Friday, October 21, 2011

(549) Early Memory

Last weekend I had ginger and onion beef and rice. It was cooked in a classic way. That dish brought back memories from the time Michael was a toddler. We used to eat that in a little cafe in a shopping center near our old house in the northern sector of the Capital city.

The funny thing is my son did remember the little cafe and the dish we always shared. I remember the first thing I ordered was ginger and onion beef in this cafe. After that I never order anything else. I know I was too sick to drive when Michael was six. By the time he was seven, we moved to Silver City. So from the age of three to five, he remembered this little eating place.

I don't know about you, my first child hood memory was my trip to my grandma's village a few hundred miles away by train when I was six. What was the first thing you remember about your early years? Michael remembered his little red car which we did not move to Silver City. He remembered moving from the apartment to the house with the huge back yard when he was five. He remembered living in his grandpa's when my husband was in Japan (he was barely four years old). He even remembered spending one night with Annie's family after Annie's fourth birthday party(he was about three years old). Compared to many others, he seemed to have a seamless train of memories from a very young age. 

For my personal interest in memory retention, I have asked many friends similar questions. It seems to me that traumas and unhappiness in childhood tend to lead to gaps or loss of such memories.

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