What is your earliest memory?

I can remember being a baby. The earliest clear memory I have is when I was still in a baby walker. I couldn't have been much more than a year old. I was in my walker and the door was open. My mom took away the baby fence thing that blocked the exit. I remember thinking something along the lines of 'this is my chance to make a break.' I ran as fast as I could out the open door. Turns out I was on the second floor of an apartment. The walker bounced off the railing, turned on its side, and I rolled down a flight of stairs. I remember crying like the baby I was.

a reply to: skunkape23

I was 1. I was on a beach at a swimming hole people used to go to. There were some steps going down to the water. She went ahead of me a bit and I couldn't see her as we headed back up those 3 little steps. I felt complete panic. To me she was gone forever. It is a clear memory.

a reply to: skunkape23

For me it was sitting in a bathtub after we had just moved from Florida to Las Vegas. I was taking a bath with my toys and somehow I had gotten a hold of a box of trix cereal without my mum noticing and managed to get it back to the bath. The clearest part of this event I recall is sitting in a trix filled bathtub trying to feed cereal to Godzilla and King Ghidorah and the subsequent parental admonishments that followed. I was two at best.

a reply to: skunkape23

My very earliest memory is my second birthday. Because I did not like cake, my birthday "cake" was a specially shaped submarine sandwich that was 3 to 4 feet long and cut into 3 inch and 6 inch portions for the guests, who were all, of course, adults. I was giving a stripped version of a ~3 inch section. I got the bread, the turkey, and the cheese.

Then there is a huge gap, my next very clear memory being when I was 3 years old.

I had a relative argue with me one time when I was 15 years old that there was "absolutely no way" I remembered being at my second birthday party. When we met up with the rest of my family that evening, I asked my mom "What kind of cake did I have at my second birthday?" Having already fully described my memory about having a sandwich, not a cake, to Aunt. Mom perfectly described the sandwich, then asked me who had reminded me of that. Thanks Mom!

I'm interested to see the replies on this thread, nice topic.

My fith birthday party, it was held at a Dairy Queen .Some lady asked me how old I was. I held up 4 fingers, but was corrected, then held up 5.

I'm 33 now.

My parents had a brown 56 Ford that my dad had restored to resell (a cash hobby for him when I was a kid). I was just tall enough to stand up in the back seat, but not see over it. Maybe 1ish?

I have a lot of happy memories up until the big fight that ended in my parents divorce when I was 4. But there are a lot of unhappy ones, and apparently I forgot the worst of them. I only got a glimpse of that when mom mentioned something, and one other time when grandma (who was a nut that I loved dearly) said a few things. I still don't remember any of that.

Interestingly enough, my 6th grade year was pretty miserable. And I have forgotten a lot of it as well. Same with a large portion of 7th grade. I guess I expunge them because I dwell on them less. Interesting to consider....

I remember moments after being born and understanding English fine but being aware of how unfamiliar the Scottish accents my mom and a nurse had were.

My earliest memory is around 3 years old and my brother egging me on to ask my mom and dad what Kotex and tampons were. The look my mom gave me could have made a grown man plead for his own safety.

My brother of course was long gone. He was 4 years older than me, and did crap like that to me for years until I decided to give as good as I got.

We most certainly did not talk about things like that back then. Obviously he had already figured that out.

ETA - S&F simply because it's always nice to know that almost everyone's childhood seemed sort of dysfunctional at one time or another.

Before 2 years 10 months. Before we moved for the first time, there was a tree in the backyard my sisters put me into to keep me safe from the snakes that lived under the cement patio. Maybe earlier memories, I'm unsure of the timeline at that point. . .

I have some vague early memories, and I have a fond recollection of certain music i heard in the womb. its hard to pin point everything down but I feel like I have actual baby memories and 1-2 years. I can't remember coming out of the womb but I was an aware baby, for most memories don't start forming until 2-3 years for most people.

a reply to: skunkape23

I remember sleeping in a crib, and where it was in the room. The foot was by a window, and I recall clearly thinking that if a burglar came in (and we did have problems with that in the area where we lived), I would grab hold of the tucked in covers, so he couldn't get me out of the crib.

Edit to add: I could not have been more than two at the oldest, because I remember sleeping on a cot for a while, as a pretty small child, before we got a nice set of twin beds for our room (mine and sister's).

My earliest memory is being around 2 or 3 and getting popped in the nose by a ruger mk 2 I was shooting off of a sandbag rest with my dad. Soon after I realized how a slide works.

originally posted by: kunundrum
My earliest memory is being around 2 or 3 and getting popped in the nose by a ruger mk 2 I was shooting off of a sandbag rest with my dad. Soon after I realized how a slide works.

