Earliest (first) memory?

[pscates]

What's yours?

Was talking to someone the other day about this. I'm not sure how far back you can go, or how the brain/memory works, but I think it's very interesting.

Mine? My Dad was a Marine and stationed in Scotland in 1970-71. I lived their during most of that time and I remember falling down some outside wooden stairs at a house of some friends of my parents.

I took a tumble and I remember the dirt ground rushing up to meet me. I recently asked my Mom about this and she just had this look on her face like "you've got to be kidding me!". She said it was the late spring of 1970. I was born in January 1969, so I must've been around 16 months old, give or take.

Are you able to remember infancy? Anything in that first year? How does that work? From then on, I can remember just about everything: smells trigger certain houses, McCartney's "My Love" pegs an exact car trip we took to Northern Scotland and I remember my dad having a Kodak camera that came stored in a pretty yellow box that I ALWAYS got into and played with (the color, I guess).

:)

What about you?

[groverat]

I remember spinning around in one of my mother's barber chairs (she ran a little haircutting place a few blocks from our house in Garland). I was quite young, still in diapers but definitely walking. The awful brown/orange colors of the 70s keep that memory alive.

I also remember my brother pushing me straight into some thick dark brown shag carpet while I was on my knees playing with a Tonka truck.

Two earliest, barber shop one earlier I think.

[Kickaha]

Okay, we've got injuries in three of three now...

About 20 months old, breaking my nose by tripping and falling face first into a doorjamb. *snap* Popped the cartilage right off, my Dad pushed it back into place before the feeling came back.

[pscates]

YEOOWWWCH! :wow:

Yeah, I think those early injuries/accidents must stick with us the most.

[chych]

It's hard to tell if it was a dream or not, but I remember when I was 2-3 there was this one weird day... I was running around the place I was living in at the time and by some freak chance, it was raining on half of the place and not the other. I remember stepping in and out of the rain quite clearly and running around through it, but I really wonder if this is even physically possible (I would imagine a rain gradient instead of the discrete change).

Also remember watching spiderman when I was that young and some other faint insignificant memories.

[alcimedes]

my first memory was a pair of 4Mb chips that i paid over $80 (each!) for. what a rip off by today's terms.

[trumptman]

My absolute earliest memory is a pretty good one. It is so foggy that for a number of years I actually doubted whether it could have happened.

When I was about 2-2.5 my mom married my stepfather and we moved to Indiana. We lived in a trailer park for a short time until they bought a house. I had a "friend" there though at that age just about any kid you can find is your "friend." Well I had this tricycle that I was riding and he had one of those push pedal cars. I thought his car was really fast because...well it had stickers of flames on it.

He ripped off part of one of the stickers and gave it to me. I stuck it on the seat of my tricycle and by two year old reasoning we were now both really fast.

We moved from that trailer park to a house a few months later. I think during the move the tricycler was stored at my grandmother's house and I just forgot about it. We moved back to California when I was 7. Well when I was 20, I got to go back and visit the family in Indiana. I went to a shed at my grandmother's house and there was the trike with the flames on the seat.

On a side note... I still miss fireflys.

Nick

[Mac OS X Addict]

My first memory is actually kind of wierd. I remember seeing blackness and then light; there is no images or anything. It is just blackness that lasts for a long time, but not that long and then seeing light. I have told this memory to a lot of people and they think that that memory might actually be that of being being born.

[pfflam]

HEY!!! . . . . . all you!! Those aren't your memories . . . those are mine

[pfflam]

Originally posted by Mac OS X Addict
My first memory is actually kind of wierd. I remember seeing blackness and then light; there is no images or anything. It is just blackness that lasts for a long time, but not that long and then seeing light. I have told this memory to a lot of people and they think that that memory might actually be that of being being born. Except you were a Ceasarian

[pfflam]

Besides, faetoses can see light in the belly . . . suppsedly



anyway, that's a really good question to meditate on.


Right now, in a distracted state, I'd probably say:

my French Aunt asking my if I wanted more bread and jam in paris

Or in france, swimming in a large public pool and my godmother, who I had a crush on (displaced infantile preOedipal eroticism) swimming and catching me

[pfflam]

Originally posted by chych
It's hard to tell if it was a dream or not, but I remember when I was 2-3 there was this one weird day... I was running around the place I was living in at the time and by some freak chance, it was raining on half of the place and not the other. I remember stepping in and out of the rain quite clearly and running around through it, but I really wonder if this is even physically possible (I would imagine a rain gradient instead of the discrete change).

Isn't that from an episode of the FLinstones? when they go from Oregon to California . . .




.
I wonder how many of you have first memories about television?
anybody?

