OT/MISC Whats your earliest memory? Some of mine

ainitfunny

Saved, to glorify God.
I remember the fear of the baby bottle with the "too big hole" in the nipple that made me almost choke every time because It came out faster than I could swallow it and ran down into my lungs. Mom made the rubber nipple holes big so she could feed me cream of wheat along with the formula, but sometimes accidentlly used them for just formula.
I remember from before I could talk, mom carrying me on her hip and I slowly slid down till I feared she would drop me, but she always, eventually, hiked me back up again. I was only15 months older than my "baby sister" but I remember mom often telling me to "watch" my sister, a little tiny baby in a crib, because she would be "right back".
I remember crying inconsolably when mom took away my white, high top, baby shoes and insisted I had to wear "big girl" shoes with a buckle! I quit crying "before you get something to cry about" but was angry for weeks and resentful for a couple years.

I remember standing on my tippy toes trying to see what was in the silverware drawer that was under our kitchen table's top. I remember as a baby or toddler daddy holding me over the railing's edge trying to show me "daddy's car" on some car ferry and I kept nodding yes! (I see it.)With my head so he would stop holding me in the air 40 feet over the lower deck. I LIED before I could even talk! I did not see daddy's car, I just wanted to be back in mommy's arms!
 
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brokenwings

Veteran Member
That's the earliest I've ever heard of someone remembering! Wow! I do remember back to being two. I shook apart my baby bed because my Mother left me in there for way too long after I woke up. And I remember my brother climbing his chest of drawers which was beside my baby bed and it tumbled back on top of him.

I also remember the train that went thru our backyard when I was 2 and 3. Also my Dad babysitting my brother and I while my Mother went to a Sorority. meeting. He made us hide from her when he saw her driving by. I have no idea why? Also swimming in the public pool while my Mother's friend was babysitting for us and how I loved sitting in my Giraffe float and how I love chewing on his little horns. That was also age 2. I remember where the house was even though I've never been back to that house since we moved and I know I could take myself right to it. Crazy the things we remember.

I also remember getting spanked from that age too.
 

happyface78

Contributing Member
The earliest memory I have is of looking up from my crib and seeing some sesame street characters that had been knitted/crocheted (not sure the proper style) hanging from my wall. I also remember spinning and playing with the wood sides of my crib. Don't remember much other than that. Many moons past.
 

Raggedyman

Res ipsa loquitur
I can remember staying with my aunt Marie when my mother had my sister Denise - I can remember her carrying me down the hall and putting me in bed for a nap. Denise was 2 years and 13 days older than I was . . . so I had JUST turned 2 at the time. that's my earliest memory. I can also remember jumping up and down in my crib holding on to the rails and playing with the colored wooden balls on the cribs head board
 

day late

money? whats that?
I remember when I was about six I had a recurring dream where I was being chased by Frankenstein. He was close and there was a huge sinkhole in front of me. He was getting closer, so with no other option I spread my arms and flew across the sinkhole leaving him far behind. Not really a nightmare, because it had a happy ending.
 

vestige

Deceased
I can remember staying with my aunt Marie when my mother had my sister Denise - I can remember her carrying me down the hall and putting me in bed for a nap. Denise was 2 years and 13 days older than I was . . . so I had JUST turned 2 at the time. that's my earliest memory. I can also remember jumping up and down in my crib holding on to the rails and playing with the colored wooden balls on the cribs head board
Put Pappy back in the cabinet
 

nehimama

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I was about 18 months old, so still sleeping in a crib. Mom had put me to bed, and she and Dad were in the living room, watching TV. I climbed up to perch on the crib railing, my back to the outside of the crib. I distinctly recall telling myself, "Don't fall." I immediately fell over, hanging by my knees on the crib railing, and hollering. Mom and Dad rushed in. I think they laughed before they saved me. This was in the era before cell phone cameras, or there would have been photographic proof.
 

