What is your earliest memory?

[bertha katzenengel]

I vaguely remember something surrounding my heart surgery. I had four, between 3 mos. and 2 years.

But the earliest clear memory is that my sisters and I were going somewhere with our father (who'd divorced our mother when I was 2). I dropped my favorite doll out the car window, and I must've screamed bloody murder, because he turned the car around and got it for me.

How long ago was this? Well... in my memory my dad was wearing a flat top.

Yours?

[no name no slogan]

1. Getting hit by a tree in a tornado

I was almost 2 years old, and I vividly remember that night-- almost like it was yesterday, nearly 35 years later. I remember my dad holding me down while they X-rayed my skull. I had a fracture that went from my crown to my right ear and a concussion. I think it may be partially responsible for many of my ongoing health issues, too.

[Shine]

21. Poor thing! That must've been scary.

Dang, that was quite a skull fracture! :hug:

[no name no slogan]

81. aw thanks Shine!

yeah, now that I look back on it, it was a pretty big deal. Had I known 20 years ago what I know now, I could have avoided a lot of nasty shit in my life.

[Deja Q]

2. Throwing up in daycare...

:blush:

Mum had her '74 silver-gray Plymouth Horizon hatchback, I felt sick, I recall the mobile home trailer the daycare chick lived in... the huge poster of Jesus (the typical honkey version) on the wall... I threw up in the car too. :(

'tis a good memory, considering it's about upchucking...

[LeftyMom]

3. Camping with my Dad's best friend's family when I was two.

It's kind of a sad memory now, because his friend's little boy was my first real friend- we played a lot on that trip- and he passed away as a teenager. The poor kid was ill his whole life with a rare autoimmune disease.

[Misunderestimator]

4. When I was 3, I remember an Episcopal priest coming to our house

to pray with us for my mother who had just been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease and given a year or so to live. Turns out it was Multiple Sclerosis and she lived another 25 years, but that is definitely my first memory. I don't recall much else until I was about 5 when I started taking piano lessons.

[maveric]

5. Listening to my grandparents argue in Italian with "Alley Oop" on th radio

1958. I was two.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. My mother listening to the radio

gasping, and rushing to call my grandparents, telling them, "Stalin died." (This would have been significant news, because my grandfather was from Latvia, and Stalin had inflicted a lot of suffering on the Latvians.)

I knew it was an early memory, but I didn't know quite how early until a few years ago when I checked to see when Stalin had died. It was a couple of months before my third birthday.

[skygazer]

7. When my tricycle was run over

I was about 3. I'd left it in the driveway that we shared with the farmer next door (who was a sweet man and also our landlord) and the farmer had backed over it with the hay truck.

I remember standing on our porch in the twilight and my brother, who was 6, coming up the steps holding the seat of the tricycle out like an offering. And I knew it was my own fault because my mother always told me not to leave my tricycle in the driveway. :(

Interesting how all of these memories concern something fairly traumatic (for someone).

[Jara sang]

8. The Big Bang

[wain]

16. That's funny!

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

18. Of the galaxy?!

or something a tad more recent? :rofl:

:yoiks:

[Nikia]

9. A couple memories from when I was 2

I remember being in a train when we went to Toronto. A couple months later, I remember going trick-or-treating. I have other memories that may have happened around that time, before, or after but they are no longer in sequential order for me.

[flamingyouth]

10. Being afraid of a white van across the street.

I was in my stroller and my mom wanted to take me for a walk around our cul-de-sac. But I was afraid of this white van and kept screaming. I have no idea why. :shrug:

[AlienGirl]

75. Oh, that's interesting!

I had a brief phobia of white vans too. Were you ever afraid of anything like blinking traffic lights?

Tucker

[trof]

11. Something about a pterodactyl.

I'm not sure if it was mine or the kid's next door.

[Shine]

22. LOL!! When I saw your subject line, I assumed you were saying you

were as old as the dinosaurs.... :rofl: ...which, of course you're NOT.


heheheh. :hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

12. I wasn't yet walking.....though I did walk late, at around 19 months.

Me and my mom were living with her parents out on the family farm. There was a hallway from some room into the living room; at the end of the hall, there was a glass paned door, with a glass doorknob. I remember crawling down the hall and reaching for the glass doorknob. I couldn't reach it.....

I cried, and someone came and picked me up...

