Memory: Now what was I thinking?

[YmirGF]

I am putting this thread here, because I can't think of a better place to put it. If the mods can think of a more suitable location, feel free to move the thread.

The poll question is this:

What age were you at your very earliest childhood memory?

Pity that two choices could not be made. (First memory age; current age) as that might be interesting as well. If you like, and the memory is not painful, please feel free to tell us what your very earliest memory was and how old you were.

 

[Ody]

Age. 2
Current Age 16 -_-

 

[Bishka]

Age: 2
Current Age : 21 ( I almost wrote 20! I forgot about my birthday!)

 

[Tigress]

6 months to 1 year.

lol Becky. It's okay, I actually forgot my birthday one year. :yes:

 

[YmirGF]

Memory: The first image I recall as a child is that of a cherry tree in full bloom. The odd thing is that this was seen from the base of the tree, looking up into the sunlit branches. It is quite a spectacular image and it was a very large cherry tree.

Fact: You see, my mom and dad were building our family home when I was born on February 23, 1956 and it was a gorgeous spring in Vancouver. Unseasonably warm, apparently. My mom would putter around doing odd jobs while dad was at work and then when he got home they would tackle difficult tasks until sundown. The curious thing is my mom tells me that I spent that spring and early summer parked directly under our massive cherry tree in the back yard. Cherry trees bloom in Vancouver in late March or early April... The thing is the blooms are off the trees within a week or two. That would make my earliest snapshot memory at somewhere between 6 and 8 WEEKS old. There is no other aspect to the image. Just this beautiful glorious tree. What is interesting is that I wouldn't expect a relatively new born to be able to associate much else to an early image. It is not as if I knew what I was looking at.

That tree and I became fast friend much to my mom's horror. I don't think I was permitted to climb up it at will until I was six or seven though.

 

[ALifetimeToWaitFor....]

My first memory is of a fence, tall brownish red fence. It was a house on barbie lane, beverly hills, california. I simply remember the feeling of being caged into the backyard I had an unquencable need to get past the fence.

 

[Bishka]

The memory I have is at my grandparents house sitting under their stove (high up in the wall) and sitting on a little plastic potty.

My grandparents were potty-training me.

 

[almifkhar]

2 or 3
now 31

i suprisingly have many memories of this paticular time in my life. and what is strange is that when a memory comes to me, it's more like an out of body experience as if i am looking at myself recalling the whole scene. i can see myself running smiling at my mom, playing with a specific toy, etc.

what would something like this mean?

 

[Booko]

I chose "What was the question?" because I don't remember anything before I was 4. Actually, I remember very little before 10-12 years.

 

[Green Gaia]

I'm not sure what I really remember and what I think I remember but really have just seen from photographs of when I was little.

 

[Smoke]

My earliest memories are from when I was 2.
I'm now 46.

My memories from 1962-63, when I was two, include:

Thinking that my little sister was going to look like the girl in the Coppertone poster in our garage. (My mom was pregnant at the time; what I got was a brother, not a sister.)

View attachment 775

Playing in the yard with the firetruck I got for Christmas; my next-door neighbor, Randy, showed me how to make it squirt water.

Being afraid of the mechanical dog I got for Christmas.

My dad letting me help him make frozen waffles and grilled cheese sandwiches, which is what we lived on for three days while my mom was in the hospital having my brother.

My grandparents visiting us; I especially remember being surprised that somebody as ancient as my grandfather (he was 63 at the time ) could drive all the way from Wisconsin to Florida.

I have other memories from around that time, but these are the only ones I'm positive were before my third birthday.
​

 

[Smoke]

I chose "What was the question?" because I don't remember anything before I was 4. Actually, I remember very little before 10-12 years.

My brother says he doesn't remember anything at all before he was five, and he's always been a little skeptical about people saying they can. I always thought he was a little odd.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

I often times feel very out-of-the-loop when discussing childhood memories, because I have vivid memories when I was just a baby:



I remember looking up at my mum and dad looking over me in my crib. I knew exactly who they were and how warm it made me feel seeing the two of them together smiling down at me. That is my very first memory, and I hold it dear to my heart.



I also remember sucking on a bottle nipple without the bottle in my crib. I remember waking up from sleeping, looking for my nipple , and putting it back in my mouth so I could go back to sleep.




I remember crawling toward some brown lumps on our green carpet floor, when I heard my mother yell out, "DON'T TOUCH!" She then told me that it was dog poop. I understood completely.



I remember calling out for "mama" for her to carry me down the stairs when I would wake up in the morning. I had just learned to walk, then, and I was around a year old. I remember many, MANY mornings like that.




