My First Childhood Memory

Broomfield, Colorado

Hey all. The world is hard. Heavy and scary at times. I am going to talk about all of that in later posts but, for today, here is my First Childhood Memory for my new Prompt Series. The thread for subscriber contributions will come on the 31st. So be on the lookout for that one.

Let’s set the scene. It’s 1987. I am not quite 3 years old. It’s Broomfield, Colorado and I am the 3rd of 4 current Mahan Family kids. I have a sister, Jen, who is 7 and a brother, Adam, who is 4 almost 5. I am almost 3. My next sister, Holly, is almost 18 months and my mom is pregnant with another sister-Lisa. She will be born in June of ‘87. Up until this point we had lived in a little 2 bedroom, one bathroom house in Westlake Village. I have very spotty recollections before this day but this was a big day. We were moving! We moved down the street to a new rental that had come available. It was a 3 bedroom, one bathroom house with an unfinished basement. Since my parents were about to add their 5th kid to the mix, they needed more space.

This would have been a little after we actually moved in. (Adjusted timeline is in the added edit at the bottom of the page.)

I remember we walked. My mom held my hand and was carrying my sister Holly on her hip. She had a pregnant belly so Lisa was coming fairly soon. I can recall looking up at my mom while we walked to the new house. It was about 6 or 7 houses down from the house we had been in. We got to the new house and it was completely empty. I think my dad drove the moving van down the street and we had people there to help us unpack. I remember my dad lifting me up and carrying me down the stairs with blue carpet on them to the basement to take a look. The basement had cement floors and a couple old ugly carpets that were old pieces just thrown on the floor. One was a flat carpet that was yellowish with all kinds of flowers. Another was an old red shag. There was also an old brownish shag for a different part of the basement.

This basement would end up becoming the center of a lot of my childhood memories. We kept our toys down there and we played down there a ton. We would roller skate and play house and dolls and it would change a lot through the years. The basement would also eventually become the bedrooms for the preteen and teenagers of the moment.

But on this day, we were painting the rooms and setting up the new things. My parents room had a walk in closet! (So fancy!) My gram and gramps were there helping us paint and move. My gramps was painting my parents new room bright white. I think it was pink before that. I remember sitting in the room while my gramps was painting and he told me not to touch the wall cause it was wet. Of course, my little curious self immediately touched the wall and got white paint all over my hand and I ran out of the room so I wouldn’t get caught. Ha!

Here I am with my brother, Adam. Also 1986.

I don’t remember the first night in the new house. I don’t remember what happened the next week or the next year fully. I don’t even remember when Lisa was born super clearly. But, for some reason, this felt big enough for my brain to store it in the memory bank.

I also remember that it felt different that my dad carried me. I don’t know that he held me that much when I was small.

The room across from the bathroom in this house is the room I moved into with my older sister and when the baby was born in June, she slept in this room too. We had a bunk bed and crib and then a mattress that would slide in and out from under the bunk bed when Lisa got older. I stayed in this room until I was about 14 and moved to the basement.

Here are Jen and I, my grandparents front yard in 1986

This home was my whole life until I left at 18. Maybe my little toddler brain knew that. Knew that my childhood years would be spent in this house and everything that happened and I went through was oriented around this space. Those rooms.

To put things in perspective for you, my parents ages at this time: 27. They were 27 and about to have their 5th child under the age of 7. When I ask my mom, who stayed at home with us and would babysit and such to bring in a little ‘extra’ money, what those years were like for her, she just says: “It was a lot.”

I now understand how much was on her plate a little bit more. Women make the world go round.

*EDITED TO ADD* I talked to my mom after I wrote this above memory. She told me we moved in June of ‘86 to the ‘new’ house. Which means she wasn’t pregnant with Lisa yet when we moved. It’s so interesting because in my memories she was pregnant. But she wasn’t in real life. So weird how our brains paint their own pictures of the truth. She also said she remembers walking down the street holding Holly on her hip with me skipping along beside her. I was barely 2. It’s early for a memory to be real. Our brains are so cool.

It’s so good to go back and remember. I cannot wait to hear about your earliest memories. I will send out the thread for the posts on the 31st.

Happy remembering-and writing!

Sending love,

Stef