Earliest clear childhood memories

  • Thread starter Thread starter rayne89
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

rayne89

Guest
How far back into your childhood can you remember?

I have clear memories of things that happened when I was 4 or younger. The reason I know the age is because we moved to Michigan when I was four and these memories are from our old house and/or neighborhood. Also my grandmother who lived below us is in some of the memories and she died when I was three.

One clear memory I have is from when I was four. My family owned a three family house, we occupied the the middle floor and it had a large balconey that spanned the front of the house. Shortly before our move I was out on the balcony staring at the houses across the street through the railing because I was too short to see over it. I remember thinking “I wonder if I will remember this when I’m older.” My mother scoffs at this memory and said young children don’t think this way at four years old but it it so clear. I remember the weather was overcast and somewhat chilly, I could tell you what toys were on the balcony. I knew it was shortly before the move because I remember packed up boxes in the house. I have other very early memories too.

I wonder if others have very early childhood memories?
 
The earliest one I have is at 3 1/2 - Mom and Dad had just returned from an amusement park/camping vacation with some friends and they brought me a sun hat and some red sunglasses.
 
When I was 4 or so, I remember my grandmother and that my dad was hardly around. I also fell and broke a tooth out when I was in kindergarten.
 
My earliest was from when I was between 1-1/2 and 2. A doctor had come to the house, and I was worried he was going to give me a “shot” :eek: , but my mother told me he was there to see my cousin Jeff (big sigh of relief!)
 
I have several from age 2 and younger. I also know this because 1) I was an only child at the time, and 2) the house we were living in. We moved and I got a little brother when I was 2, and these memories (of waking up in the morning, playing in the garden, etc.) are from times before that. I also remember weaning at 20 months and being very sick at 18 months.

I’ve heard of people having memories of their parents cuddling them as infants less than 1 year old.
 
I don’t really remember how old I was, but the earliest memory I have is of me at my babysitter’s house. I think I was 3 or maybe 4. I was trying to cross a big crack in the ground. Took me enough tries!
 
I take that back - I remember being in the crib in my bedroom. According to mom, I was moved from the crib to a bed sometime before turning three - so my earliest memory then must be 2 1/2 or later.

I can’t imagine remembering being cuddled as an infant! That has to be an AWESOME memory!
 
sanctareparata said:
I take that back - I remember being in the crib in my bedroom. According to mom, I was moved from the crib to a bed sometime before turning three - so my earliest memory then must be 2 1/2 or later.

I can’t imagine remembering being cuddled as an infant!** That has to be an AWESOME memory**!
Click to expand...
I know! Ever since I heard that when Joey was a few months old it’s made me wonder if he will have such early memories 🙂 Makes you want to cuddle them all the more, doesn’t it?
 
I remember picking out which birthday cake I wanted for my third birthday party from my mom’s recipe book, so I was not quite three. I have fuzzy blips that may be from earlier, but that is the earliest certain memory that I have.

(It was a clown cake.)
 
I remember waking up from my nap and going over to the window and looking out. A bunch of the neighbors were standing in front of our house, looking at a car sitting by the curb. This was our first car, and since my parents said that I had just turned three when they got the car, that’s how old I was in my first memory…
 
my earliest memory was at 21 months. i remember how the ground and the sky seemed to blend together because it was all white

about 5 months later i was 26 months and i remember surprising my brother with a cake on his bday.

then from 3 years 2 months i remember most everything
 
I was three and in kindergarten. All the kids were supposed to be taking a nap, and I could never sleep during the day. So I approached the teacher and asked to go to the toilet. First she wouldn’t let me, but I persisted, feeling it was my right to be let go, even if I didn’t REALLY have to. So she finally let me.

Next, I was walking alone through the hallway to the toilet, feeling proud, free and victorious. Justice had won!

When I was an undergraduate, I was the student representative, fighting for the students’ statutory rights 😃
 
I have another memory of being out on the balcony during a party my parents were having. I was sitting in my highschair but I wasn’t a baby because I could get out of it on my own. It didn’t have the tray on, just pushed up to the table. We were having some kind of meat for dinner that I didn’t like so I kept getting up and going into the house and spitting into the toilet and flushing it. I started thinking I was going to get caught because my mom or dad might get suspicious of me going to the bathroom every few minutes. Then I looked down over the balcony from my highchair and discovered our beagle was tied up down below. It was my lucky day. I kept dropping my meat over the side of the balcony when no one was looking, apparently it was his lucky day too.
 
I had polio before I was 2 and the thing I remember is dragging my left foot when I walked and my mother wiping my mouth because I drooled. I also remember the night my brother was born, shortly before my 2nd bday, he was born on 4/3 and I was born 4/23. They are very clear memories.
 
I think I was 3. I was walking beside our house, pushing my toy wheelbarrow, when I heard something behind me, so I turned and looked, and there was a German Shepherd standing right there. I probably ran faster then than I ever have.

I also remember being about 3-4 years old, and in our living room standing on the couch with a bag of chips watching a storm out the window. Well, one thunderclap was much louder than expected, and I fell backwards off the couch spilling chips everywhere.

I remember the first time I ever read a book by myself. I was 5 1/2 years old, in Kindergarten. Mom got some books for my cousin for Christmas, and I asked if I could have one. She told me if I could read it, I could keep it. I did. I still have the book, I’m 36 years old.

Now, my SIL claims that she can remember being in the womb. :confused:
 
My earliest memory was from when I was 2. And it is not a pretty one.

I had an accident at the baby sitter’s house and severed my left hand at the wrist. :eek:

Fortunately doctors were able to re-attach it, one of the very first times in medical history this was successfully done to such a young child.

But I also have this vague memory of being at the same baby sitters and knocking on the door to come back inside after playing. Perhaps that is my first memory. Somehow after cutting off my hand I do not think my parents would have sent me back to the same sitter.
 
rayne89 said:
Then I looked down over the balcony from my highchair and discovered our beagle was tied up down below. It was my lucky day. I kept dropping my meat over the side of the balcony when no one was looking, apparently it was his lucky day too.
Click to expand...
:rotfl:

My parents had a poodle when I was born (he died of parvovirus when I was 4). Apparently the dog was jealous of me until I was old enough to sit in a highchair and eat solid foods. At that point he decided that I was his new best friend. 😃
 
I have read that some early childhood memories are not recollection of the actual event but a recollection of being told of an actual event. An example of mine is as child remembering a great big Lime Green Chair in an aunts living room. What I really am recollecting is my eldest sister telling me this story along with some black and white photos of the event I viewed as a youngster… Turns out years later we discovered a color version of the picture along with verification that the chair indeed was pink and the child in the picture was not me it was my cousin…I have been told for decades by my eldest sister that it was me in the picture only to be told by my mother that I was born quite a few years after the aunt had died and sold the house along with the ugly chair. What I had done was incorporated the story into my “childhood” memory since the story was told to me the first time as a young child. I cannot remember the name for this phenom but I guess most of the time it is the case instead of a person actually remembering the event. Oh by the way I really did remember the event as if it really happened.
 
spacecadet said:
my earliest memory was at 21 months. i remember how the ground and the sky seemed to blend together because it was all white

about 5 months later i was 26 months and i remember surprising my brother with a cake on his bday.

** then from 3 years 2 months i remember most everything**
Click to expand...
Wow! That is impressive. And you call yourself “spacecadet”? :confused:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top