I remember playing outside in just my diaper..........and sometimes stripping that off so that I could feel free. I just hated clothes for the longest time. My mother would yell at me to come back inside when I'd be found running naked in the field in the back of our house while my brothers would laugh at me. I wasn't quite 18 months then, because I potty-trained well before 2.



I have an interesting memory that no one else confirms, but it seems very real...........I was in a wagon with my brother pulling me, and the wagon tips over and I hit my head on the pavement. I start to wail and cry, and my mother comes running out of the house with a dish towel over her shoulder toward me. She picks me up and looks me over to make sure I'm OK.



Now, according to everyone else in the family, this never happened. However, it DID happen to my Aunt Theresa when SHE was a little girl (around 2), and my grandmother, my mother, and my Uncle Tom all remember this happening exactly how I describe it. So, I always found this rather intriguing.



Anyway, earliest memory: infant (0-3months)
Current age: 33



Peace,
Mystic

 

[Smoke]

Oh yeah: I also have a lot of memories of my babysitter who kept me till Mom stopped working in February 1963, and while some of those are from later visits, some of them would have to be from when I was two or younger. I also remember her adopted son, who was one of my first crushes. (Until fairly recently I always thought he was her grandson, though.)

I have vivid memories of two crushes I had before I was three.

I remember the NCR building in Pensacola, where my dad worked; it was down the street from my babysitter's house.

The more I think about it, the more I think I could sit here all day recalling things from the year I was two. But I can't think of anything before that.

 

[michel]

I chose "What was the question?" because I don't remember anything before I was 4. Actually, I remember very little before 10-12 years.

Ah, I am in good company.

I can never understand why I can't remember pre leaving Africa. What is even more strange is that I know I could draw a map of the town in which we lived.

It is as if the memories have no 'personal' content whatsoever. This used to worry me, and I thought it might actually be another symptom of the root cause for my problems.

One day, when my father was still alive, I asked him "How did I get to school?".

He laughed and told me that the company chaufeur used to drive me to school, and pick me up each day; how could a kid not remember that ?

I joined a Belgian Forum (nothing like RF) relating to people who had been in the congo, and even had an unexpected email one day from a guy about my age, with which he sent a photo of the two of us (with a couple of other friends). "Do you remember me ?", he asked; unfortunately, had I not seen the photo, I would never have guessed I had ever met him; the name, the face mean nothing to me at all.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

I voted 2-3 years old, and I am currently 36, but that will change this Thursday.

I remember crawling in the backseat of my dad's Blue VW Bug when mommy's tummy was still big, before my brother was born December 1971, so we could go visit my grandparents.

I've always been drawn to blue cars and to VWs. We owned a Blue Neon Sport Coupe and currently have 2 VW, but never a Blue VW. Memory is a funny thing.

 

[Booko]

My brother says he doesn't remember anything at all before he was five, and he's always been a little skeptical about people saying they can. I always thought he was a little odd.

Maybe I just had a boring childhood? It's not something I look back on with nostalgia, at any rate.

 

[Engyo]

Mine are (I think) from 3-4; I am 47 now. One is of a road trip to Florida to visit my grandma; my baby sister was placed in her blanket on the rear deck behind the back seat (think big old late 50's sedans) to sleep while we travelled. Now that would be grounds for at least a ticket. Another is of my other grandparent's house, and my new Tonka truck in their foyer.

 

[Booko]

Ah, I am in good company.

I can never understand why I can't remember pre leaving Africa. What is even more strange is that I know I could draw a map of the town in which we lived.

It is as if the memories have no 'personal' content whatsoever. This used to worry me, and I thought it might actually be another symptom of the root cause for my problems.

One day, when my father was still alive, I asked him "How did I get to school?".

He laughed and told me that the company chaufeur used to drive me to school, and pick me up each day; how could a kid not remember that ?

I joined a Belgian Forum (nothing like RF) relating to people who had been in the congo, and even had an unexpected email one day from a guy about my age, with which he sent a photo of the two of us (with a couple of other friends). "Do you remember me ?", he asked; unfortunately, had I not seen the photo, I would never have guessed I had ever met him; the name, the face mean nothing to me at all.

Whew! I don't feel quite so alone.

The only names I can recall from my grade school years are the few I went on to college with. I can remember the first names of a very few people beyond that, but those are the couple of kids that died young.

I remember more of my brother's friends than anyone else. They would've been 5 years ahead of me in school, so goodness knows why I would remember them over people I spent every day in school with.

 

[evearael]

My earliest memory was sucking on a pacifier in my crib. I only had a pacifier when I was younger than a year, so I am guessing I was around six months old or so because too much earlier I would have been in the bassinet.