I am willing to bet that very few people can remember the exact date and time of their first memory.
My earliest memory was on October 28, 1983 just after 8:06 a.m. I was a few weeks shy of my third birthday and my brother was due to arrive in two weeks. I know it is hard to believe that anyone could have a memory from when they were two years old, but I swear to you I remember that morning.
That's because I was awakened by an earthquake. The Borah earthquake centered near the small town of Challis and registered 7.3 on the Richter scale. It was felt as far away as Salt Lake City and killed two children.
I grew up on the western outskirts of Blackfoot, near Snake River High School, approximately 140 miles from Challis.
My bed was next to my closet and I was still asleep. My closet doors began to vibrate, and at first I thought my mom was just doing laundry, because sometimes the motion of the spin cycle would cause my closet doors to vibrate. But as it intensified I knew that it was much, much stronger than the usual hum that accompanied laundry day.
I remember getting out of bed and running down the hallway into the dining room, and seeing the light fixture above our kitchen table swaying back and forth. I continued down the hall to my parents' bedroom, and I distinctly remember my mom standing next to waterbed (remember those things?) with one hand on her 8 1/2 month pregnant belly and the other on the wooden bed frame. She looked like she was going to throw up, and having since gone through two pregnancies myself I can imaging how she must have felt!
I remember being really scared, my two-year-old mind had no idea what was happening! My mom swears to me that I said "Do it again!" I don't remember that, but that would have been pretty funny. I guess my sense of humor began at an early age.