That's funny. I didn't fire a slide action pistol until I was in my 30's. I was used to keeping a thumb on the hammer. The first time I fired a slide, the recoil knocked my thumbnail off.

a reply to: skunkape23
It was a .22, and I have been raised around guns. So, I guess it was a good lesson for getting too close for a sight picture. Between 4-6 I made my way through .25acp, .380, 9mm, then as a joke .357 which knocked me on my a$$

a reply to: skunkape23

I was about 18 months old and sitting in my old wooden highchair(yes I'm THAT old lol). I was painting with my Dick Tracy glitter paints and loved the glitter in it. I flipped up the tray part to get out of the chair and my mom was there asking me if I could get down on my own or needed help. I told her I could do it and slid out to get ready for bed.

Not sure how old was but a couple early memories ..
my mother standing with me looking out the wire fence of the internment camp for citizens of japanese descent that was born in mother had comment if we would ever be released .. and of one of the guards there who gave me a chocolate bar ..
returning to japan with my parents after the war as they lost everything when they were detained. Hadnt thought of those times in years ...

I have two womb memories. YES ... WOMB memories.
They have been verified by my mother.


First .... I have a memory in the womb of sitting there and knowing that I liked to lean to the right, with my ear pressing to the outside, because when I leaned left it was too loud. I guess it was too loud because of my mothers body noises. But I was surprised one day when all around me was loud horrid sounds and it was worse on my right - the outside wall. I was thinking that didn't make sense and that I didn't want to lean left because that was the 'loud side' .. but for some reason the right side was louder. And the awful sound would come in waves. I was frustrated and kind of threw a tantrum.

Of course all that was with feelings and not words. I didn't know words.

Later I found out that when my mother was 8 months pregnant with me, she and my father went to some stock car races at Riverside Park in Agawam Mass. Stock car races are VERY loud and they zoom by in waves. She says that every time the cars went by, her stomach would go very tight and I'd have a fit. So the memory in the womb fits the event.

Second .... I have a memory of sitting there comfortable in the dark with my head up and butt down and I suddenly had a feeling all over my body of burning pain on the skin. I remember seeing a light to my bottom right and it grew brighter. And then the light was all encompassing and the pain on the skin ended. Apparently this was my birth by C-section. According to my mother, the doctors way back then injected something into the womb because I wouldn't budge or move. Whatever it was burned me and they had to go in and C-section me out. That explains the burning skin because of the drug and it explains the light opening up down to my right, because my head would have been above the incision. And again, these are remembering with feelings and sight and emotion because I didn't know words to explain in my head what was being seen.

Funny you say this today....

I was having lunch with my mother and she told me a story about when i was young, i did somthing that my grandfather (totally told on me) saw me do somthing. I thought i was about 4 or 5. She insisted i was barely 2, yet i remeber it and even corrected her story correctly.

I had been told i wasnt allowed to eat anything because dinner would be soon, but i disobeyed and tryed to steal an apple (she said it was a peach, but it was a green apple) i had sunk my two front teeth in to suck the juice out, but when i heard my mother coming i put it "tooth holes down" so no one would know - but my grandfather saw me

Anyway the point is that i thought my earliest memory would be about 5, but since i remembered, that apparently my first is actually at 1 year and around 11 months. I do have a vague memory of laying down on the grass in my first house and seeing the clear blue sky above, but i couldnt tell you my age at the time - not a very good story that one lol

I've posted this before, when the question has been asked;

My earliest memory goes back to a time before I knew language.
I could not express my thoughts in words, of course, but I was aware of a number of things, which add up to a kind of thought-process.
I was aware of the place where I was- in my cot next to a light window, probably the morning light.
I was aware that I wanted to get out.
I was aware that i could not manage the catch which would let down the side of the cot (a simple hook-and-eye affair, as I know retrospectively).
I was aware that if I cried, someone would come along and let me out.
Which led me into a course of action. I cried.
My memory stops at the opening of the door (right hand end of the opposite wall) and my father appearing through the doorway.
I don’t know whether this means that the sequel was satisfactory, or whether it means that the sequel was traumatic.

My earliest memory is looking at a bear head that my father had mounted. He had just got it from the taxidermist. I must have been small, my father lifted me up in his arm and I petted it. I remember it being so high on the wall, I can still picture looking up at it like I was laying on the ground. I was standing, but six feet high was like way out of reach when you were less than three feet high. I have the bear head, I should look at the tag to see how long ago that was. I'm sure the head was finished six months or so after it was shot. I remember him showing his new toy to my uncles.