My Earliest Memories.
Good morning, everyone,
The earliest memories I have are around the age of 12 months. I know I couldn’t walk, and my mother told me we all walked around 14 months of age.
I have one vivid memory of myself sitting on a cushion in the lounge with various toys around me.
To my left was a group of 6 coloured wooden pegs, which were hammered down. In-front of me, were a selection of graduated, coloured plastic cups and plastic bricks. By my right hand, was an alphabet jig-saw, where the gap in the wood was shaped like the wooden piece. But what excited me the most, was to my NE; it was a humming spinning top.
I didn’t have the strength in my arm to operate it, so I had to wait for either my older brother to come into the room to do it for me, or one of my parents. I recall it giving me great joy seeing the colours whirring around, and to listen to the humming.
Another early memory, is of my Dad giving me knee rides. His favourite one, was a rhyme that his Grandmother had used when he was a boy. The content of which, reveals its age.
“Nellie, Nellie, went to the well, to fetch a pale of water;
She opened the lid…
And in she… slid.
And she was the Miller’s daughter.”
Just before “slid” I would be poised on Dad’s lap waiting for him to let me drop through his knees. He would catch me as I slid through and then he’d bring me up on his knees again for the last line. This had me laughing with delight. When I was able to speak, I would shout, “again, again” and Dad would repeat it for me until he was too tired. Dad also liked the rhymes, “one finger one thumb keep moving.” “Pat-a-cake” and “Round and round the garden like a teddy bear.”
Another finger game he played with us was:-
Here’s the Church,
Here’s the steeple,
Open the doors
And here are the people.
Here’s the vicar going up the stairs,
And here he is saying his prayers.
This involved finger manipulation; the hardest bit was the last part of the verse. You would link your fingers from the back, starting with the smallest, as if you were climbing stairs. Once you got to the index finger, you would twist the linked hands round and poke your right thumb up through the centre of your fist; the vicar saying his prayers. I was fascinated, but it was years later before I could manipulate my hands to do that.
