What's Your Earliest Memory?

[Eyes]

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

You were in kindergarten when you were 2?

Probably a more accurate description would have been a nursery. Or pre-school, or whatever.

 

[Kestra]

I vaguely remember the day we brought my sister home from the hospital after she was born. I would've been almost 4 (3 3/4, to be precise).

My sister is quite pleased that I can recall what was "obviously such a momentous occasion".

That's cute! My brother was somewhere around that too, maybe 3 1/2 when I was born. I still have a card he made welcoming me. Apparently my sister (who was 18 months) just stood around going "Baby!" and pointing to me.

As for myself, I have assorted vague memories of our first house which means it was before I was four. Some of these have probably been boosted by photos and stories, but I'm fairly certain one is my own memory. Funnily enough, it has to do with Christmas.

 

[TheGodBen]

I was around 1½. My mother was taking me for a walk in an old pram, and we stopped just outside the house because she met a friend and was talking to them, and I felt annoyed because I wanted to keep going. Then it started to rain a little, and I remember feeling safe because I was inside an impenetrable fortress (under a blanket) where the rain couldn't get me.

My next memory was when I was around 3, I watched my brother and sister through the window as they left for school. I longed to go with them, but at the same time I was glad that I didn't have to go to school and could just play with my toys all day.

Then there's a bunch of random memories but I'm not sure what order they come in.


EDIT: Actually, I may be wrong about my first memory, because I fell down the stairs before I was 1, and while I don't remember falling, I do remember seeing that stretch of skin under my tongue being cut and how painful that was.

I also remember drinking weedkiller in a supermarket because I thought it was cola, and that was when I was 2. The store gave me a free glass of milk.

 

[kes7]

People call my memory scary.

My first clear memory is when my dog died when I was about 8 or 9 months old. I distinctly remember my mother crying and putting away all the dog's things, and a feeling like "where is doggy?" because I used to crawl over to her and grab her fur all the time (she was apparently very patient). My next memory is from around the same time, and getting a booster shot, and it was Halloween so the nurses were dressed as a witch and a ghost and it was the SCARIEST THING EVER.

After that ... well, I remember almost everything that happened to me after the age of about 3 or so.

(Except multiple Friday and Saturday evenings from the ages of about 17 to 22.)

 

[McCoy]

I remember sitting in a high chair, and my mother singing "How Much is that Doggie in the Window", and every time she came to the part in the song where the dog would bark, she would squeeze a plastic carrot squeaky toy.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Do you have any idea what you read on your own as your very first book? I vaguely (and had to be reminded by mom) that my first book was "Green Eggs & Ham". I was around 3 (although I had been reading the aforementioned record albums before then). It was my cousin's book, and I had walked into her bedroom and saw it lying on the floor, so I picked it up and started reading it. I remember loving it very much and my parents bought me my own copy.

No, I don't...reading was a family activity when I was little, but knowing me it was probably some kind of science book.

I do remember my very first chapter book, though. I believe it was Ramona and Her Father.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

Then there's a bunch of random memories but I'm not sure what order they come in.

I have the same problem - I have many early memories, but no idea how old I was when each of them happened. I do know that we moved from an apartment to a house when I was about 4, and I don't have any memories of the apartment.

I do remember visiting my great-grandmother in the hospital and sitting on her bed. I also remember being small enough that I could ride in that tiny little section of shopping carts with my feet sticking out, while my parents pushed the cart around the supermarket.

I remember running around the front yard with the boy next door, catching chicken pox from him and having to miss three weeks of the month I was supposed to spend in kindergarten (I essentially went straight into grade 1). Funnily enough, I still see him occasionally - he runs a bar out in the east end of Toronto called Fitzgerald's. (It's been a few years since I was last there, though.)

I remember banging on the walls of my bed (my parents left the crib walls on the bed probably a bit longer than they were strictly needed) to try to get the babysitter's attention because I couldn't remember her name and I wanted a glass of water. (Well, I knew her name - there were two sisters named Fran and Lana who lived next door with their parents and who took turns babysitting me, but I couldn't remember which one of them it was who babysitting me that night.)

