During two Days of Culture events, the Cultural Trust posed the question: What was your first cultural memory?

Staff and volunteers were intrigued watching certain patterns develop as conference-goers filled up flip chart after flip chart of exposure to arts, multicultural and family traditions.

Most people recalled their first cultural experience at four or five years old. Many adults, raised in the U.S., listed reading with parents or at the library, going to a museum or attending a play, but several recalled a beloved TV show, movie, or visit to Disney World.

For those born abroad or raised in multicultural families, the memories encompassed milestone events or daily life happenings specific to that culture – food preparation, ceremonial dancing.

“The Drums!” wrote a woman raised in a small Liberian village.

• “Going to the Viking Lodge with a Norwegian grandparent.”
• “Watching my grandmother dance the Tarantela at an Italian wedding.”

Here are a few other gems that you, Oregonians, shared about your first cultural memories:

• Watching rice being pounded
• The colors green and black
• At age three, sitting under the Baby Grand while my father played Moonlight Sonata
• The first book I ever read, I Want to Be an Astronaut
• The trailer park
• Learning ASL from my deaf parents
• Kimchee at Hannukah
• Ramblin’ Rod
• Learning to write poetry from my mother
• The importance of being quiet