Many years later, I was again in that house, just before it was going to be torn down. I walked down that hall, into the open doorway. The glass door was gone, but the rest of the layout was the same.

My memory turned out to be correct, after all. I was so glad to be able to verify it! 19 months old.....

:hi:

[wain]

13. Fell out of a car at 25 -30 mph when I was 2 1/2

In the days before car seats and safety locks I'm sitting in the back seat by the door. I opened the door and out I go!

I remember lying on the side of a gravel road. Got myself 14 stitches in the back of the head. (See, I do have an excuse for some of my behavior!)

Must have scared the dickens out of my mother. She must have felt horrible. Today, I joke that she pushed me out of the car! (I'm so funny!).;-)

[graywarrior]

14. Begging the doctor to put me back in.

[Xipe Totec]

25. LOL!

That's a good one! :rofl:

[Deja Q]

66. oops, wrong response

[SofaKingLiberal]

15. Trying to kick my way out of the womb.

:bounce:

[lizziegrace]

17. Waving to my father's helicopter

We lived in CT and my father was in the National Guard there. I remember standing out on the front porch at night with my two sisters waving at him flying overhead during manuevers.

[nuxvomica]

19. I was 2 and a half and I distinctly remember a plastic teacup...

half-buried in the dirt with a small, plastic baseball stuck in it. The teacup was pink and had a raised leaf garland pattern just below the rim. I had just been told by the older kids, including my sister, that if I wanted to drink some of the gasoline they had found that I'd have to find my own cup. Imagine my joy at finding this cup in the lawn only 20-or-so feet away! I removed the ball, brushed of the dirt and went back to drink the gasoline.
It's possible to determine the exact day this occurred because I am told that both my sister and I spent that night in the hospital after having our stomachs pumped. We returned home the following day, the same day my pregnant mother entered the hospital to give birth to my brother.
I remember none of this except the teacup and it's seemingly fortuitous appearance and the way the tasty gasoline burned my throat.

[Shine]

20. Sitting in my high chair, in my powder blue Dr. Denton's pjs

I was probably under 2 yrs old at the time.

[WCGreen]

45. I betcha were cute....

[MnFats]

23. playing with my family's new puppy on the kitchen floor...

...i was about 3.
....it's a very pleasant memory..

[ashling]

24. Usually about 5:30 AM

on second thought, I usually have to go to the bathroom about 2:30 , so I guess that would be it :P

[miss_american_pie]

26. Being dropped off at my aunt's

as my parents went to the hospital for my brother to be born. First time I was away from my mother. I was 2 years and 6 days old.

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. My first one

[Arkansas Granny]

28. My earliest memories are like snapshots of different scenes.

When I described them to older family members it seems that I have described a house that we moved from when I was about 2 years old. I have vivid memories of events that happened when I was 3-4 years old: riding in the back of an old pickup with my dad at night, a visit from my grandparents, a train trip and several others that I know were before my 4th birthday.

[funkybutt]

29. Apendectomy surgery at 2

also it snowed that year, and I was all bundled up in the front yard with my older siblings. They were having fun but I was uncomfortable and crying. LOL

I remember quite a bit from the surgery. People who visited. My great aunt brought me a stuffed monkey with a pack of gum between his velcrowed together hands. I thought that was great! The baby bed was steel and the nurses were very nice.

[bertha katzenengel]

69. the memory of the monkey from your great aunt is sweet

:hi:

[DawgHouse]

30. My twin brother and I had the chicken pox when we were 2.

I remember going to the grocery store and my brother and I were bundled up in the back seat in a blanket. We both had the chicken pox. Older brother was in the front seat. Mom and Dad went into the store (these were different times then) for a few minutes.

When they came out, Dad passed a box of Yum Yums (cookeies) through the back window to me and my brother. I remember this very clearly but my brother doesn't remember it at all.

His earliest memory is of when I pushed him off the back step and he had to get stitches in his forehead. I don't remember that at all. Frankly, I think he made it up to make me feel guilty :)

[barb162]

34. yeah, he probably made it up and you're still guilty

teehee

[DawgHouse]

39. Yeah, he also claims I poured hot coffee on him

and has some fake scars on his forearm to prove it. He'd do anything to get his little sis in trouble :)

[khashka]

31. You asked for it Bertha....

All about the same time:

Being in our house as a hurricane tore it apart: "Mama," I asked " Will we all die together or will we die alone?"

