i've been tagged

ok so Firehorse tagged me with this meme:

Describe my earliest memory where the memory is clear, and where “clear” means I can depict at least three details.
Give an estimate of my age at the time.
Tag five other bloggers with this meme.

So here goes. I grew up in a small country town in Queensland. One of the main industries in this area is peanut growing and the centre of town is dominated by enormous peanut silos. For a time my mother worked at the silos as a peanut sorter - she and many other workers would sit or stand at the sides of conveyor belts and pick out unwanted objects as the peanuts went past...sounds like fun doesn't it.

Anyway one day, i was about two years old at the time, i was at home with my Aunt who was babysitting me while my parents were at work. I can clearly remember trying to wake my aunt and the look of her face while she slept, oblivious to my prodding. Now i don't remember how i came to do what i did next but i can explain what happened. Somehow i managed to get myself out of the house, up the street, around the next corner and walk the two and a half blocks to the main driveway entrance of the peanut silos. Not only did this mean that i walked all that way by myself but i also managed to cross a main street and navigate my way through a busy thoroughfare where enormous trucks carrying peanuts to the silos were entering.

My next clear memory is of a man picking me up and asking me where i had come from. Now i don't remember this man's face but i do remember the dust covered blue shirt he was wearing, the dark blue singlet he had on underneath his shirt and the dark hair on his chest poking out over the top of his singlet. I also clearly remember someone saying that's ........(mother's nickname) son. i don't remember getting from street level to the top of the silos where my mum was working but i figure the guy carried me up there because the next thing i clearly remember is the look of total shock on my mothers face when we appeared before her and i called out to her.

My mum has a redheads temper and i can also remember the sound of her berating my aunt once we got back to the house, who by the way i was told years later was still asleep when mum took me back to the house, didn't even know i was gone.

It's funny the things you remember and the impact memories have on us.

Thanks for the tag Firehorse and now i need to pass it on to five others so i'm sending it out to Sandy; Muzbot; Daddy or Chips; Pedestrian Fair; and Shirley Heezgay

oh and just for the hell of it, i've included a picture of me when i was 17, in our back yard and looming large behind me are the above mentioned peanut silos. You'll also notice the distinct lack of greenery in this photo. my father drove and owned trucks and unfortunately dry and dusty + enormous tyres does not a pretty grassland make.