Earliest memory

What's your earliest childhood memory? Not a quick flashback, like a freeze frame or a photo, but a defined memory with a start, middle and end.

My first clear memory is from when I was no older than four, and we lived in Yorkshire. My dad had a day off work, and so I was allowed to stay home from playgroup. The weather was really windy and we walked to our local newsagents where my dad bought me a kite. We then went to the park round the corner.

My dad got the kite up and flying in no time at all, but the wind was really strong. He handed the kite string over to me, saying, "Hold on tight! When I give this to you, you mustn't let go! Be careful." I held on tight. The kite bobbed and soared. It was really good fun - for about a minute. Then I was bored. Short attention span. So... I let go. I knew I wasn't supposed to, but I wanted to see what would happen.

Off the kite went! The wind took it and it flew away. This was really fun. For about a minute. Then I got bored. Luckily, what remained amusing, was the fact that my dad was now chasing said kite right along the whole length of the park, leapfrogging a barbed-wire fence and tearing the kite in the process.

I have a feeling that we then returned the rather broken kite to the corner shop, saying it was faulty. I say "we". I was four, and pretty much incapable of fraud. OK, I might have let go of the kite, but who's the real villain here? Hmm? Hmm?

To this day, I'm not sure I've ever told my dad that I deliberately let go of the kite. Well, until now. Still, at least my hobbies don't include swindling small shops out of kites. Yet.