Shortly after, my spinal cord was broken in a freak accident. And while I was in a fully body cast, I got chicken pox! Fun, fun, fun!

'Bout the same time a certain family member started molesting me.

I was 4.

Nice earliest memories, eh? Ah well, gives me a good excuse for being a ratfuck bastard and also makes me aware of the much worse suffering of others. And how lucky I have been since.

I'd like to have some nice memories, though, from that time..... (Certainly many good things must have happened....)



Khash.

[wain]

61. Oh my gosh, Khashka

I wish only new, good memories for you.

But you seem strong and certainly not disillusioned about life.

:hug:

[bertha katzenengel]

68. Khash, I offer you the same phrase I think of whenever I hear

tales of sadness like yours. It sounds harsh but I say it completely without malice or sarcasm.

Welcome to the world, baby girl. :pals:

"Certainly many good things must have happened." I used to say that to my therapist all the time. Seriously. As time went on I did recover good memories. I wish you the same. :hug:

[khashka]

77. Yeah I understand, Bertha

"Welcome to the world, baby girl."

I usually say (and often to myself):

Worse things happen at sea.


:hug:
Khash.

[Sgent]

32. 1976 Liberty Bowl

Its hazy, but I can remember it being rainy and miserable, and the drive up to the game. I also remember my dad driving and my uncle buying me a pennant (which probably triggered the memory).

I was 18 mos.

[hfojvt]

41. I was 13 or 14 when that happened

and I don't remember anything about it. Although, it's not like I went to the game, or followed college football at all.

[barb162]

33. I was 2 or 3 and moving from one apt to another.

[BreweryYardRat]

35. Nothing pleasant.

Taking a header off a tennis court picnic table onto concrete when I was about 2. I remember the sunset, and I remember the ground rushing up to meet me.

[u4ic]

36. Not a good one

I was 2 or 3; my mother was giving me a bath, my father stormed in and dragged her across the room by her hair.

I don't have many memories of my childhood at all, never mind happy ones. :(

[auntAgonist]

43. ...

:hug: I'm so sorry :(

[u4ic]

48. Thanks, auntieA

:hug:

[mdmc]

49. mine was a little better

I was trying to get in to the basement at my grandmother's house. There was a small entryway that led to the basement door from the outside. The entryway was filled with bees and flies, on account of the garbage cans that were stored there.
I tried to run through the entryway and in to the basement, but when I got to the door it was locked.
At the time, I did not understand the concept of 'locked'. I cried and continued to try and open the door. I remember thinking that I couldn't get a good grip on the door knob, or that my hands were not working because of the flies or bees. I kept crying and eventually collapsed trying to open the door.
My granfather came running and rescued me. This is the only memory I have of my grandfather.




(actually, u4ic, I also remember once my grandfather caught me shitting in his shoe. Apparently I did this for a short time. Hoped that cheered you up!:))

[u4ic]

55. LOL

that second one was quite a doozy, mdmc! :D

I have a funny story, too, though I don't remember it as I was a baby...my second oldest sister (11 years my senior) was playing with me not long after I ate...held me above her as she was making googly eyes...and guess who barfed...in_her_mouth.

She still reminds me that she swallowed it. :puke:

[mdmc]

57. :-D

I didn't know that you have a sister! :kick: for the tale.

[u4ic]

58. 3 sisters, one brother

:hi:

[mdmc]

59. I have a sis, nephew, and cat

:)

[u4ic]

60. Well, if you want to get into nephews...

7 of them, 2 nieces, 3 great nieces and 1 great nephew.

And I haven't even hit 40 yet! :crazy:

[mdmc]

63. good God!

Pretty big family! :) (and no cats!)

[u4ic]

71. Nope;

horses and birds, yes, but never any cats.

[mdmc]

73. why no cats? any dogs

:kick:

[mdmc]

74. any dogs or cats?

[billyskank]

62. ...

:cry:

:hug:

[u4ic]

72. Thanks, billy

:hug:

It took me a while to get up the guts to post it.

[Generic Brad]

37. JFK's Assassination

It really upset my mother. I was two.

[El Fuego]

38. I told my parents I remembered something from when I was 2

Helping my Dad paint the house... I remembered it very vividly. They told me I had imagined it. I never could convince them otherwise.