[pfflam]

ooops . . . I seem to remember having allready posted this

[torifile]

Being on the playground when I was about 4 with my "girlfriend" before we moved. It maybe that I think I remember it because there's a picture of it I've seen in an old photo album. Memories are funny and we have a tendency to fill in the blanks with things that make sense. (Have you seen Memento? Good movie and really messes with what you think you know)

[pfflam]

I found it!!!

my first memory:

Some blurry colors and movement !!!

[Barto]

Climbing up a mountain with my brother and Dad when I was 3. This was a few years after Ash Wednesday, so the trees were all black, and there was snow on the ground. If anyone here has seen Picnic at Hanging Rock, that's the mountain. Evidently I wasn't abducted by aliens and never seen again.

Barto

[Powerdoc]

Originally posted by alcimedes
my first memory was a pair of 4Mb chips that i paid over $80 (each!) for. what a rip off by today's terms.

My first memory was a 4 KO memory that my father bought for a little sharp pocket computer in the early eighteens for approximatively 500 $

More seriously, my first memory was the vision of a surgical blade, while was practiced a caesirian. This memory was so cute that it changed my life :D

[Chinney]

A flood of memories from age 4-5 - no one memory before another - from an USAF base in Big Spring, Texas.

My dad's old car (a Volvo) and his new car (a AMC Ambassador); eating at the Burger Train (where we kids spilled food all over my dad's new car); hearing that some other kid's dad's was in Thailand (this was during the Vietnam war) and thinking how lucky he was because I didn't understand the difference between Thailand and Disneyland; dust storms; going for great walks with my Dad along a railway track that seemed to go straight into the Texas 'desert'; the searing hot dry summers (no air conditioning in our air base housing) and the red, peeling sunburn that always seemed to cover the whole of my friend's back.

Endless days of fun without any real worries.

[superkarate monkeydeathcar]

i remember a very large bird with very colourful plumage flying over my head.



(and yes i have read communion by whitley strieber.)

[CosmoNut]

My first official memory was on my 4th birthday. I was wearing a brand new outfit and these cute little sandals. I remember standing at the bottom of our porch steps and having my picture taken. We have that picture somewhere.

My first unofficial memory (because I'm not positive that it's genuine) is from when I was an infant. I think I remember laying face down in my crib (I know, but it was before SIDS was such a big deal) with my head turned out toward the room. I think I remember having my picture taken, or people looking at me, or something. Who knows. :\

[superkarate monkeydeathcar]

i read somewhere that first memories involving photographs are quite common. perhaps the memory is reinforced by a photo that you see over and over keeping the original memory alive.

that happens to me with music. i hear a tune that i associate with another person from long ago, and i can get a ton of memory flash.

[tonton]

Oh my gosh. What a coincidence. My first memory is almost identical to Cosmo's. 4th bithday. Cake shaped like a carousel, wearing my grampa's hat. This too was aided by an old photograph.

My earliest memory not aided by a photograph must have been when I was four, at nursery school, there was a very cute girl with brown hair that was my friend, but that is a vague memory.

My first really strong memory was also when I was four, and I was riding to nursery school on the rack of my father's ten-speed bicycle, which was unusual, because I usually rode on the child seat attached to my mom's bike. My dad would normally have attached the child seat to his bike before we went, but on this occasion, he was in a hurry and and didn't want to do it, so he just popped me on the luggage rack. Big mistake.

The trip was a couple miles, and about half-way, my ankle got caught in the spokes as my dad was climbing a steep hill. I remember exactly where it happened and can picture the place in my mind. My ankle wasn't broken, but the skin was really badly torn up. I don't remember going to the hospital, but I remember having to sit in the downstairs bathroom soaking my foot in hydrogen peroxyde.

Now that I think about it, I can't imagine how my dad got away with that carelessness! I have a four year-old now, and if I did something similar, my wife (now my ex) would have stabbed me in my sleep. My current girlfriend would have also killed me. The things men have to put up with these days! But it goes to show that even our dads were once as stupid and clumsy as we are.

[Luca]

For a while I thought my earliest was when I saw the statue of liberty from a ferry boat on a cold and foggy day when I was about 2 or 3. But now I remember it more clearly - it was on my second birthday. More specifically, it involved me playing around in my aunt and uncle's back yard and then getting stung by a wasp on my index finger. I ran inside crying and while I was inside I saw another wasp on my sock and I started screaming so someone would get rid of it. Well someone did so I only ended up getting stung once. Since then, though, I've always been deathly afraid of wasps, even the weak, slow-moving ones that take refuge in my house in late fall. I'm not that afraid of bees, just a little, but wasps freak me out.

[pscates]

That's funny you mention the wasp thing: for some reason, there was a period from the time I was 3 until about 5 that I seemed to ALWAYS encounter - and many times stung by - wasps! I've stepped on them barefoot, one got on my ear, my cheek, my other foot, wrist, tummy, shoulder, etc.

:(

Got to where I hated to go outside sometimes!

