I'm curious about what a person's first memory is. Go back as far as you can go. What's happening?

I can still vividly recall sitting in my high chair when I was about thirteen months old or so. I was facing the freezer and I desperately wanted one of the freeze pops that was certain to be inside. I did my best to call out my desire for one of these things, but at the time I was incapable of voicing my thoughts in terms of understandable speech.

As you might imagine, this was quite frustrating for my younger self. I proclaimed “Freeze pop!” as lucidly as possible, but none of the grown-ups seemed to have any idea what the hell I was trying to say. I remember being very angry with them. I couldn't understand why they weren't able to comprehend me.

Eventually, my mother pulled a freeze pop out with the idea that it would probably shut me up. Of course, she might have figured out what I wanted via my frantic flailing of limbs toward the direction of the freezer door. Either way, I had gotten what I wanted.

cool topic.

I don't think my earliest memory is very early, I think I was 2-3 yrs old, and it's not so much a single memory. Of course it's about TV.

I've always loved TV, but the problem back then was that it was located in the basement in a finished section located on the “other side”, meaning you had to go through the furnace / laundry area first, which utterly terrified me each and every time (that horrible mint color on concrete walls and the overhead, single-light-bulb lighting didn't help).

I still remember “paying the dues”: coming down the concrete steps very carefully, gathering up my courage (which entailed holding my breath) and RUNNING FOR IT!!

Not many people have such early memories from what I've come across. A lot of people are amazed at what I remember, some of these are…

Trying to walk, I remember standing holding on to the table with my family all trying to entice me to take a step and I was scared of falling and hitting my head on the sharp corner of the coffee table. I'm told that was when I was around a year old.

various memories of power cuts in our old farm house and having my parents cooking toast and boiling the kettle over the open fire.

Somewhere between birth and two.

I have vague memories of a dog that bit me when i was 8 months and was put down shortly after.

Regularly watching my brother and sister go to school and play school from the window being upset that I couldn't go too. I remember the first few time my brother went the most, that was when I was around 18 months.

the most lucid thing i can remember was being in some haunted house. i dont know how old i was, 3 or so i think. an all i remember is everyone turning to run, and after the herd of scaredies had cleared there was a giant fucker in a gorilla suite running towards us. im sure my young mind coulda distorted it, but that's what i remember. buncha people running, then no people, then a fucking gorilla. that's all she wrote.

ayesinback
cool topic.

I don't think my earliest memory is very early, I think I was 2-3 yrs old, and it's not so much a single memory. Of course it's about TV.

I've always loved TV, but the problem back then was that it was located in the basement in a finished section located on the “other side”, meaning you had to go through the furnace / laundry area first, which utterly terrified me each and every time (that horrible mint color on concrete walls and the overhead, single-light-bulb lighting didn't help).

I still remember “paying the dues”: coming down the concrete steps very carefully, gathering up my courage (which entailed holding my breath) and RUNNING FOR IT!!

haha! reminds me of the Home Alone furnace scenes. if ya didnt have somethin in yer house, at least ONE thing that scared the piss outa ya every time ya came into contact with it, well then i kinda feel sorry for ya!

I was one. It was the winter before my sister was born. My parents bought me dinosaur figures from the Early Learning Centre.

There are a lot of moments I can also remember that may most likely be earlier. But the above is the one where I can be certain of roughly when it happened. It was dark outside while the shop was open and my mum kind of looked pregnant.

I can remember DREAMS from back then better than my conscious life. Because even then they were all pretty mental and still continue to be.

Talking sockets in the shape of skulls trying to bite me and kill me, transforming into a rabbit and skulking around the alleyways of purple cartoon buildings in an espionage war with cats, flaming Viking longboats moving to the beat of “Oxygene 2”…

I can remember places, feelings, people, but not events from when I was very young. My first vivid memory of an event was finding out a dog that we'd left behind when we moved had been killed, which was when I was around three or four.
I saw a picture of that dog a few years ago for the first time and it matched the image in my head of them perfectly though, and the similar situations have come up with pictures of houses and people I hadn't seen since I was around a year old.

Most of my early memories seem to pop up when I was about 4.
The earliest memories I can think of right now are both of my cats. I remember, pretty vividly, looking for Merosa(she liked to hide) and giving Teddy the milk from my cereal. Teddy died and Merosa was given away when I was 4, so I must have been around 3.

when I was 3, I almost drowned during a family trip to the beach. I remember it was around 1:00 pm, there was a straw hut in the beach. Lots of palm trees. Mom was wearing a black bathing suit. Dad was wearing blue shorts. Was kicking and screaming and fighting for my life.

scary…

I remember being 1 and sitting in a pile of cushions.
Youd think Id remember something interesting…

Don't worry same. I'm the same.

The memory that presents itself as “earliest” in my head (lots of memories with no real date or period attached) I'm in a living room, and someone's pulling a shirt over my head. getting changed for something. i can't completely stand by myself. and that's it.

