Memories are made of this

Time to catch up on some old business. About a month ago I asked for questions, but I never answered any. Let's fix that.

Karen asked, "What is your earliest memory from childhood?"

I think I have a pretty good memory, but as I've been keeping this blog, I've realized that I'm not always very good at retrieving childhood memories. Perhaps I'm just not old enough. The elderly seem to recall things from their childhood as if the events happened the previous day.

I'm fascinated with the issues surrounding memory, perception, and identity, the things that help make us who we are and how we see ourselves and others. Memory tends to be a lot faultier than we believe it to be. This is my way of providing a disclaimer that what I believe to be my earliest childhood memory may not actually be it. I believe I remember it, but it's entirely possible that I recall some of these things from a reconstructed history via 8mm home movies and family reminiscing. (It's likely to be more severe for today's kids who have everything videotaped. What memories are real and what ones are Memorex?)

When I was three (I think), my family went on a trip to Hawaii. My dad had sold enough seed at the grain elevator to win this vacation. I can't say that I remember a lot about the trip. I can conjure some vague images of the island if I think hard about it.

I remember the hotel room and lots of white. I can see a baby bed, which would have been for my brother, who was around a year old if I have the time line correct. Yet what's clearest in my mind is something incredibly banal: a pink Hostess Sno-Ball. I don't recall myself or anyone in my family ever eating these particular snack cakes, but I swear that I see one of them in my memory of Hawaii. Talk about totally random if it is true.

I have some faint recollections of being scared of the seagulls--or were they pigeons?--but I know that's something my parents have told me about after the fact. I can also envision a luau, but I'm guessing that may exist on an old home movie too.

Rather than claim that my earliest memory features a prominent role by artificially colored junk food, I was going to say that I remember the United States bicentennial parade in my hometown. That would beat Hawaii by six months or so, but I'm not as certain about this as I am about that Sno-Ball, even though it may be a figment of my imagination.

On a related note, am I the only one who sees what little I remember of the 70s as though it's on fine grain film stock? There's kind of a sepia tone too.