A cool little "reprise" came about 10 years ago and I was sound asleep at my girlfriend's. About 2am or so, I jumped up going "owww!" and she woke up and turned on the lamp and I turned to her and said "my cheek...it's hurting. Does it look like anything?".

Sure enough, it was pink and swollen with a noticeable bump. We turned around and looked and there on my pillow, a wasp was walking around.

:D

It had gotten into the apartment and waited until I fell asleep and then stung me in the face, the little bastard.

:p

[Luca]

I was stung once when I was little, just that one time... I think my paranoia paid off because I wasn't stung again until I was about 12 when one crawled into my shirt and stung me when I leaned back in my chair. And then I was stung three times when I was 15 or 16 while mowing the lawn... the bastards had made a nest underground. Last time was about a year ago when one got on a towel in the bathroom and stung my chest. So I'm kind of a target but apparently not as much as you.

Anyway, other (and pleasant) memories of mine were of preschool... I really liked the lady that took care of us.

[Splinemodel]

I can remember images of places I had been frequently at age 2. It's very faint though. It starts clearing up a bit at age 3. Not anything partcularly vivid until age 6. The colors stick with me the most.

But interestingly, having gone back to some of these places after many years, i still remember my way around.

[DiscoCow]

I’m not really sure. I must have been two-two and a half.

Holding my older cousin’s hand while going up an escalator, thinking to myself “not again”

Although I have no idea what the “not again” was about.

[bradbower]

My earliest memory/experience is weird and scary to me.

I'm in an antiseptic, white doctor's office, sitting on a countertop or table of some sort (maybe a bed), there is a mirror behind me, and there are people talking. I think I was crying a lot. Then I had to eat something red and it tasted horrible. And then I got some kind of a shot and I REALLY didn't like that, so I bawled a lot more. I also remember a large, lighted sign in a circular shape. Finally, I remember crying all the way back through the parking lot, on the top of a several-story parking garage with wrought iron railings around it.

My mom says that she doesn't remember anything of the sort ever happening. All the more disconcerting. :(

[bradbower]

I should add, the next memories after that are playing with my talking Mickey Mouse and taking a pencil and coloring all over his eyes and eyelids, as well as getting in the top drawer of my dresser and finding all kinds of creams and ointments and antibiotic stuff and smearing it all over my bed just because.

[pscates]

This is kinda neat: I was at my Mom's recently and was going through a cabinet of children's books and little toys (my sister and her husband are having their first child in two weeks, so Mom has lots of little toys, books, etc. stashed around the house now).

I came upon this pop-up book, based on riddles, called "What do you call a whale with a raincoat?" or some sort of silly title like that. Something about it - the cover and all the colors on it - just stood out to me and triggered one of those weird feelings.

I opened the book and started going through it and sure enough, it was an old book of mine. I remember the illustrations vividly (there was a kangaroo on one page and when you pulled this tab to the side, her baby - is that a "joey"? - pops out of her pouch, waving).

:D

But every page just came flooding back. I remember all the drawings!

Funniest of all? I looked inside the front cover, and there - written in crayon - was "ABC". When I was little (3 or so), those were the only letters I knew so I assumed that MUST be my name.

:D

Anytime I colored a page in a coloring book or whatever, I'd "sign" it with "ABC".

I was as shocked as anyone to eventually learn that "ABC" didn't equal "Paul" in spelling. When I saw the "ABC" scrawled there, it all came rushing back and I nearly peed myself laughing.

Good memories.

:)

[DiscoCow]

Originally posted by pscates
Funniest of all? I looked inside the front cover, and there - written in crayon - was "ABC". When I was little (3 or so), those were the only letters I knew so I assumed that MUST be my name.


It’s amazing how children think sometimes. I remember (I must have been around three) that I used to think that numbers only went up to 100, then started over again.

I must have been shocked to learn that, not only do they go above 100, but they never stop.

[zaphod_beeblebrox]

My earliest memories come from when we lived on Leopold St in Springfield, MA. I was about four years old when we moved there. Shortly after we moved in a kid came roaring around the corner on his little pedal-powered tractor. We became friends. Dad had a broken-down Plymouth parked on the grass next to the driveway. It sat there for a few weeks until he sold it to someone for parts, I guess. I used to tie a towel around my neck like a cape. I'd then climb up on top and jump off, certain I'd fly. I did for a little while at least. :)

[burningwheel]

i was 2-3 maybe, i was standing on our driveway and my dad's hunting dog came barreling around the corner of the house at full speed and knocked me down, my head hit the pavement. i had to get some stitches :wow:


then when i was maybe a little older, the kid next store who about my age, bashed me over the head with a 2x4(?) that had a rusy bent nail in it. had to get stitches for that as well plus a tetnus shot :mad:

well now you know what's wrong with me:D

[Whisper]

Originally posted by chych
It's hard to tell if it was a dream or not, but I remember when I was 2-3 there was this one weird day... I was running around the place I was living in at the time and by some freak chance, it was raining on half of the place and not the other. I remember stepping in and out of the rain quite clearly and running around through it, but I really wonder if this is even physically possible (I would imagine a rain gradient instead of the discrete change). That's happened to me too. We were living at my grandparents' house at the time and my sister and I were doing almost the exact same thing -- running in and out of the rain. My earliest memory is of the house we lived in when my sister was born. I was about two at the time.