SurvivalRing

Rich Fleetwood - Founder - author/coder/podcaster
I was born in Dallas early 1960. My brother was born 18 months later, and my sister a year after that. I definitely remember my sister being born at Baylor Hospital in east Dallas.

I remember my brother and I sitting with my dad, on the edge of the fountain outside, on a brilliantly blue cloudless sky, and dad pointing up at the windows ( not one in particular ), and saying “your sister is being born up there RIGHT NOW”. I was two and a half...was hot as hell, because it was the end of July.

I have a memory of a single day, in the afternoon of a clouded over day. I was kneeling next to one of the legs of a swing set, that someone else was swinging in, and that leg coming off the ground a couple of inches, and me looking at the hole. I know it wasn’t my brother because I’d remember him if he was there. I was one and a half, but not very talkative.

I also remember a train ride, from Dallas to Houston and back, going to visit our grandma (mom’s mom) and my sister being a tiny little thing that several older folks seemed to be cooing over, and that the conductors were also paying close attention to all of us. Only train ride I’ve ever been on. I think I was almost three.

My dad’s family was living in Houston at the time, and I remember going with dad and his younger brother/my uncle Mike, to Galveston to the jetty. We were sitting on a wooden pier of some kind. They were working on catching crabs. Then, something happened, and the net/wire cage thing they were using, dropped out of their hands including the rope, and there was no easy way for them to retrieve it.

I don’t know who’s fault it was, but I do remember them asking me if I wanted to help, and I agreed, although I don’t know what I agreed to. Moments later, dad and uncle Mike were holding on to my ankles, as I was lowered headfirst, rather gingerly, to grab the rope. This mission was accomplished, and I didn’t think of what might have happened if I’d fallen in where all these crabs were, until years later. {{{ shudder }}}

Finally, at age three and a half, I remember watching the news with my parents, and that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in downtown Dallas. I also remember a time of great sadness for quite a while. I’m sure there are others, but these memories are quite the technicolor show.
 

sy32478

Veteran Member
I remember siting in a high chair and being fed Gerber rice cereal and apple sauce. My parents tried to hide the creal with the apple sauce, but iI was on to them. Also remember sleeping on my dad's lap while driving someplace at night. I woke up and saw the moon through the windshield. Before I was two, I remeber the wonder of raspberries growing in the backyard and want to show anybody who came by the miracle of RASPBERRIES growing free in the sun.
 

Bridey Rose

Veteran Member
I remember being a few weeks shy of 4 years old and trying to amuse myself in the produce aisle of the Acme Market by studying the label on a can of fruit cocktail. I remember thinking that the fruit in that can looked nothing like the bowl of beautiful fresh fruit on the label. Appearances can be deceiving.

Next thing I knew the music on the public address system got interrupted by the disc jockey announcing that President Kennedy had been shot. My mother immediately went into denial, but I was certain the announcer wouldn't lie about something like that because he'd be punished by his boss -- maybe even spanked, if they do that to adults!

By the time we got to the checkout counter they'd announced Kennedy was dead. My mother still refused to believe it.

The next few days, my eyes were glued to the news reports about the assassination on our black & white TV. And because I was such a news hound, I witnessed Oswald getting shot dead by Jack Ruby on live TV.

When I went into the kitchen to tell my mother "They shot that man," she thought I was referring to the President. I had to explain that, no, the man they said shot the President had just gotten shot himself, and I'd seen it on TV!

No wonder I'm willing to entertain conspiracy theories so easily; I lived through a major one before I was in pre-school!
 

West

Senior
I recall hugging the floor board of our giant new station wagon, think it was a 1970 Mercury. I was four years old and it was cold outside. But when mom and dad smoked it was the only place I could get some air. Even in the far back the smoke collected, but behind the front seat and down below the seats. Used the driveline hump as a pillow.

14374500144_579ab82783.jpg
 

PghPanther

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I have many many memories of being in the crib as a new born where you lay on your stomach with your knees folded up on your "hanchers" while sleeping with a "nuck nuck" in my mouth......

