Memoirs

My Cognitive Birthday
i.e. My first life experience that became worthy of mentally filing away and cataloguing.

I have a vivid image in my mind of an event that occurred when I was 3 years old. I remember standing in the kitchen of the house we lived in at the time. I can see the room, hear the activity, smell the smells. It was almost lunchtime and my mother was standing at the stove frying potatoes as part of the lunch meal. Whatever I had been doing, I stopped doing it. I noticed that my mother was crying as she was slowing turning the potatoes in the pan. I was curious. My mother was crying and it affected me in some way. I stood beside her and asked her why she was crying. She said she was crying because a good man was shot and had just died. That's it. That's all I remember. The date was November 22nd, 1963.
(Written Oct.19, 2013)



5 comments:

Lovella said...

Hey Cons, excited to be reading your blog entries. I read this post and I was thinking and thinking... "Who was she referring to?" Then it dawned on me..."Of course! It was JFK!" Wow...You remembered that when you were only 3! Mom's emotion must have really impacted you! What's interesting is that after reading that I too remember Mom standing at the stove and crying about something at one point. I wonder if it's the same time?

Connie Mae Inglis said...

Well, Lovella, since that's the only time I remember Mom crying at the stove, it may very well be the same as your memory. What was your first cognitive memory?

Lovella said...

Well, since you asked, my first cognitive memory was of Mom sitting on the couch with her leg up on a stool and wrapped in what I thought were bandages (probably tensors). Apparently, she had sprained her knee tobogganing with the youth group. (Mom says I was about 3 at the time).
Isn't it interesting how both of our first memories are of Mom. Shows the importance and impact a mother has on a young child.

Lovella said...

Well, since you asked, my first cognitive memory was of Mom sitting on the couch with her leg up on a stool and wrapped in what I thought were bandages (probably tensors). Apparently, she had sprained her knee tobogganing with the youth group. (Mom says I was about 3 at the time).
Isn't it interesting how both of our first memories are of Mom. Shows the importance and impact a mother has on a young child.

Connie Mae Inglis said...

Thanks for the memory. I obviously don't remember that one (I was one year old). Yes, I agree with your comment about mothers.