What's your first memory?

[bermuDa]

Inspired by jeenyus' I WISH I COULD REMEMBER BEING YOUNG thread.

What's your first memory? When you think back as far as you can, what images, smells, sounds, or feelings that come to mind?

my first recollection that clearly comes to mind was when I was about 3. My family used to take long road trips when I was younger, and on this particular one we had driven all the way to Georgia for a wedding or something. We were on our way back home, and i remember this huge grey cloud looming above us. it was a hurricane (i'm not sure which one, this would've been '87 or '88 i think), and i thought it would go on forever. We drove through 3 states and half of Texas before we finally saw the sun again. It was amazing. I might have memories from before then... but none as vivid as that one.

what about you guys and gals?

[cuervo]

When I was about 3, I climbed into the family station wagon, somehow put it in neutral, rolled down a hill, and hit a tree.

[IC3]

When I was about 4 years old I guess my mother fell asleep on the couch, I decided i was gonna hop on my big wheel and go for a ride.

Well, I ended up about 4 or 5 blocks away from my house when my uncle happened to drive by...He was on his way to my house.

He freaked on my mom.

The thing that kind of bugs me, When my mom told me this story..She found it rather amusing. Which kinda bothered me.

What if my Uncle didn't drive by that day...Oh well.

[Neato]

My earliest memory is eating a pretzel off my Grandmother's floor when I was very young. I kneeled down and picked it up, and popped it in my mouth. It was inbetween a wall and a floor vent and next to a chair. When my Grandmother asked me what I was eating I flat out denied having anything in my mouth. I got away with it.

Or it's of a dream I had where I was in a caldroun and monsters and skeletons were dancing around me.

I can't tell which came first. Probably the pretzel one.

[anleja]

There is a book called "Unlocking the Secrets To YOur Childhood Memories," it says something about how your first memory or first few memories is indictive of what kind of person you are, or personality you have.

I'm not sure if this is my first memory, but ONE of my first at least: I was probably about 3, walking up stairs, when I got scratched by the family cat. I think this may be why to this day I tend to dislike cats. I love animals too.

[Macheath]

Around the age of two or three; either a sour grape, an ice cream cone or the moon. I don't know what order.

[bermuDa]

cuervo, i did the same thing to the family van when i was 6! lol!

[lordjeebus]

I remember (I was about 2) riding some sort of plastic toy tricycle thing on top of my apartment building, getting off, and opening a compartment built into the seat. I took out a small orange ball that was inside, went into the building, and dropped the ball into a sink. I think somebody helped me do these things but I don't remember who, how, or why.

[GakFace]

I don't remember THE FIRST, but I remember playing in the sandbox, I remember when the bat was in the house, I remembering riding my first bike through the yard.. and I remember the house being collosal. Which when I revisited the area last summer, I was astonished by how small the house actually is. The front yard was still decent, but thats because there isn't much of a backyard, so the front yard is basically the front and back.. heh.

[Fremen]

I remember going with my father to pick my mom up from work.
There was this long and winding drive to the nursing home and for some reason I still remember the cars' headlights flashing off the curbs as we went along.
I believe I was 3.

[ARTelevision]

2.5 years old, standing on my grandfather's desk,
drawing on the wall, saying " 'ite, 'ite, 'ite " (write, write, write)...

This would seem to be the nascent performance artist, writer.

I was caught while doing this and so it is objectively verified to have actually occurred.

[Arc101]

There is a book called "Unlocking the Secrets To YOur Childhood Memories," it says something about how your first memory or first few memories is indictive of what kind of person you are, or personality you have.

Oh oh, my first memory was when I was about 3 years old. I was playing with match's and I burnt the garden shed down. I've never burnt anything else down so it wasn't habit forming. By the way my dad gave up smoking after this !

[anti fishstick]

well i remember i was 5 or something and getting burnt by my dad's cigarette butt and i completely hated smoking (and still do). we were going to the local fairgrounds and i was holding my mom's hand and my dad was on the other side of me and his cigarette was perfect level to my hand :T

[skippy]

Originally posted by anti fishstick
well i remember i was 5 or something and getting burnt by my dad's cigarette butt and i completely hated smoking (and still do). we were going to the local fairgrounds and i was holding my mom's hand and my dad was on the other side of me and his cigarette was perfect level to my hand :T

I have a very similar memory. My dad was walking next to me and it burnt my ear when the ember broke off as the smoke touched my ear. He was so sorry about that. I remember I got ice cream and wagon wheels cookies... mmmm

I remember almost nothing from when I was little. First real memory was cracking my head open at 5 years old.

[Macheath]

Originally posted by ARTelevision
2.5 years old, standing on my grandfather's desk,
drawing on the wall, saying " 'ite, 'ite, 'ite " (write, write, write)...

Oh wow, how could I forget. Some college postgrad happened to interview my parents for a research paper on language development. I was lucky enough to find a copy of the paper itself a few months back and I learnt that the first thing I wrote (without any kind of supervision) was a sign posted in my room with the word "NOCAMIFRO" on it. Should be able to figure out what that means. I guess I've always liked my privacy. I need to ask the folks exactly how old I was when I wrote it.

