My earliest memory, as cliched as it sounds, has to do with receiving toys. I must have been younger than three years old. I remember being woken up while it was still dark - it must have been Christmas - and given a tiny replica of the Ewok village from "Star Wars."
I know I must have been around 2-3 because the memory takes place in a house I left shortly after that. I can't recall particularly if it was my mom, or dad, or both, giving me the present. Details are vague. I remember a feeling of happiness, and a sort of mystery.
It can just barely be called a memory because it is hardly even a visual impression, but certainly it is a recollection of sorts, because it is not a story that has been told to me. I wonder what is was about the experience that was so formative that I have remembered it all these year, when other, presumably more significant events - say, involving my parent's divorce - I have forgotten? I truly cannot say.
In any case, it was a happy event, and I must have been really excited about those Ewok toys. It strikes me I could better date the memory with a little research into when those toys might have come out.
