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Earliest Memories Meme
Nov. 29th, 2007 08:44 pmMelanie Duckworth has tagged me for this meme, for reason of it being my birthday. (Said birthday was actually earlier in the month, but as I got a birthday present yesterday, it still counts.)
My earliest memory is of the Duck Man. Unlike most of my early memories, I have no photograph to prompt it, and while I can remember the story being discussed afterwards, it wasn't one of those great family legends.
The Duck Man was a workmate of my father, and we were living in Wagga. So I would have been around about two at the time. The Duck Man had been invited over, possibly for dinner, and was being taken around the house in the usual welcome tour. He was introduced to my room, where I had a free-standing wardrobe. I don't remember the details of the house at all; my mind fills in the memory with the image of our house in Perth, but I know that's not native to the memory, since in Perth said wardrobe belonged to my brother.
This wardrobe had a large yellow duck on it. The Duck Man, as you do when faced with a curly-haired toddler on the one hand and a picture of a large yellow duck on the other, crouched down to my level and asked me if I knew what noises ducks make. I think I answered with "quack".
No, said the Duck Man. That's not the noises ducks make. And he proceeded to make duck noises. I imitated said duck noises. I can still make duck noises, and take great delight in doing so on request.
For those curious, duck noises sound like "squrbsqurbsqurb", and are made by
*pursing your lips
*pressing the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth, and the back of your tongue against the roof of your mouth
then the air passes between the sides of your tongue and your teeth/cheek. The sound is modulated by flexing the side of your tongue and making fake-kissing sort of movements with your lips.
I can only assume this particular memory has stuck with me because the wardrobe-with-duck provided the visual cue, and its presence gave me reason to remember how to make duck noises.
My earliest memory is of the Duck Man. Unlike most of my early memories, I have no photograph to prompt it, and while I can remember the story being discussed afterwards, it wasn't one of those great family legends.
The Duck Man was a workmate of my father, and we were living in Wagga. So I would have been around about two at the time. The Duck Man had been invited over, possibly for dinner, and was being taken around the house in the usual welcome tour. He was introduced to my room, where I had a free-standing wardrobe. I don't remember the details of the house at all; my mind fills in the memory with the image of our house in Perth, but I know that's not native to the memory, since in Perth said wardrobe belonged to my brother.
This wardrobe had a large yellow duck on it. The Duck Man, as you do when faced with a curly-haired toddler on the one hand and a picture of a large yellow duck on the other, crouched down to my level and asked me if I knew what noises ducks make. I think I answered with "quack".
No, said the Duck Man. That's not the noises ducks make. And he proceeded to make duck noises. I imitated said duck noises. I can still make duck noises, and take great delight in doing so on request.
For those curious, duck noises sound like "squrbsqurbsqurb", and are made by
*pursing your lips
*pressing the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth, and the back of your tongue against the roof of your mouth
then the air passes between the sides of your tongue and your teeth/cheek. The sound is modulated by flexing the side of your tongue and making fake-kissing sort of movements with your lips.
I can only assume this particular memory has stuck with me because the wardrobe-with-duck provided the visual cue, and its presence gave me reason to remember how to make duck noises.
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