[krwlz]

I distinctly remember the hospital room my mom had when she had my brother. I was 2. To this day I could tell you the exact color and every detail to that room.

[bundy]

i remember sitting on our balcony in Canada when i was 3. i was eating some rice pudding.

i don´t really have any memories from before that.

[Harmonia]

Originally posted by skippy
I have a very similar memory. My dad was walking next to me and it burnt my ear when the ember broke off as the smoke touched my ear. He was so sorry about that. I remember I got ice cream and wagon wheels cookies... mmmm

I, too, have a similar story. I think I was like 3 or 4 and my dad had all of his buddies there and I LOVED the smell of matches. So he asked me if I'd ever seen a match burn twice. Oh man! lol (Pretty much you light a match, let it burn a little bit, blow it out and then press it to someones skin.) He obviously wasn't trying t burn me. He had thought he let it sit long enough and now I have a small scar on my arm. lol

My first memory? Wow. I have a really great long term memory. Let's see...I was 2.5 I think and I remember trying to pull my younger cousin out of the entertainment center. When he was smaller he'd always climb in there and sit so that he was like...a v with his head and feet sticking out the front. Well, he got too big and got stuck. I just remember trying to help him.

[bennyb]

bout 4 years old, playing in a park in london. Met some arabic child. eating fruit salad. I still love fruit salad to this day. But in the memory, everything has like a golden filter over it. Its weird. It all came back to me in a dream, and i asked my mom about it and she was like, yeah, that was when we were in london.

[laconic1]

Right before I turned 4 I remember going with my family to pick out a dog.

[mattevil]

i think i got you all beat(cept for maybe people with fetal memories lol). i specifically remember shaking a plastic egg full of chocalate around easter in front of my mom and grannie at about 1 and half.

[Xiangsu]

When I was four I remember watching All Dogs Go to Heaven in my neighbors house. I broke into it when they were on vacation and when I left I had games and movies stuck in my pants. I also remember almost cutting my finger off when I was 5, my mom put it under warm water for some reason and it hurt like hell.

[hobarth]

Originally posted by 2thumbsup
I remember almost nothing from when I was little. First real memory was cracking my head open at 5 years old.

I'm very sorry but this almost made me laugh. I feel horrible now.

My first memory, at least the very first that I can place in time is a very unpleasant one. It (or perhaps rather the event that the memory is of) has actually given me several nightmares through my life, mosltly when I was a kid.

I'm about four years old and my three years younger brother has just fallen into a ditch and is slowly disappearing under water. I'm running towards him to pull him out of there but won't make it. Then I remember my mother holding him, all muddy and screaming like a pig.

It ended up fine but the feeling of not being able to make has been tough. Whether it's an actual recollection of my feelings at the time or if I have created that memory.

[anti fishstick]

Originally posted by anleja
[B] There is a book called "Unlocking the Secrets To YOur Childhood Memories," it says something about how your first memory or first few memories is indictive of what kind of person you are, or personality you have.

interesting how psychologists can psychoanalyze memories :P i wonder what they'd say about me. i have another memory. waiting for my dad to come home from work at 8 everynight bcos he'd bring me paper to draw on. and i'd have to tear those little perforated strips with the holes on the left and right side of the paper.... and i'd get out my markers and crayons and draw all day. and i'd read stories to my stuffed animals pretending i was a teacher and it was story time. i was 4 or 5.

[fuzzix]

I can remember quite clearly from about 2.5 years onward. There are quite a few memories from this time, so this may not be the first, but one of my earliest memories is of being in the garden and coming upon a large bag of dirt. Since it was in a packet, I didn't immediately realize that it was dirt (why would dirt be in a bag?) so I started eating it, in the hope that it was chocolate. It wasn't of course, but funilly enough I kept eating it anyway.

[bermuDa]

Originally posted by anti fishstick
interesting how psychologists can psychoanalyze memories :P i wonder what they'd say about me. i have another memory. waiting for my dad to come home from work at 8 everynight bcos he'd bring me paper to draw on. and i'd have to tear those little perforated strips with the holes on the left and right side of the paper.... and i'd get out my markers and crayons and draw all day. and i'd read stories to my stuffed animals pretending i was a teacher and it was story time. i was 4 or 5.

Hehe that's the old dot matrix printer paper. We used to have boxes of that stuff for our old computer, I'd do the same thing, making murals on them ^_^ I also enjoyed playing with the strips on the sides... good times.

[anti fishstick]

yeah id fold them around and make accordians out of two strips and color them too.

[BlueBongo]

When I was 2 we lived in Nevada and my sister helped me make a snow Snoopy..... and also I remember the horses my mom raised, almost killed me. Word of advice... don't let your children hug horses legs.

[yellowgowild]

I remember grabbing the metal prongs going into an electrical outlet when I was 7 months old. I think I woke up in that moment.

[yellowgowild]

Originally posted by IC3
When I was about 4 years old I guess my mother fell asleep on the couch, I decided i was gonna hop on my big wheel and go for a ride.

