Age of your earliest confirmed memory
- Thread starter Nerys Ghemor
- Start date
No. No 6-week old baby is capable of understanding what people are saying...period. You may have heard your dad telling the story when you were little- "I remember when Baby Tiberius peed on me right after I got out of shower. He must have been only six weeks old" and that's the real memory. Over the years, it may have become an artificial memory from when you were six weeks old in your mind.
That isn't uncommon. I have to be careful about saying what I remember, when some of my memories, no matter how real they seem or how much details I got right, may be artificial. I have a couple of memories from the Easter when I was 1 1/2 (1981). But those memories seemed to match the pictures from that weekend. Those memories might have easily come from looking at them since I was little, even though the memories seem vivid and clear...
All memories are artificial reconstructions of reality synthesized by our brains. A false memory like yours (clearly false, for reasons noted above by another poster), will seem as real to you as an actual memory. I felt the same about the memory I "stole" from my sister: I really, really thought it was real, and even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it wasn't, it still feels real to me.
I remember a window falling on my finger when I was 5.At the hospital,I remember asking for my father to come back with me into the ER.
I recall opening a present when I was about three and a half. It was the first present I recall getting, and it was a toy semi-truck with a stylized "CF" logo on it (like this one). I lost the truck within the year. But the memory stuck with me long enough that years later I saw an actual truck on the highway with the same logo and I yelled at my parents that THAT truck was MY truck! After several minutes clarification of what the hell I was talking about my Dad remembered that "Santa" brought me that truck when I was three.
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I have a very early memory of driving away from a Tornado when I lived in Delaware... I was in the back seat looking back at it. I was about 3 1/2 --- and then I have a another memory at 3 asking my dad if I was 4 years old yet (on my birthday). Other than that... it's amazing how much of your past your forget... at least me, I don't have great recall for how things went down often, but I remember faces, songs, smells, feelings, etc... I was a dreamer all through high school even and spent a lot of time in the comfort of my own mind and poems and stories.
I remember being dropped down the stairs by my sister. I was maybe 18 months. When I mentioned it to my mom, she was shocked, and confirmed that I had been crying, my sister had helped me out of the crib (so I had to have been under 2), and I was too heavy for her to carry all the way downstairs. I don't recall much else about living in that house (we moved when I was three) but I do remember that.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
Let's see, memories I remember for sure:
-My dad staying with me at the hospital when I was 5 post-surgery after I'd had my tonsils out. I remember the knockout gas was strawberry "flavored," I remember eating chocolate ice cream, and I remember waking up to find all my He-Man figures standing and arranged on the table next to my bed in the hospital the next day.
-I remember very vividly at age 9 when my sister was born going to see her at the hospital and holding her for the first time. (In three months, she's getting married!) I do not recall anything about the two brothers between us being born.
-I remember in first grade going down the steel curvy slide on our playground at school, but it was summertime and I was wearing shorts and the steel slide was burning hot. Fun.
-My dad staying with me at the hospital when I was 5 post-surgery after I'd had my tonsils out. I remember the knockout gas was strawberry "flavored," I remember eating chocolate ice cream, and I remember waking up to find all my He-Man figures standing and arranged on the table next to my bed in the hospital the next day.
-I remember very vividly at age 9 when my sister was born going to see her at the hospital and holding her for the first time. (In three months, she's getting married!) I do not recall anything about the two brothers between us being born.
-I remember in first grade going down the steel curvy slide on our playground at school, but it was summertime and I was wearing shorts and the steel slide was burning hot. Fun.
My earliest confirmed memory was 1 1/2
It was Christmas in Alaska and my Dad was in the Air Force. We were living in a duplex that shared a front entrance with another officer's family. We moved out of that house before the next Christmas.
I remember going next door to open gifts. I received a set of Lego blocks, the large ones. They seemed as big as my head.
I have many more memories of Alaska. Sledding. Memories of my cousin, who was also in the Air Force, living with us. Rolling down a leaf covered hill with my best friend. Playing Spider Man as my brother and sister pushed me up the wall (I thought I could really climb the wall, but it was most likely my brother and sister giving me a boost.) Watching my brother and sister really climb the wall (it was a brick basement wall that had large gaps for strong fingers and Hush Puppy shoes.) Flying in a single engine Cesna through the mountains sitting on my Mom's lap while my Dad piloted - he was frightening my Mom while he tried to determine the color of the mountain goat's eyes (I don't recall the color, but I remember the attempt.) We moved from Alaska when I was 4.
It was Christmas in Alaska and my Dad was in the Air Force. We were living in a duplex that shared a front entrance with another officer's family. We moved out of that house before the next Christmas.
I remember going next door to open gifts. I received a set of Lego blocks, the large ones. They seemed as big as my head.
