What is Your Earliest Memory?

[karam]

Being maybe 2 years old, being placed on the kitchen counter while my mother was doing things in the kitchen. I vividly remember being terrified and feeling I am very high in the air. Some birthday, likely my second due to parents’ divorce, dad bringing me a green metal tractor toy. I still have it. Grandparents’ house had an antechamber of sorts to hang coats, also canes which my grandpa collected (had a very ornate silver one), this was a small dark room, O remember being afraid of the hanging coats.

 

[shermnatman]

I remember reading once of some woman who claimed she could remember being born . I'm afraid I find that somewhat hard to believe.

Why so hard to believe Jay?

I also recall being born.

I remember the doctor holding me up in the air by my ankles; and then, giving me a hard spank on my butt.

Of course, I immediately started to cry LOUDLY.

And, the person - unbeknownst to me at the time, being 'just born' - who would turn-out to be my already 4 year old Sister who was present in the delivery room and watching me being born - told the doctor: "Smack him again!.... He shouldn't have been up there in the first place!!!'

That pretty much set the tone of our relationship from the day of my birth forward. - Sherm Natman

 

[karam]

People piece together a lot of memories of events which never happened under guidance/gaslighting, it's well-documented. The case study is the "lost in the mall" example Lost in the mall technique - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_mall_technique
Generally our nervous system works a lot with filtering and compensating to prevent sensory overload (in neurotypical people), so memory manipulation leverages that aspect.

Not saying that it couldn't be possible to remember being born, but feels improbable.

 

[mawnansmiff]

People piece together a lot of memories of events which never happened under guidance/gaslighting, it's well-documented. The case study is the "lost in the mall" example Lost in the mall technique - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_the_mall_technique
Generally our nervous system works a lot with filtering and compensating to prevent sensory overload (in neurotypical people), so memory manipulation leverages that aspect.

Not saying that it couldn't be possible to remember being born, but feels improbable.

Quite. I doubt if our brain has developed sufficiently at that early stage to be able to process thoughts, much less to be able to store memories. Our brains are working on auto pilot just to survive the first few weeks of life.

The 'lost in the mall' is a well known example of suggestive memories and just goes to show how some people are more susceptible than others to having thoughts artificially imparted to the brain.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[JOHN72]

I remember vaguely, the living room of my house, I think in '78 or '79, the brand new record player, my father's tobacco pouches and pipes. My father shaving with those beautiful vintage razors, those bell-bottoms we wore as kids, under the house we had a women's hairdresser, and a small supermarket, my parents' business. Damn memories.

 

[mawnansmiff]

I have rather a lot of moles on my skin and remember vividly when my Mother used to bathe me she would tap each mole on my body with her finger saying "I am a mole and I live in a hole" moving from mole to mole. This had me in hysterics, it was just so funny.

It was only about 3 months after Mother died when everything fell into place. I was watching a TV drama set in the 1960's (I was born December 1961) and in that drama the radio was playing and a song was sung where the chorus was exactly what my Mother used to say, "I am a mole and I live in a hole". I tapped those words into Google and was astonished to find it was a song known as 'The Mole Song' sung by the Southlanders, a Jamaican/British vocal group!

I felt so miffed that I only found this out after Mother had passed as I'd loved to have talked to her about it.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[mabababycare]

Pretty tough to nail down, but I’m pretty sure it was several weeks ago. We had ribeyes and a nice salad. It’s anyone’s guess as to what happened up until that point.

Jokes aside, I can remember things from when I was 2. I had a babysitter that used to paint with oil paint and feed me bologna sandwiches. My mom almost shit herself when I told her.

It's interesting that you can remember things from when you were 2 years old, as this is earlier than most people's earliest memories. Memories can be triggered by different sensory cues, such as smells, sounds, or tastes, and it seems like the combination of the oil paint and bologna sandwiches which your babysitter used to feed you played a role in helping you remember this experience. It's always fun to reminisce about our earliest memories and the people and experiences that have shaped us.

 

[newbroom]

It's difficult to say which is earliest. I started having awareness and thus developing memory between the ages of 2 & 3. I remember several events during this period. In fact these events may be more imprinted than other 'memoried events' that I would experience at different times in my life.
I think about the relationship between memory and consciousness and begin to fear that the mind police will see that I'm attempting be be 'woke' by thinking.
Two contrasting memories from way back when:
Pooping in the potty for the first time.
Thinking I might be a goner after getting stuck beneath a neighbor's roof's eve as the wind blew bunches of powdered snow and the sun shone through all the crystal flakes and became one bright entrapment.
One memory for era reference:
My grandparent's house, complete with outhouse.

 

[Pipeoff]

At age 4 , I recall mother tearing out a coupon from my food ration book during WW2. At my age I only remember the good things over the years ex. Don’t recall what my first wife looked like !

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

Pre school. I was in a tunnel on the playground with a girl named Lindsay. She showed me hers, I showed her mine. Then my teacher got a wood chip stuck under her fingernail. Quite an eventful day for a young man
And moving to our new house when I was 3. My parents still live in that house, built in the 1910's. Many memory's from there