Well, I ended up about 4 or 5 blocks away from my house when my uncle happened to drive by...He was on his way to my house.

He freaked on my mom.

The thing that kind of bugs me, When my mom told me this story..She found it rather amusing. Which kinda bothered me.

What if my Uncle didn't drive by that day...Oh well.

What if that wasn't your Uncle? Are you sure you're with the right family?

[Sledge]

I remember the apartment I lived in when I was 3. It had 3 rooms and a bathroom. Every single night I lived there I had the same dream: I'd be standing in the bedroom listening to a skull in the ceiling give me a mission, and then I'd turn around and enter the kitchen, which would be littered with skeletons and broken bones and skulls clacking their teeth and reaching out with bony fingers to get me.

Probably says a lot about me.

[phredgreen]

my youngest memories are of when i was four, living down in tucson. there were lots of kids about, so we would all play hemans and thundercats together. after a particulalry nasty storm, the wooden fence in our backyard blew over and we used to ride our tricycles up and down it. i also remember bits of the day my paternal grandparents visited (they died shortly afterwards) and the day my dad left, but not alot else from back then or before.

[Bill O'Rights]

Originally posted by anti fishstick
interesting how psychologists can psychoanalyze memories :P i wonder what they'd say about me. i have another memory. waiting for my dad to come home from work at 8 everynight bcos he'd bring me paper to draw on. and i'd have to tear those little perforated strips with the holes on the left and right side of the paper.... and i'd get out my markers and crayons and draw all day. and i'd read stories to my stuffed animals pretending i was a teacher and it was story time. i was 4 or 5.

My god...does it GET any cuter than that?!?

I was probably around the three year mark when I went on an errand with dad to a local junkyard. We had an old 1953 Willey's Jeep pickup. (I wish we still had it...I loved that truck.) Anyway, while dad was conducting business with the proprietor, I was playing with my toy cars on the dash of the truck. I soon grew bored with that, and decided to crawl over to the driver's seat, so that I could pretend to drive, as I had done many times before. This time however, instead of just playing with the steering wheel, I moved the gearshift, like I saw dad do, and ended up knocking the transmission into neutral. Being parked on an incline, the truck, with little me inside of it, started rolling down the road, toward the highway. I can remember looking in the rear view mirror and seeing my dad, and the junkman, running for all they were worth trying to catch me, but it was a steep incline and I was gaining speed and quickly losing them, thinking what fun this was. Had I kept going straight, I would have left the junkyard and entered a busy state highway and would surely have gotten seriously hurt. Being three, I didn't recognize the danger, but for whatever reason I tried to turn and managed to turn the steering wheel hard to the right, to follow the road within the junkyard. Bear in mind, that this was a 1953 truck...no power steering. The truck drifted to a stop and dad caught up to me. He bought me some candy and some new Matchbox cars and told me to never ever tell my mother about that little adventure. To this day (I'm 41 now) I never have.

[SabrinaFair]

My earliest memory is from age two or three...my mother was pregnant with my brother, but I don't remember if it was before or after my birthday. Anyway, I was playing with my mom on the floor and our black cat, Acey, came up to the glass door with a dead mouse in his mouth, dangling by its tail. I swear to GOD, that cat was smiling as he proudly displayed his kill.

[Midlandmadman]

I don't want people to think I am calling them a liar, but some of these "memories" seem like they would be something that was told to them. Especially the ones that involve some kind of trauma. I just can't imagine anyone remembering anything that happend to them before they were 2 and the person that said 7 months.... I find that hard to believe. If you got shocked by a plug at 7 months... your mom and dad or sisters and brothers probably retold you the story about what you did soooooo many times that you think you remember doing it....but, do you? Or the one about the snoopy snowman, do you really remember building it or do you have pictures of it, know you help build it cause you are in the pictures and think you remember building it?

I guess i am skeptical because I cant remember much. I think my first memory was in kindergarten.

But I know when I was 2 I got about 45 stiches in my head from my cousin hitting me in the head with a big rock. Do I remember this??? NO. I do have the scars and my family has told me about that day quite a few times. I have pics of me in the Hospital, so it would be very easy for me to say I remember this....but, I don't. I wonder if people get what they know happened and what they remember happened confused when they try to think back.

[dragon2fire]

i dont remember the age or why i was there but

me and a friend of mine i dont remember his name were playing out front of his house and there was this trailer and i climbed on this ladder on back and i fell and hit my knee real hard


another one i have dont remember when but around the same time i went to pet a different friends dog and it bit my arm up real bad i dont remember the pain


but the memory that stands out the most i was five and my mom was rushing me to the hospotial and i remember thorwing up like mad and then i remember waking up and asking were am i


that happened alot thourgh the frist five years of my life see we did not know at the time that i had eypulapse(sp?)

[legolas]

I remember looking a clock in my living room and saying my first word "cookie." I'm fairly certain of this memory.

[Mr. Moe]

When I was around two years old, I recall going to another kids house and playing with the Ghostbuster fire hall and his assortment of ninja turtle toys.

[World's King]

We had a wall-mounted green can opener in our first house.

That's the only thing I can remember... from the last 22 years.