I have many more memories of Alaska. Sledding. Memories of my cousin, who was also in the Air Force, living with us. Rolling down a leaf covered hill with my best friend. Playing Spider Man as my brother and sister pushed me up the wall (I thought I could really climb the wall, but it was most likely my brother and sister giving me a boost.) Watching my brother and sister really climb the wall (it was a brick basement wall that had large gaps for strong fingers and Hush Puppy shoes.) Flying in a single engine Cesna through the mountains sitting on my Mom's lap while my Dad piloted - he was frightening my Mom while he tried to determine the color of the mountain goat's eyes (I don't recall the color, but I remember the attempt.) We moved from Alaska when I was 4.
I have several memories from the age of 2. Most are of get togethers with my parent's friends. I also have a very vivid memory of visiting my aunt and uncle when I was somewhere between 2 and 2 1/2. When I recently was talking to my aunt about it, she thought I was pulling her leg at first. But after I described in detail the layout of their house and certain pieces of furniture, she was completely floored.
That wouldn't explain the memory I have of wanting to repeat the performance, because no one could have told me. After all, how would they know it? And while I accept that people can hear someone say something and what they hear becomes a memory that they think happened to them, that simply isn't possible in this case because I had the memory for ages before I ever spoke of it.
I'll fully agree with you that maybe my mum got my age wrong and I was older, but the memory isn't false. I had the memory for years before anyone ever told me about it. And my dad didn't live with me and my mum, so I rarely saw him.
^You made up the idea of wanting to repeat it and incorporated it into your memory. As I said, memories are synthesized, that means your synthesized thoughts can easily become a part of them, just like you can remember anything else you thought, imagined, or dreamt. I know it's hard to take in when a memory feels real, but that memory is false. If you were a year, a year and a half, then it might be credible, but at a few weeks? No way.
I'f you're interested in reading about how memories are formed, I'd highly recommend any of Steven Pinker's books. He is a neurologist and linguist at Harvard and has written some very interesting and engaging books on the subject.
I'f you're interested in reading about how memories are formed, I'd highly recommend any of Steven Pinker's books. He is a neurologist and linguist at Harvard and has written some very interesting and engaging books on the subject.
Indeed, your own account of your own stolen memory was very eye opening to me! I knew that human memories aren't that great, but wow!
Mr Awe
That is a poor logic. Just because nobody told you plus you having never told anybody doesn't mean it is real. You can have a false memory for years
see TheStrangequark's posts. She nailed it. False memories can appear real.
My memory is so bad that I have no choice but to assume they're all false.
None of your memories of TBBS have been real either. It's just been you all along, posting and responding to yourself.
Not sure of the exact date, but it's around 2. Roughly though, my memory doesn't have a date and time stamp on the replay. As I was older than 1 and it was before my brother when I was 3... I chose to lock it in at ~2.
It was the first time my parents were having a "night out" since having me. I was being watched by my aunt and uncle. They had just bought a VCR and decided to rent a tape for me to watch after dinner. My uncle, knowing that my father worked in computers and that I would sit on his lap and play with the computers with him at home, rented Tron. I remember laying on their thick orange/red shage carpet, next to the brick fireplace, in the dark watching the movie... Enthralled by the movie actually. I watched the whole thing through, outlasting both my aunt and uncle who fell asleep.
Eventually, my mother and father came to pick me up. (I was supposed to spend the night, but my mother changed her mind about that while she was out). I also remember my mothers dress, the style, the color, the fabric. I can remember the smell of her perfume, as well as the smell of my aunt and uncle's house.
It is my earliest memory. It was also the first movie I remember seeing, and when I started dreaming about one day making a movie myself and working in the industry.
It was the first time my parents were having a "night out" since having me. I was being watched by my aunt and uncle. They had just bought a VCR and decided to rent a tape for me to watch after dinner. My uncle, knowing that my father worked in computers and that I would sit on his lap and play with the computers with him at home, rented Tron. I remember laying on their thick orange/red shage carpet, next to the brick fireplace, in the dark watching the movie... Enthralled by the movie actually. I watched the whole thing through, outlasting both my aunt and uncle who fell asleep.
Eventually, my mother and father came to pick me up. (I was supposed to spend the night, but my mother changed her mind about that while she was out). I also remember my mothers dress, the style, the color, the fabric. I can remember the smell of her perfume, as well as the smell of my aunt and uncle's house.
It is my earliest memory. It was also the first movie I remember seeing, and when I started dreaming about one day making a movie myself and working in the industry.
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Sounds about right.
I have some vague memories starting at about the age of three, although with some of those I'm not certain I haven't invented them from later stories heard in the family. The earliest one I can nail down for certain was the day my grandfather died, three months after my fourth birthday. My parents hustled us kids over to my grandmother's best friend's house with basically no notice; they wanted to spare us the shock of seeing his body carried out of the house.
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