What's Your Earliest Memory?

[Shaytan]

When I was around 3 years old. My 15 years old brother told me that I was adopted. I mainly remember crying and my mother shouting at him

 

[Nardpuncher]

We emigrated to Australia when I was 2,a d Dad worked on a small farm, near Moss Vale in the NSW Southern Highlands. We left there when I was 4&1/2.

My earliest memory is my Mum taking me 'fishing'. She made a rod out of a curtain rod, line out of curtain twine, and a hook out of a curtain hook. There was a dam near the house (a constant source of worry for them with my fascination of standing at the edge), and it was fed by a little stream, under some shady trees. It had a little lawnlike area next to it, and we sat on that bank as I 'fished', I must have been about 3.

I remember the sunlight filtering through the leaves. The green all around. My mother and her constant love beside me. The feeling was a little like waking up, becoming my own person, and a feeling of intense happiness. Real, full happiness.. I'd give anything to feel like that again.

And to cap it off, I 'caught' a big spring, from a long-gone lounge chair.

There are many happy memories from that time.. This was the first.

Sounds like me a little in that I was born in Ottawa, Canada and when I was 4 we moved to Exeter, England and then one year later moved Margate over near the English Channel.
So I know that if I'm recalling Ottawa (and I have many memories of it) then I must be under 4, if I recall Exeter, then I'm 5 years-old etc.

 

[Niorah]

The earliest memories I have are of me and my grandfather. I must have been 3, 3 and a half at most, since he died later that year, unfortunately.

In one memory we are in his car, he is driving and I am sitting in the back seat with my head between the two front seats, talking to him. We had just come out of a small grocery store on the way to our family's farm and as usual he had bought me three very colourful chewing gum balls. At the time I was in the habit of chewing those for a bit and then swallowing them, because they tasted sooo good.
So there I was, chewing away, as he was saying to me: "Remember that you mustn't swallow it!"... but it was too late!
I was mortified.

 

[Cheapjack]

I can remember having a tight, rubbery, slightly smelly, but a nice smell, of a band wrapped completely round my head, and I'm pushing at it, as it comes over my nose and chin,and I'm out.

A mixture of exhiliaration: 'Hello world, I'm here!', and a bit of sadness, too. A mixed package.

 

[Shaka]

This question is actually something I was wondering about recently, and I realized that my earliest memory was when I was 2 years and 10 months old. One of my aunt, who was still a teenager back then, was a huge fan of the French singer Claude François, and I perfectly remember her crying in her bedroom in my grandparents house the day he died, while playing some of his 45rpm single on her phonograph. It was probably on march 12, 1978, it was a sunday which makes sense as she would have been home that day and I would be visiting my grandparents like every sunday. It's funny how I can put an exact date on my earliest memory...

The second one I could probably find the date easily too, and is very cute : a couple years later, at my sister's wedding, I clearly remember being there in the evening at the big wedding diner with all those adults talking, laughing and dancing around in the ballroom they were renting. There was a little girl of my age, 4 years old, and after a while we went into an adjacent unused ballroom where there were stacks of unused chairs all around the dance floor, and we started dancing too out of sight of the grown ups. But not for long as we soon were spotted by our parents. We were so ashamed like little kids can be when they are discovered doing what they think are forbidden things, that we immediately stopped and went sitting on some nearby chairs heads down looking at our shoes Like I said, it's a cute memory of childish innocence.

I have many other vague memories that I'm trying to piece together, it's a real fascinating thing to do.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Playing with Mum in the garden, leading my poor old (and dearly missed) Gran on a chase through and out of the park, being pushed around in a pram (I loved the plastic rain shield - keeping me dry while watching everyone else get wet!), walking/climbing/crawling through downed trees in our garden with my sister after that storm in the late 80's, playing in nursery school...

All my earliest memories are good ones, for which I'm thankful to my wonderful family.

In fact I'm getting a bit nostaligic and choked up remembering all this!

 

[Mary Ann]

I was 3, if that (so it was around 1971), and we were living in the Netherlands. I had a favourite dress that I'd outgrown but still insisted on wearing, but come the evening we couldn't get it off. My specific memory is that of my mother literally cutting the dress off me, and me screaming my head off. My older brothers still laugh about the incident.

 

[TrekkieMonster]

December 1964, sitting on my dad's lap in our car on a hill overlooking our town looking at all the Christmas lights. "Downtown" (by Petula Clark) was on the radio. I was about 18 months.

I'd remembered this for most of my life and somehow mentioned it to my folks onetime (I think when I was in college) and they were able to supply the year. I have other very vivid memories starting around the same time and pretty much continuously from then on.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I think my earliest memories are about my room. I vaguely remember looking up at things, and everything being warm and fuzzy. I was probably between 2 and 3. Nothing specific, tho.

For specific memories, I remember going to the seaside with my grandparents for the first time. I was 4.

 

[RoJoHen]

The earliest I can vaguely remember is a race day at kindergarten when I was 2

You were in kindergarten when you were 2?

 

[Roshi]

I was in kindergarten at the age of two as well and no, 'twas not a daycare center. I think I still have a group photo somewhere. I still have memories of that time.

 

[RoJoHen]

Weird. What country do you live in?

 

[Roshi]

France.

 

[RoJoHen]

Ah. So how long are you in kindergarten? Kids in America don't enter kindergarten until they're 5. Before that, they go to pre-school for a couple years, but I don't know of any kids that do anything like that as early as 2.

 

[Shaytan]

Ah. So how long are you in kindergarten? Kids in America don't enter kindergarten until they're 5. Before that, they go to pre-school for a couple years, but I don't know of any kids that do anything like that as early as 2.

We go to kindergarten between 2/2.5 and 6/6.5 years old.
School is not mandatory before 6 years old but it's very usual (actually most of the kids) to send kids to kindergarten around 2 or 3 years old.

 

[Roshi]

Under normal circumstances, kids spend three years in kindergarten and then enter 1st Grade at the age of 6. I had an extra year (as many others) because 1) I was clean, 2) I was born at the beginning of the year.

 

[RoJoHen]

I see. So your kindergarten is pretty much the same as our pre-school. Just different names. Kindergarten for us is the first mandatory year of school. It starts when you're 5 or 6, and you only go for one year. Before that, though, kids often go to 1-2 years of pre-school.

 

[Roshi]

Pretty much. Recently (and by recently I mean not the 70s nor the 80s ) kids are being taught to read and to write whereas it was only in 1st grade in my time.

The old fart has spoken!

 

[RoJoHen]

Though not anything I actually remember (this story was told to my parents by my teacher), when I was in kindergarten, we were instructed to count out loud from 1 to 10. Being the smartass that I am, I apparently continued to count out loud well into the 200s, and my teacher just let me keep going.

Actually, now that I think about it, I do remember a bit from kindergarten. We learned how to read, write, add, and subtract. We also learned how to tell time and count money.

My education was brought to a halt in 4th grade when we moved to a new school distract whose curriculum was a full year behind my old district. So 4th grade for me was basically a repeat of 3rd grade, which was the year I became bored and annoyed with learning.

I wonder how much smarter I'd be if we had never moved.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Pretty much. Recently (and by recently I mean not the 70s nor the 80s ) kids are being taught to read and to write whereas it was only in 1st grade in my time.

The old fart has spoken!

You went to kindergarten in the 90s? That's not that old.