What is Your Earliest Memory?

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When I was 3 years old, I had one of those big yellow dump trucks made by Tonka. The ones that had an elephants standing on it in the commercials. I remember the older kids in my neighborhood took it away from me to see if it could be destroyed, and they did.
I also remember that it wasn't long after that, that we had a flood, because I remember having to get onto a boat for my first time.
I'm pretty sure that the reason I don't remember anything before 3 was that it was all just so damned boring. puffy
 

greysmoke

Can't Leave
Apr 28, 2011
371
1,654
South Coatesville, PA
www.greysmoke.com
I remember reading once of some woman who claimed she could remember being born :oops:. I'm afraid I find that somewhat hard to believe.
I do as well, but fantasy writer Ray Bradbury one made the same claim.

"I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great." - Ray Bradbury
 

RonM

Lurker
Mar 6, 2023
21
89
I have a very fragmented memory of being in the house with my mother and grandmother. Someone dropped and broke something glass in the kitchen, and I seem to recall trying to run in to see what was going on but I was barefoot so one of them, either mom or grandma, pulled me back. Not sure how old I was, but preschool age. That memory is so faint I sometimes am not sure if it's real or a figment of my imagination. The first solid memory is first grade, when they rolled in the TV set for us (mainly the teacher, I'm sure) to watch coverage of the JFK shooting in Dallas.
 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
12,577
19,842
SE PA USA
I was born in February 1963, a month premature.

My father smoked a pipe for many years, but stopped soon after I was born. I remember him putting his pipe up on a high shelf in the dining room.

I also remember looking up the birch tree in our backyard, it's green leaves fluttering in the wind against a solid blue sky. That would have been in the Spring of 1962. Years later, I found a picture of me that my mother took that day, I was just over one year old.

I have distinct memories of the day my grandfather came to live with us. He had a heart condition and had been living with my aunt and her family. I would have been two at the time.

But my clearest early memories are from the summer of 1966. I was two and a half. Our family had gone to the county park to enjoy the beach and lake. My father took my sister, who was 2-1/2 years older than me, out to the floating rope in deep part of the lake. My mother, usually an attentive person, sat and read a paperback. i wanted to be with my father and sister, so into the water I went. Before I knew it, I was underwater. I remember the sand, the aquatic plants and the sunlight streaming through the water. I didn't panic. As I lost consciousness, I had what I later read was a common "light at the end of the tunnel" near-death experience. Everything was peaceful. i had an overwhelming feeling of connection with all things. It was the most beautiful thing to ever happen to me. Food, sex and loving hugs from your mother can't compare. The next thing that I remember is throwing up all over some man's back. Someone had accidently kicked my underwater and pulled me out. A lifeguard had learned CPR somewhere, revived me, then threw me over his shoulder to empty my lungs of water. I was over 100 yards from where my mother was still reading her book.

I often revisit that spot where I died and am amazed by how far I floated and how long I was under. My memory declined sharply after that, both long and short-term. it's spotty now. I sometimes think about what I could have done with my life if I had the memory capacity that I was born with. But then I think about how successful I've been in my photography career, and wonder if that light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel near death experience didn't instill in me something that has helped me see and experience things in ways that most people don't. Either way, it is what is.

Now, where the hell are my keys?
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,645
8,143
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
On the subject of early memories, thankfully I can't remember either of these near incidents but every birthday, my Mother would ring me to wish me a happy birthday and every year, without fail, she would tell me 1 how I was nearly born down the toilet :rolleyes: and 2, how within a few moments of being born, Mother noticed I wasn't there.

She asked one of the nursing staff where her baby boy was only to be told the midwife, a Dr. Rosenbaum or whatever his name was had taken me away. Mother asked why only for the nurse to do the scissor motion with her fingers. Mother freaked out "I don't want my baby cut...bring him right back". Thankfully I was brought back with everything where it should be!

Mother passed in 2021 and every 30th December I think of those 2 stories.

Regards,

Jay.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,605
At 2 or 3, I had enough sense of self to have distinct memories of my parents' first tiny house, about 1,000 sq ft, so the floor plan was easy to draw when I was in my fifties or today. We moved when I was still 4, and I have memories of that first little house going back at least two years.

I became infatuated with automobiles. I met my first household pet, a female cat who I observed with her newborn litter. I discovered but didn't have sense enough to report a fire smoldering under the coal burning furnace, and I remember leaving the house for the neighbors while the fire department put it out.

I remember the American Legion Home ( clubhouse) across the street and the artillery piece on its front lawn, and hearing loud parties there on Saturday nights.