I remember running into the living room to turn on the TV because there was going to be a Winnie the Pooh special on that night, tripping and banging my head on the TV. My parents took me to the hospital and I never got to see Winnie (this was loooooong before VCRs existed for the home market). I just looked it up on IMDb, and it must have been "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day", which means it would have been a rerun - because I was definitely older than 1. Actually, in looking that up I discovered that the voice actor who did Winnie's voice also did a voice in "The Aristocats", which I don't remember seeing, but I do remember being given the LP of the songs from the movie - and that came out when I was 3.

I also have a memory of my mother grabbing me by the back of the head and pushing me face-first into a bowl of spaghetti. I was probably about 4 when that happened, because I'm pretty sure it was at the house. (It's amazing to me that I still love pasta after that traumatic experience.)

 

[Australis]

Hmm, I'm having a bit of a memory oddity here. I could have sworn this took place prior to mid 1963, but it must have been mid 1964. My parents had left me in the car (as you could in those days), with the radio on, and Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman came on. I remember it so clearly, sitting outside the Moss Vale ES&A Bank on a sunny day. It came to the bit near the end, with the drum break, and I went "Wow" and thought it amazingly cool (or however I would have described it at that age). That was the moment I really began to like music.

 

[TheBrew]

My earliest memory is a bit funny. I was either 2 or 3 at the time (since I knew where the memory took place and I moved around a bit as a kid). I was "camping" with my parents. They had a camper/Van (maybe a VW) with a little pop-up top nook. I would sleep in that nook while my parents were outside.

One time my parents went for a walk and I woke up find that I had to poop really badly. I also did not want sit in my poo waiting for my parents. I usually let them know immediately to change me. However, since there were no parents around, I found that I was stuck. I managed to see the diaper bag right below me on the floor.

Running out of options, I took aim and poo'ed where I thought it would be the most appropriate: all over the diaper bag.

That is my earliest memory.

 

[TheGodBen]

Hmm, I'm having a bit of a memory oddity here. I could have sworn this took place prior to mid 1963, but it must have been mid 1964. My parents had left me in the car (as you could in those days), with the radio on, and Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman came on. I remember it so clearly, sitting outside the Moss Vale ES&A Bank on a sunny day. It came to the bit near the end, with the drum break, and I went "Wow" and thought it amazingly cool (or however I would have described it at that age). That was the moment I really began to like music.

I have a similar early memory. I was 5 or 6 and my father was ill with an unknown disease, so he had to go to a medical centre to get a test, but I didn't like the waiting room so my parents left me in the car while they waited inside. I did my usual thing of sitting in the driving seat and pretending to drive, when two men came over to the car and started beating the shit out of each other on the hood. Blood and pus spread across the windscreen. I was terrified that one of them would see me and kill me, so I hid in the footwell and stayed there until my parents came back. It was one of the most terrifying things I've ever experienced.

Wait, those stories aren't similar at all.

 

[RandyS]

My earliest memory was of myself floating in the clouds, and this voice, which I felt more than heard said, "It's time for you to go". At which point, I stopped floating and started descending.

That's all.

When I was nine, I told my mom about this, and she (who was not religious by any stretch of the imagination) was absolutely convinced that this happened before I was born and that I was hearing God.

Weither it was that, or just a dream, I couldn't say, but I do know that it was my very first memory.

 

[TJinLOCA]

I distinctly remember being in my crib in my first bedroom, against the far wall with a view of the whole room ... watching the shadows of tree branches move across the ceiling when car headlights would go by outside the house.

When I told my mom that, she said I had to be at most 18 months old, because they moved the crib to the other side of the room about then, and moved me to a bed a few months later when I learned to climb out.

So I guess that's a pretty early memory.

