What are your earliest memories?

Since my dad took 16mm movies of me from the time I was born, I need to separate those images from the “real” images from my memory. What is so special about the earliest things we remember from our past? I suppose they must have been special events to stand out in our memories. Now I can only guess at what made the six events below so special. My guesses are in brackets following those memories.

• At about age 5, I remember taking a metal spatula with slots on it and placing it on the face of a snowman that was in front of Johnny Dryfuss’s house on 79th Avenue in Queens. [Hey, I can change the appearance of a snowman!]

• At about age 5, I remember my mother crying in the kitchen of our apartment. She was crying for joy when she heard that Hitler was no longer alive. [Oh my, people can cry for other reasons than bumping their head or getting a spanking!]

• At about age 5, I remember the “terrible” bus trip to kindergarten at my elementary school in Jamaica, Queens. I remember not wanting to use the toilets there. [Yuk, going to a dirty school with toilets to match is a real punishment!]

• At about 6, I remember not wanting to be “7” — I suppose it didn’t sound “good” at the time. [Who cares about getting older? The number “7” just doesn’t sound right for an age marker!]

• At about age 7, I remember a hungry Tommy Mulloy coming over to our apartment to eat eggs. [Golly, there are really kids out there who are needy and don’t get all they want to eat at home]

• At about age 8, I remember playing in the snow with Joel Eisenberg. He soon thereafter died of some form of cancer. [Wow, even kids can die!]

Nowadays, with so many parents taking photos and videos of their kids, it might be more difficult for those kids to one day remember memories from the past that have not been documented on media. The flip side, I suppose, is that so many great memories will be preserved due to our new technologies.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com