I was in a crib and wanted to get out without help. I pulled myself up just enough to put one leg over the side, but hadn't considered how I was going to get down to the floor from there, and I wasn't strong enough to lower myself back inside the crib. I panicked and started screaming, so my mother came to help me and asked why I didn't just call for someone. I can't remember whether I could answer. This must have been sometime before I turned 3.

edit: also I remember being incredibly proud of climbing that far until I realized I couldn't get down >_>;

Air Raid Robertson
As you might imagine, this was quite frustrating for my younger self. I proclaimed “Freeze pop!” as lucidly as possible, but none of the grown-ups seemed to have any idea what the hell I was trying to say. I remember being very angry with them. I couldn't understand why they weren't able to comprehend me.

I wonder if that sort of thing has any connection to the common dream theme of not being able to make yourself understood or not being able to speak or call for help or whatever…
It'd make lovely sense if it DID actually just come from the old days when you were just learning to speak :)

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I have lots of early memories and I'm not really sure what year they're from or what order they do in, so I guess.

One is of me proudly wearing a red bucket on my head. I've always loved hats :)
That's pretty early. I wanted to look like the people who played in military bands on the TV. My mum loved watching the Edinburgh Military tattoo, so I'm guessing that's where I saw the military band.

I remember drawing… I'm guessing this was when I was 4, but I don't know, it could be 3. I was drawing a bass drummer from a military band, and I thought it looked amazing.

Teasing my baby sister… Guessing this was when I was 3, but it could be 2. I could just walk by holding onto tables and things. My sister was in some contraption that you put babies in to help to learn to walk- some frame thing with wheels. I was pushing her and she was crying. I thought it was very funny. ^__^

I don't remember when this was (I'm terrible at gauging time), but I had some sort of noise making toy. A very repetitive noise making toy. I followed my dad around the kitchen, and kept hitting the button thingy that made the noise, and was incredibly proud of myself for my ability to operate simple devices.

Until my dad just exclaimed “Would you stop that!” and snatched it away, setting it far away on some unreachable area, forever defying my cursed stubby toddler arms.

Probably when I was 1-2, following my mom around as she fed our goats, and telling my sister to got get another bucket of water. Then having a staring contest with one of the goats as he chewed on the feed.

Me telling my mom that a teacher helped me wipe my ass in the bathroom.

I had a awkward childhood.

And still do.

Hmm I remember waking up, sitting up and crying my heart out (i dunno how old you need to be able to do that). I was on the second floor and i could hear my mom running on the stairs to pick me up, I remember feeling scared then.

Man, had to stop and look up some dates for this one- most of my memories are from after I became articulate. But the earliest memory that I recall as distinctive was seeing footage of the Challenger explosion on TV. Except I think it was the one year anniversary, because I also remember coloring way outside the lines in a Bravestarr coloring book, and that toon wasn't released until a year later. It's not really that I understood what Challenger was, but I have a general impression of an explosion and space and sadness and the nobility of effort. Heh- I think I was around 11 months old when it blew up, so the memory might've been at around 2 years.

The earliest I can think back was pre-school. I remember everything… the playgrounds, the smell, the inside, the cubbies, the graduation and Christmas plays…

I distinctly remember my first timeout. I had liked this girl, Nicolette. I remember I liked her because she had the girl version of my name, so I had concluded that we should get married (aren't children cute). It was naptime, but I was still talking to her. The teacher (or whatever you call them in pre-school) had told me to go to sleep, and I refused, so I was put in timeout.

Well, that day JUST so happen to be Nicolette's birthday. Man oh man, was I embaressed. I started crying and whining and all kinds of stuff. In fact, I was so embaressed, that I actually vowed never to go back again. And guess what? That day was my last day of pre-school. I was always a proper little kid, and just couldn't bare the shame of having a timeout.

I still keep kind of in touch with her, actually. She grew up to be an absolutely gorgeous young woman, so needless to say, I had excellent taste. Even from day 1.

I remember being a fetus floating around in the womb. Either that I remember the movie Look whose talking.

My earliest moment I can think of is actually a dream (I can remember some non-specific stuff about really early in my life, but only the sort of things I remember doing regularly.) My family and friends were all planning on vacation but at the last moment decided I was too young to go along and they flew off on a magic carpet. I had to spend the rest of the week by myself.

machinehead
Either that I remember the movie Look whose talking.

Oh man. That sounds horrible!

I was 3, we lived in this dingy apartment in Las vegas and i remember sitting in a high chair and dad came in the door. He had been gone for a long time and brought a box full of baby bottles and rattles. Mom explained that i was too old now…

Another one when i was 3. I had this awesome spring rocking horse. The thing was gigantic and I still remember how it looks, what color it was…then mom gave it to a family a few stories down because she thought i was going to hurt myself on it. I was so upset because i'd always been really careful and wasn't one of those stupid kids that ran into tables.

I have zero idea how old I was, but I have some memories of waddling around in diapers. The earliest being standing in an outdoor kiddie pen with some toys while a yard sale was going on. Probably somewhere between 1 and 2, I'd think.