My first memory is my mom crying in the kitchen

I was about four years old in our apartment in Fresno. I walked in and she was sitting at the table with a stack of bills, just crying quietly. I didn't understand money, but I knew she was sad. That image is burned into my brain. Now as an adult, I get a tight feeling in my chest every time I sit down to pay bills. Does anyone else have a core memory that still gives you a physical reaction?

4 comments

4 Comments

vera_johnson99d ago

That smell of burnt toast still makes my stomach drop.

tarabell9d ago

Used to think that smell was just annoying. Then my own toaster caught fire last year. Now that burnt toast smell hits me and my heart just races. It's crazy how one bad experience can rewire your brain like that. Totally get that stomach drop feeling now.

jason_lewis39d ago

Remember that time my buddy's smoke alarm went off at 3 AM? He'd fallen asleep with bread in the toaster. Woke up to that smell and a full-on panic, thinking the whole place was on fire. Took him a solid week before he could even look at a toaster.

lewis.terry9d ago

Yeah that "stomach drop" feeling is real. I used to laugh at burnt toast until my own smoke alarm scared me half to death.