Possibly my earliest memory was being in my crib in a bedroom shared by my two uncles. I think I was about 1-1/2 year old. I guess I had seen a tomato worm that day, because shortly after they turned out the bedroom light I was standing up looking down at the floor and imagined that I saw several large black tomato worms about a foot long writhing around just beneath me on the floor, complete with the little horns on their heads. I considered them hideous creatures and started raising hell. I suppose I had a tendency to come up with words for things I had never seen, and I decided in an instant these things were "wha-wats." My elder uncle jumped out of bed and asked me what I was hollering about and I told him there were wha-wats on the floor. He turned on the light so I could see there were no wha-wats. Satisfied, I went to sleep after he turned the lights back off.
Many people I know can't remember times before they were seven or eight years old. I remember stuff from waaaaay back, and often get a chuckle out of some of the things I thought and did.
When I was three, I heard a sonic boom that my mom told me was caused by a jet flying over the house and breaking the sound barrier. I thought about it a while and figured that this sound barrier had to be nearby because it made such a racket when it hit the ground. I had no idea what it might look like, but I was certain I would recognize it when I saw it. My search of the front and back yards turned up nothing.
I remember hundreds of things from that stage of childhood. I wish they were all pleasant.
