Age of your earliest confirmed memory

[Nerys Ghemor]

A friend and I were talking about our earliest memories, and she said to me that she had never talked to anyone whose first memories started as early as mine. I can remember--and my parents have confirmed it--things from when I was about 2 1/2, with maybe a few things even all the way back to 2 years old. Those memories are sketchy in some cases, but real.

My friend said she'd never met anyone who could remember things from before 4 years old. I'm curious to see if this is very unusual or not.

So, when is the earliest memory you have, that you've confirmed to be real, and is not because of "remembering" events you were simply told about?

 

[1001001]

I remember my sister being born. I was four years, three months.

I have a couple of memories before that, just flashes of things.

But that was the first solid memory I can point to.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Since memory isn't a video recorder, your brain will be happy to "add" memories if it thinks they'll be helpful to you. So in that sense, it's difficult to be certain what my earliest memory is because it's possible I "remember" something because my parents told me about it. However, I have a couple memories from a trip to France when I was four that I remember specific details that no one else told me (whether it was raining, the color of the carpet in the hotel) and, when I ask about them, they've been confirmed. The whole thing only exists in flashes, but I can at least confirm them.

So four and probably a couple of months.

 

[Roshi]

I remember visiting the Maternity Ward when my sister was born. I was 2 1/2.

 

[Gul Re'jal]

Drawing a picture and copying letters from a newspaper--I didn't know how to write yet. It was a year before I started school, so I was 5.

 

[Shaytan]

I remember the time when my elder brother was living in my parents'home and he left when I was 3 years old.
I also remember the release of the Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden in 1982. It's a weird memory for a 3 years old

 

[Roshi]

Of course you would remember it!

IT'S ONE OF TEH BESTEST ALBUMS EVAH!!!!

 

[Terengo]

I was adopted at 6 months, and I have a memory of being picked up out of a crib by one of the nurses at the adoption home, so I was younger than that. Nobody confirmed it for me, but that makes it even more real to me, since there's no other way I could have gotten that image except really experiencing it. My first memory of this memory (so to speak) comes from when I was around 4.

 

[Kemaiku]

3 years old, my first train ride, off to Belfast for the day, just the train part of it.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Somewhere between 18 and 24 months, I have a very clear picture memory of being in a stroller pushed by my mother. The tray in front of me is blue with two yellow beads that could slide on a horizontal metal rod. There were potato chips in the tray and we were moving down a sidewalk on the left side of the street.

 

[RoJoHen]

I barely remember anything before I was 9 years old. The only "memories" I have from earlier times are from pictures, so I'm not sure if they really count.

 

[Squiggy]

3 years, 9 months. Out of body experience due to head injury.

 

[thestrangequark]

I was adopted at 6 months, and I have a memory of being picked up out of a crib by one of the nurses at the adoption home, so I was younger than that. Nobody confirmed it for me, but that makes it even more real to me, since there's no other way I could have gotten that image except really experiencing it. My first memory of this memory (so to speak) comes from when I was around 4.

It is very possible that you dreamed or imagined it at a later age (possibly around 4, hence that being the age at which you first have memory of the memory) and incorporated the dream/imaginary memory into your real memory. I'm not discounting the possibility that the memory is real, mind you, just pointing out that, due to the artificial nature of all memories there are actually several other ways you could have gotten that image without experiencing it.

I have a very vivid memory of my second birthday, and I feel pretty confident that it is real because I have a lot of memories of being 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old. I have one memory from about 18-20 months old that may or may not be real. I remember sitting on a stone patio and staring at a little cut on my finger, and being entranced by how the blood was forming a perfect little bead. My earliest memories are especially strange to me because I was deaf.

Weirdly, I have major gaps in my memory around 12, 13, and 14 years old.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I was in a car accident when I was 2 1/2. I don't remember the accident (or anything else from that long ago), but I have a specific memory of my dad feeding me green grapes while I was in this crib thingy at the hospital. Not sure why that particular memory stuck in my head.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I have several memories from when I was 2. As with you, Nerys, they're "sketchy" but mostly accurate. There are of course also what I call "recycled memories", where the ghost or sliver of a genuine memory has been "cleaned up" by whatever mental process involves itself with recollection; I assume the initial memory has been recycled, re-examined and infused with new significance over and over, until it's mostly informed fiction (though still resembling the original to some degree). I consider those partially-accurate reconstructions rather than genuine recollections, but at the heart of them is a truthful experience that left its mark on me, or the germ of one.

I consider my earliest memory to be from around the age of one, when I saw fire. I must assume I'd seen more than a few candle flames, etc, before this, but this was the first time I saw an uncontrolled blaze. A fence had caught alight following a firework display. My father was carrying me. I don't remember much else, but apparently the sight of fire had a powerful effect on me.

After that, my next irregular memories are from the age of 2 (I certainly recall my biggest tantrum - unusual behaviour for me even at that age - as well as the pleasure of one of my uncle's visits. I showed him my box of magnet letters). I actually have a useful way of determinating age of memories, given that we moved to a flat a few weeks before my third birthday; any memory set before that, I'm 2. I have memories of preparing for the move but not arriving.

After that, memory resumes at about 4-5.

 

[Finn]

Twoish, random images of my first house in New Hampshires, in our old backyard, and visiting Florida.

 

[Daneel]

As is the case with a couple of other posters, my first memory is of my sister being born. I was 3, almost 4. It's really rather vague, but it's definitely there.

The more vivid memories come from later that year, when I was 4, and started attending school.

 

[wissaboo]

I have a few memories from before I was 31/2. I know they were before that because we moved when I was 3 1/2 and I remember the old house. I remember being carried next door to my babysitters in a blizzard. I remember the layout of the house. And I remember playing with a yo yo which I find interesting. Because I also remember playing with the same yo yo in the new house and remembering playing with it in the old house.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

My crib as a baby had a cartooney picture of a smiling lion. I was terrified of it and would cry because it scared me.

I never saw that crib until I was ten years old and it was pulled out of storage to be given to my brother for his child. I saw the picture and remembered the fear vividly.

I also remember getting my diapers changed, both on the kitchen table and on my parent's bed. It is clear and verified because my mother would use a particular spatula-knife to spread cream on my diapers for rash. I remember the knife and her spreading the cream, the table top, and the bed. Again, I didn't see the knife for a decade later, I found it in a drawer and remembered it and asked her.

My sisters were ten and eleven years older and used to teach me to read on the couch in the living room. This was prior to my entering kindergarten, so I was no more than 4 years old, they have verified it. As well, at about that age I was always able to remember reading road signs out of the window of the car, verified by my mum when we discussed how old I was when I started reading, several decades later.

I can remember visiting my grandfather on his farm, he died when I was six while living with us, the last visits to his farm were when I was four. I remember playing with my cousins on his farm, they left for Germany to live with my uncle who was serving in the Air Force when I was three.

I have a few other scattered memories but nothing I can absolutely verify like those.

 

[Dantheman]

One of my earliest memories is when I was a toddler and being held by my maternal grandfather, playing with his glasses and feeling his facial stubble. I must've been like two or so.

I also remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back in the theater in its original release, so I must've been like three.