My Earliest Coherent Memory

Artist rendering of the event in question

My earliest coherent memory is of a schoolyard.

I have other memories, but they are just images really, not a coherent story with a beginning, middle, and end.

This memory may have been preschool. I may have been four years old.

Or, this memory may have been kindergarten. I may have been five years old.

I believe this memory comes from preschool. This memory comes from my first introduction to schooling, and fairly early in my preschool or kindergarten career.

I am standing on the sidewalk after school, trying to find my bus. There are a number of buses lined up in front of me and they all look the same to me and I can’t figure out which one I am supposed to get on.

I remember this clearly.

Catching the bus was not yet routine for me. I did not already know where to look for my bus. I did not know the face of my bus driver.

There is a playground behind me. The buses are in front of me and behind me I hear the joyful screams of strange kids playing on the still-strange-to-me playground equipment. I hear the metallic creak of the merry-go-round as it spins and the twinkle of the chains holding the seats on the swingset as they change hands.