....and having strange dreams which would wake me up crying sometimes........of what seemed like a dark pulsating environment with the sounds of sloshing water and a beat or light pounding sound in the background................

I now have concluded those dreams were dreams of my experience of being inside my mothers womb...............

That's my earliest memory........
 

Mark Armstrong

Veteran Member
My earliest memories are memories of memories. Back when I was in grade school I tried to remember as far back as I could, and my earliest memories are what I remember from those memory exercises.

As one might expect, those earliest memories are tied to emotions of some sort.

One memory was of being on a beach and stepping on something that stung me.

Another was of not being permitted to go out the front door as my older sister went out the front door, because I was too young to go out. It didn't seem fair that she could go out, but I couldn't go out.

Another was when I was sitting on a bench overlooking Tampa bay with my mother and one of her friends. I started digging through that friend's purse. My mother got after me, but that friend said it was okay. But mom still insisted that I stop. I couldn't understand why I had to stop. After all, the friend said it was okay, and it was the friend's purse.
 
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Mark Armstrong

Veteran Member
I recall hugging the floor board of our giant new station wagon, think it was a 1970 Mercury. I was four years old and it was cold outside. But when mom and dad smoked it was the only place I could get some air. Even in the far back the smoke collected, but behind the front seat and down below the seats. Used the driveline hump as a pillow.

14374500144_579ab82783.jpg

My earliest car-related memory was standing on the front car seat as dad drove (slowly) down the city street in Tampa Florida. I remember that I was wearing red sandals that were like regular shoes, only with a lot of perforations. I was perhaps two. And yes, in 1955 there were no seat belts in passenger cars. The car was a Ford, the last Ford our family owned.

In 1956 we got a brand-new Chevy Bel Air station wagon. I remember jumping in at the dealership and being surprised that the seats were covered with newspapers. The dealership had put the newspapers down on the seats to protect them prior to delivery.
 

willowlady

Veteran Member
About 20 mos. old. In Germany. I was terrified. We were at a fireworks (and munitions) display and I thought the sky was on fire. It really looked like that. The weird part is, my baby brother was being held by my dad, I was in my mom's arms, and suddenly I was looking at my dad out of my brother's eyes. That only lasted a few seconds, and then I was back in my mom's arms as she tried to tell me the sky wasn't really on fire.
 

Josie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Two memories for me. Both happened when I was about 2 or 3. I can remember my first experience holding the hose. What a feeling of power and because the nozzle didn't fit tight, it leaked and freezing cold water was running down my arm and soaking the front of my shirt. Second one is that I remember my mom painting the hall in our house. I walked down the hall, straight for the bucket of paint and stepped right in. I still remember the feeling of the paint oozing around my shoe, soaking my sock and going up my pant leg before mom grabbed me and then dumped me into the bath tub to wash things off.
 

SSTemplar

Veteran Member
I think you are remembering stories that were told you about your young life. Like I can remember that I got drunk on beer on my first birthday because my uncle told me about it when I was 12. A real memory is when I was 4 and found a giant grasshopper in the weeds. Because my younger brother was with me and we shared the same experience. Yea that giant grasshopper was about 4 inches long but hay I was 4.
 

ioujc

MARANTHA!! Even so, come LORD JESUS!!!
Had a number of memories when I was 18 months old, finding an old fashioned record player in the garage, which no one but my sister also remembered, my dad "ironing" the metal water pipes when they froze under the house, and several others. But the coolest memory is when I was three years old (Dad remembered it also and verified the age) sitting on my Daddy's lap as he read the news paper. I kept moving my head in his way and finally he asked me "What are you doing??" I told him I was reading the paper. He laughed and asked me, "Well, then, what is that word right there??" He almost dropped me on the floor when I got it right and he continued to ask me what different words were and I got all of them right. He was SO PROUD of me and began taking me to the library every weekend. By the time I was in third grade, he got permission for me to read books out of the "adult" book section of the library>>>No, NOT that kind of books!! He, of course, supervised the books I checked out to make sure they were "suitable," but by then I had been tested and was reading on a 12th grade level. They (my parents) never told me this was unusual.
 

vessie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I remember who and where I was before I was born what I looked like and at a very young age telling my mom and dad, as well as describing my birth in the OR (very unusually and was never discussed by my mom and dad) and both of their jaws dropping and the look of absolute fear in my dad’s eyes.

