Friday Forum: Memories and remembering

In honor of Memorial Day weekend.

1. What is your earliest childhood memory? (If you can't think of one, tell us a story about something funny or crazy you did as a child!)
   My earliest memories are little snapshots of my parents' house. Earliest clear memory, one that I can relate the entire story with a minimum of confusion—and what confusion there is only adds to the humour value of the tale—was the time

   I was riding my tricycle in the neighbours' back yard and tried to do a Tron-style right-angle turn to follow the sidewalk. The trike tipped over immediately and I ended up bashing my head against the straight-edge metal handle of the welded-shut hopper that had been the coal door when the house had a coal-fired furnace (long before we lived in the neighbourhood).
   
   The handle sliced the skin at the front of my head, just behind the hairline. Blood EVERYWHERE, I was immediately blinded by it. Instant screaming and wailing in pain and I got up and walked with my sister back to our house, where my mom took one look at my blood-covered face and chest and immediately bundled us into the car for the short trip to Primary Children's Hospital, which was then less than a mile from our house.
   
   Here's where the facts are in dispute.
   
   I recall being held down in writhing agony as the ER doctor stitched up my forehead. I clearly remember the horror of watching the local-anaesthetic needle approach my head, the sting of it, the weird pressure and tugging sensations as he sewed me up.
   
   My mom insists, however, that the ER folk handed me a small mirror and I watched in utterly absorbed fascination as the needle and sutures flickered in and out of my scalp.
   
   Either way, I still have a scar, and still get questions about it now and then.
   
   And I don't care much for tricycles. <grin>

2. Would you say that you have a good memory (or even perhaps a photographic one)? Do you tend to remember people's names and faces easily? Are you good at remembering facts, dates, etc.?
   I do have a good memory. Among my family and most of my friends I'm known as the person who can recall with usually stunning accuracy the most obscure dates and weird little factoids.
   
   Sonya, Jennifer, and Michelle often say I have an encyclopaedia up my ass, in fact.
   
   
3. Memorial Day weekend is often considered the "kickoff" to summer. What are some of your best summer memories? Is there a particular summer that was the most special or memorable for you?
   The summer of 1991 was just spectacular. I was back home in mid-May that year from school in California and within a couple of weeks I was part of a large circle of friends. I was the oldest among them and became the leader, of sorts, which was strange because I'd never been at the center of my groups of friends before, but it was the single best summer I've experienced. This brief answer does it no justice, either—difficult to boil down so many amazing memories to a sentence or two.
   
   
4. Do you do anything to preserve your memories, such as taking lots of pictures, scrapbooking, journaling, etc.? If so, what, and how long have you been doing it?
   I take photographs but I'm bad about organizing them in any meaningful way. I've been a bit better at it with digital photos, but I still have a box with about 3,000 photographs from 1992 through about 1997, just waiting to be sorted and presented somehow. I should scan them all and try to place them to dates and events via the journals and calendars I kept at the same time, haven't got around to it yet.
   
   
5. Will you be remembering anyone special this Memorial Day?
   I won't; I have no close family or friends who lost their lives in military action. Instead, I'll quietly thank our fallen service members for their sacrifices.