 

[backstept]

the earliest memory I have is of my dad holding me, and I was thinking about how his face looked funny in the sunlight coming through the windows at the first house I lived in. This was before my brother came along so I couldn't have been older than 12 months.

[edit] his face looked funny because I think he shaved his beard or mustache, not because he looks funny :P

 

[An Officer]

I remember being potty trained. We didn't have disposable nappies, so most children were trained by the age of two. My mother says I was probably just about two, or maybe a little earlier. I remember sitting on my little blue potty in our atrium at the time (we moved from that house when I was two)... I remember blindingly bright sunny days, and the concrete floor of our atrium. I remember being more than a little bored sitting there for so long. I was too well-behaved to get off my potty unless my mum gave the okay. That's my only memory of being two, I do have plenty of memories from 3 onwards though.

 

[Holdfast]

It's difficult. I have pretty clear memories of lots of things after we moved home when I was 3 or 4, so definitely before then. I very clearly recall playing in the sandpit we had in our previous home, and on one occasion getting a humungous (uh, probably a few millimeters in reality, probably!) wood splinter in my finger there, and that was on a hot summer's day and we moved in a spring, so we're back to at least 2-3 years old. I also remember playing in the garden with my dad, again that same preceding summer. Then again, I also really remember a memory of a memory of singing/playing "one potato, two potato" when I was in playschool at around that age, so that probably pushes things back to 2 years old. Before then, things are really hazy, and who knows if I remember real things or false recall or a trained memory is kicking in. I seem to recall playing with matchbox cars beforehand, and eating ring doughnuts. I also vaguely remember something being fed little bits of tart apple and cheddar cheese when I was very very little, and mushing the two types of food together in my mouth because it tasted really great when the two very different and strong tastes mingled, and it seems like I was very young at the time... but who knows exactly when that was. But it makes sort of sense that a very limbic type memory like that would be one of my earliest, and I know from later conversations that little cubes of apple & cheese was one of the earliest foods I really liked. Mind you, I liked some pretty out-there food mixtures as a kid too; egg yolk mixed with mushed up slightly overripe banana was another bit of awesomeness.

 

[Cheapjack]

I remember trying to kiss my father, and him backhanding me across the room, as my mother smirked. I remember him throwing a toy gun I got for Xmas on the fire, as I was showing off with it.

I remember my maternal grandmother, too. Lovely woman.

 

[Holdfast]

^ I have to admit, your posts are becoming tremendously entertaining. You're developing well in your chosen art, but please remember to not to slip into pastiche territory, as that diminishes the lulz.

 

[AliciaD496]

My earliest memories are probably from around when I was 3 or 4...about when I started learning to read I guess (I remember being told I was an 'advanced' reader in 1st grade later on). Mostly I remember pre-school, I remember the room, the gate I walked through to go to the basement where classes were. I remember one of my classmates got stung by a bee, and that my Mom played the Easter bunny one year and I almost got in trouble for ruining the illusion. I also remember visiting my grandparent's cherry orchard outside of town for Easter one year as well. I have vague memories of music from before that...Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, James Taylor but nothing concrete prior to pre-school and kindergarten, and even those are getting a little fuzzy now.

 

[Cheapjack]

^ I have to admit, your posts are becoming tremendously entertaining. You're developing well in your chosen art, but please remember to not to slip into pastiche territory, as that diminishes the lulz.

Well, Pink seems to have made a living out of it.

I remember Star Trek. That's the main thing. On an old black and white TV.

 

[Mr Awe]

Much to my parents chagrin, my earliest memory doesn't involve them. It's the day that we got our first cat. I was about 18 months old and can remember it pretty clearly. My memories are of the cat and I, no one else. Despite the fact that photographic evidences shows that others were, in fact, around!

There are a couple of memories around that time and one of those might actually be first, but I know exactly when we got our cat. I can't remember the exact time frame when, say, I had a notion in my head that I had to throw one Cheerio on the floor every morning during breakfast! It was around then.

Mr Awe