[giant]

Developmental psychologists say your brain can't properly form memories before age 2. However, when I was in a ten day vipassana sitting a couple of years ago, I had a memory where all I could make out were the walls of the room, position of door and window, and slight recognition of a pattern on the wall. As soon as I got out, I called my folks about it and they said I was perfectly describing the room my crib was in until I was a little less than 1. They said my description of the wall paper was accurate and everything was exactly as I had described, and the further detail they gave me fits perfectly what I see in the memory.

[Chinney]

I posted on my first memories earlier in this old thread. As I wrote in that earlier post, I have no conscious memories of the time before I was 4-5, when my father was posted at a USAF Base in Texas.

However, Giant’s post reminded me of an experience I had with pre-cognitive memory. About 8 years ago my wife and I moved to a new rental apartment in an old part of Montreal. Very near our little building, on another street immediately running off our own, was a much larger, old apartment block. For reasons I could not explain at the time, I developed a fascination for that old building near ours. I could not walk by it without looking hard at it and I sometimes found myself just staring out of our own apartment windows in fascination at it. Even more, I felt a strong compulsion to go inside the other apartment building, although I had no reason to do this (I did not know anyone who lived in there).

About 10 months after moving to that place in Montreal, my parents travelled across the country to visit us and stay at our apartment for the first time. One of the first things that they mentioned when they saw where we lived was that our family had once lived – almost 30 years earlier - in the apartment building that was the object of my fascination. I had been about 3 years old at the time.

I had known that our family had lived in Montreal for a year when I was very young, but I had no idea where in the city we had lived, nor had I returned to live in Montreal since then. To my knowledge, we have no pictures of the outside of that building in any family albums. I can only guess that somehow, in my primitive 3-year-old brain, the building had been registered as “home” and that memory, although not consciously remembered, had never disappeared.

[Logan Cale]

I remember being cut on the cheek by the doctor that delivered me (c-section). I still have a tiny scar on my cheek from that.

[Not Unlike Myself]

Falling in a pool and almost drowning when I was 2. I swim like a fish now and insist family take lessons.

[Mount_my_floppy]

if this is even physically possible (I would imagine a rain gradient instead of the discrete change).



I didnt read this whole thread so I`m sorry if some one else posted this already but I wanted to say that yes this is possible I have seen it on more than one occasion. Its really rather strange, The weirdest time is when it was doing this with snow I left town in my camaro thinking it was a nice day, 20 miles away I drove through a wall of white into a blizzard. Not fun with posy rear!

Back on topic I don`t have any real specific memories and its hard to put an age on them but I could lay out a blueprint of our house we moved from when I was 2 and tell you right where everything was down to the last picture and I remember my power wheels breaking and my dad pushing me around in a huge field.

I have a photographic memory but I`m sure as groverat said the horrid colors and shag carpet keep those ones there.

[Artman @_@]

Cape Cod...

Whenever I mention this "vacation" to my family they all cringe. My family was going through tumultuous times.

1. My brother was going into the Navy...and then he balked...went into a deep depression during our stay.

2. My sisters were going through their teen angsts with boyfriends and shit.

3. My parents were spending more time dealing with all this than with the vacation.

And I would say I was about 4-5 at the time. One distinct memory from this vacation was in the evenings my brother, cousin and I would head to the beach and watch the Navy Air Force strafe some abandoned ship out at sea that they used for target practice. Also, my other cousin and I would go out to the beach when the tide went out and we'd see all these cool marine creatures left behind or digging in and out of the sand with our flashlights...have a lot of memories from that "vacation".

I remember many other things. I seem to have a good memory for things that happened decades ago...but ask me where I left my keys and sometimes I'm a deer in headlights...:smokey:

[Moogs]

Interesting thread idea Scates....

I can remember a lot of little moments from when I was 3-5 years old, but I have no idea which memories are associated with which ages. It's all kind of a blur to be honest. I think my earliest is similar to yours, but I was older... maybe 2 or 3.

I was running on my neighbor's sidewalk, tripped and slammed my forehead into the corner of a brick step as I fell. Gusher city, my sister was babysitting and nearly had a nervous breakdown I guess. I lived, but clearly was mentally stunted a bit by the concussion.

:)

[shetline]

I remember waking up this morning. Before that, it's all a blur.