More later, as I’m on my phone and Will try to hobble over time the computer later. V
 

xtreme_right

Veteran Member
My earliest memory was in a stroller being pushed along a narrow path next to a dark pit. I remember being terrified and trying to get out of the stroller but I was strapped in.

I told my Mother that memory as an adult and she said it was when I was around 18 months old, we went to Natural Bridge Caverns. There’s a “bottomless pit” with a narrow walkway that hugs the wall.

I’m convinced that’s where my fear of heights came from.
 

Pebbles

Veteran Member
My first memory is being in the ocean being held by my dad. A wave came and knock us down. My dad was laughing and reassuring me but I was scared to death. I still feel the sense of rolling in the wave and I can see my dad standing in the ocean in his plaid trunks, so young and handsome grabbing me up out of the water. I think I was about 2 because my younger brother was just a baby on the beach with my mom.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
I was about a year and half old walking down a the hospital corridor with my mother for a checkup and saw a child in an iron lung and looked up at my mother and she said that the child had polio and the iron lung helped them breath. When I think about this, I can still see the child in the iron lung.

At about 2 years old, my parents bought me a water gun shaped like a machine gun and it would shoot a stream of water over the house. We had water gun fights and my mom and dad fought over the water machine gun to use and broke it. Broke my heart.

Texican....
 

TxGal

Day by day
One that makes no sense - I remember standing up in my crib eating an egg salad sandwich - egg salad sandwich?

One that just makes the whole family go 'hmmmm' - I remember sitting in the back seat of the family car, and distinctly remember it had a beige interior and a black exterior. My parents said there's no way I could remember that, because they sold that car before I was born and they had no pictures of it in the family photo album that I could have seen. Even so, my memory of it is crystal clear and I described it perfectly :-)

My older sister by 7 years really didn't much like how I tried to follow her everywhere when I was a preschooler. One day she ran off into the woods with her friends so I couldn't follow her (we were living on base, which was pretty safe back then), so I walked around the edge of the woods looking at the grass, butterflies, and flowers. I saw a plant with what looked like a pod hanging off of it, and when I touched it the pod popped opened suddenly and its seeds popped out. Scared me half to death and I ran home. Later that day, though, I came down with chicken pox. Honestly, for years afterward I was convinced that pod plant gave me the chicken pox.
 

Martinhouse

Deceased
I remember being set into a garden pail with water in it. It was in the backj yard of the duplex my parents and I lived when I first was. It was summer in Minnesota and I was born in November, so I must have been around 7 or 8 months old. I also remember splashing water on the skirt of the "big girl" neighbor's dress in that same yard, possibly the same time I was in that pail. Not sure if it was that summer or the next one that I remember my folks and a buddy of Dad's who was home on leave from the Army, walked down to Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis and the guys stood in shallow water next to a retaining wall and tossed me back and forth. I even remember the little red wool swimsuit I was wearing.
 
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fish hook

Deceased
I had my tonsils out at 18 months, Back at doctors later for follow up, My mother was doing something, don't remember what and a nice lady was holding me for her. I threw up all over her black dress. I was born in late 1943 and remember the V J day parade they had at the end of the war, probably around 2 years old.
 

Bps1691

Veteran Member
I have several fragments of memories from around when I was 3 years old. All are peaceful memories of our home place and my mom's parents place, setting in the sun enjoying the peace and quite or of the gardens while everyone else worked.

My strong memories start around 4 and 5 including my first day in school and learning to hate it because of the treatment from an old maid teacher who hated little boys.
 
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