My Earliest Memory

My Earliest Memory

       Though I can’t remember it clearly, the earliest memory I can think of is a night when I was the ags of four. I have pictures of that night in a photo album my mother keeps buried in her bookshelf. She sometimes refreshes that memory by telling me about it sometimes. With her verbose personality, she would go on and on.

       It was a night in the December of the year 2001. My family was living close by a university back then. It didn’t snow much in the place where I lived. Snow was a rare sight and many people took advantage of it whenever it seldomly fell. I remeber hold out my right arm to see the different snowflake patterns on the sleeve of my turquoise jacket. It was Christmas eve I think. Christmas lights were hung up on the side of building and trees. The air was chilly, and a scent of rosemary lingered on the campus. As I strolled around the knee-deep snow( well for me atleast) with my parents and older cousin trailing behind, I stumbled upon a stage. It wasn’t much of a stage; rather, it wasn’t much except for a raised platform, a dais. Still puerile back then, I hopped onto the stage and began singing and dancing to a Chinese translation of Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star. Passing-by university students would occasionally stop to compliment me or give me treats.

       As we ventured further into the surprisingly dazzling night, we found a few discarded cardboard boxes leaning against a lamp post. We decided to take them to the soccer field and try out our new ‘tabbogans’. We took our turns down a slope on the borders of the soccer field and the cardboard boxes worked quite well. I think later my father unitentionally rent the cardboard. We started a snowball fight then- my father threw the first one. It was a match between the midgets and the giants. I could hardly walk around in the deep snow and, needless to say, my cousin and I lost miserably.

       It was a night of adventure and excitement. Later we went home and my mother made us all some chrysanthemum tea. As we sipped from our mugs and sat around the eletric heater, we told tales of our experiences of the night, unconcious of the lengthy fever that would befall on us all.