Raw: Kevin Durant Tours Moore After $1M Pledge A Slice of Apple History Up for Grabs Moore Native Toby Keith Tours Tornado Damage
NDN Video
AK-47-wielding thug may be the most bumbling crook ever Oklahoma Survivors, Heroes Survey Damage Trout's cycle a boost for Angels Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado Kim Kardashian Flaunts Pregnant Bikini Body in Greece NBA star pledges $1M to help tornado recovery Shakira's Shocking Talent Morgan Freeman falls asleep on air GRAPHIC: Blood-Soaked Machete Killer Caught on Tape Elin Nordegren Furious With Lindsey Vonn For Parading Kids in Public Camera Captures Climber As He Loses Grip And Falls Helen Mirren Meets with Dying Boy in Queen Elizabeth's Place Crowd Chants '¡Si, Se Puede!' After Passage of Immigration Bill DWTS Crowns a Winner Police Ram House to End Hostage Standoff Demi Moore a Rocks Bikini at Harry Morton's Family House Anthony Weiner: I'm running for New York City mayor Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
Parade
Magazine

Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

     

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News