I remember some of the neighbors and climbing out our bedroom window to run around outside in the sun. And so on. I remember being aware, after a night at the movies with my parents, of watching my dreams go from black and white to color. I can't explain why I had dreams in black and white or what turned them to color, but I remember the experience distinctly.
 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
12,577
19,842
SE PA USA
Jay, my mother would tell me, and later on call me every year on my birthday, and retell the story of the day that I was born. At first, I thought it was a pain in the ass, then later on it was humorous, then touching and in the last decade of her life, it brought me to tears. She did this up until she passed at age 87. By that time, her memory was very poor, but she remembered my birthday.

As for the black and white dreams:

9c7a633101fb475b04da11415e766b06.jpg
 

Winnipeger

Lifer
Sep 9, 2022
1,288
9,690
Winnipeg
I remember reading once of some woman who claimed she could remember being born :oops:. I'm afraid I find that somewhat hard to believe.

My own earliest memory is not nearly as exciting but it's all I have. I would have been about 4 or maybe 5 years old and with my parents, and presumably my two older sisters. We were on a railway bridge somewhere and I was lifted up by one of my parents to see the train (steam trains back then) coming towards the bridge then going under it, whistling as it went. I was then promptly turned around to se the train chuffing along on its journey into the distance.

So folks, what wonderful life events do you recall as your first memories?

Regards,

Jay.
When I tell people I remember being born they don't believe me either. The sensation of being born is mainly feeling air against your skin for the first time, and it's cold compared to the womb. The rest is mainly a blur. The whole experience is pretty disorientating. I don't remember the first time I started breast feeding, but I remember the last time. I was probably under 2 then. My memories go waaaaay back.

My most vivid early memory was when I stuck my finger in my mom's left eye when I was under a year old. (I was maybe 8 months old, not walking yet). I remember the whole incident right down to the green chair we were sitting in against the south wall in my parent's living room. I was on her lap and I was looking at her pupils and they looked like holes. I wanted to see if they went in, so I stuck my finger in. That memory is very vivid, because of the immediate negative reaction she elicited. She cried out in pain and stood up and put me down on the floor. Then she called my grandparents to come over so she could go to emergency to get her eye looked at. She had to wear an eye patch for a while afterward. The moral? Wear eye protection around babies.
 

mortonbriar

Lifer
Oct 25, 2013
2,786
6,073
New Zealand
Thanks @mawnansmiff for a new subject! Interesting reading.

My earliest memory is from a crawling perspective, seeing my granny come into the room. After that, I have a couple of memories that are probably at 3, and then everything else is 4 on.

One of the 3 year old memories is sitting in my parents bed between them in the morning and they both had 'tea breath' and I thought that might be what hell is like.
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,645
8,143
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
Regards black and white dreams, as a child I always thought things and people in the 'olden days' were all black and white. This was simply because anything on the TV relating to the 'olden days' were just black and white images....I actually thought that was how things were!

My ex missus used to think everyone walked really quickly back in the 'olden days' for the same reason....on old clips, they did just that.

Regards,

Jay.
 

vosBghos

Lifer
May 7, 2022
1,630
3,582
Idaho
When I told my mother about a rather peculiar friend of hers who wore dentures and pulled them out one day to traumatize/amuse me.
She was taken aback as I was only a few months old at the time and told her all about it in my mid 30's she was doubly taken aback when I was able to remind her of that peculiar friend's name.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,594
31,099
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I remember reading once of some woman who claimed she could remember being born :oops:. I'm afraid I find that somewhat hard to believe.

My own earliest memory is not nearly as exciting but it's all I have. I would have been about 4 or maybe 5 years old and with my parents, and presumably my two older sisters. We were on a railway bridge somewhere and I was lifted up by one of my parents to see the train (steam trains back then) coming towards the bridge then going under it, whistling as it went. I was then promptly turned around to se the train chuffing along on its journey into the distance.

So folks, what wonderful life events do you recall as your first memories?

Regards,

Jay.
oh I believe it. I just don't think that she remembers her actual real birth. The brain has this weird ability to fill in details of old memories. It's actually really scary how easy it is to intentionally manipulate someone's real memories to include details that flesh out the experience while not being factually or historically accurate. Or in other words I wouldn't take her word on what being born is actually like but I don't necessarily think she is lying.
My earliest memories that I recall are doing things like looking out the glass sliding door and wondering what's going on behind the tree line.
Side note I think I must have been on a huge bender because I don't remember even a tiny little bit of the first few years. I was told there were even a few months I didn't walk and well I've seen the pictures and I look 6 sheets to the wind (I know I had to come up with a new term.)