But after they both died, I found photos of exactly what I remembered. A little 2 year old me, standing on a step ladder, helping my Dad paint the house.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

50. A perfect example of how our memories fade

I'm glad you found a pic of your special moment. What a shame your dad couldn't remember that what was probably a pain-in-the-butt chore for him was such a wonderfully big deal to you... :)

[El Fuego]

70. Exactly!

Some things are just more significant to little kids than to busy adults. There were so many incidents my parents told me "never happened." But they did! :)

[deadparrot]

40. My baby brother's birth.

I was 3.

[clyrc]

42. Hiding from someone in a dark bathroom

with one of my stuffed animals. I think I was hiding from an imaginary friend (I had several of them over the years, all male.) I was about 3. I remember even more clearly being the first one to see that my baby sister's umbilical stump had fallen off, a huge deal since it completely bothered me, at 3 and a half.

[doc03]

44. A tornado followed the road past our house skipping from

side to the other taking out a tree on one side and a roof on the other then back for a garage or out building. I was maybe 3 years old I remember the power being out and we ran to the basement in the middle of the night and a noise like a freight train outside. I remember seeing the damage it caused the next morning.

[leeroysphitz]

46. Arguing with my dad about "pears" vs. "prayers"

Couldn't have been older than 3, 3 1/2 since we moved to another home around that time. My dad telling me to say my prayers before going to sleep. Me telling him I would say my "pears". My dad pretending to be angry with me... Earliest memory. Earliest notion of a sense of humor.

I love my dad.

[TrogL]

47. Standing at (actually below) the kitchen table

demanding hot chocolate

[leftofthedial]

51. I vaguely remember 7:23

and I'm almost positive it was A.M.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

52. I have a lot of memories froman undetermined age...

The earliest where I remember my age was at age 3, sitting in the sun on a beautiful day, and thinking that I wanted to remember the joy of the moment.

But there are others, good and bad, that I'm sure were earlier...
...sitting on the edge of my bed, "feeding" my doll, and asking my dad to take a picture

...finding my dad's nasty porn pics, and being very confused by them. I asked him why awoman was tied up, and he told me she was being punished. Sometimes he could be a real dumbfuck.

..."flying" into the kitchen and trying to get my mother to turn around and look at me; but she wouldn't, so I flew back to my bed. I'm pretty sure this was a very vivid dream; but one never really knows. ;-)

...visiting my aunt, and looking out her front window at the Tudor-style houses across the street

...apple juice and graham crackers in Sunday School for pre-schoolers

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

53. I have a very vague memory of being babysat by old Jewish ladies in our

Bronx apartment when I was a baby, or very small, when my parents went out to dinner or the movies or something.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

54. Having insane sexual desires for Flash Gordon's girlfriend

I must have been about two and a half or maybe three and watched Flash Gordon episodes on TV back in the early 50s. I had no idea what sex was, but I know that she has hotter than hell and I wanted her bad. I even had a little set of Flash Gordon plastic action figures my parents had bought for me and one of them was Dale, the girlfriend. I was always lavishing my attentions on that particular little plastic toy and none of my friends could touch it.

[marzipanni]

56. My brother spanking my behind as I took a nap with my

legs folded under me and my butt in the air. He was 13 months older than me and I think jealous of the attention my mom had to give her youngest kid. He stuck his arm through the crib bars and whack,whack, whack! I cried and remember feeling frustrated that our babysitter came up the stairs saying "hush, hush HUSH!", and I could not communicate why I was crying. She and my brother were very close because she took care of him and two older brothers when our mom betrayed him and went to the hospital to have me.

[DS1]

64. Punching my way out of the womb

[Mutley]

65. Moving into our first house in Va. Beach when I was 2.

My sister and I were rolling around in some tall grass across the street, then she walked me to the 7-11 for our first Slurpees (they didn't have 7-11s where we lived before, apparently).

[Deja Q]

67. Asking God NOT to create The Big Bang...

I told Him that Creation before marriage is immoral...

:spray: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[AlienGirl]

76. Age-wise: Fourteen months old, being unexpectedly weaned

My mother had to go into the hospital, and I was staying at my grandmother's house. I was very upset and didn't want to eat anything except the raisins out of toasted raisin bread. I also stayed up very late that night, and my grandma got frustrated because I wouldn't stay in bed.

Tucker

[neweurope]

78. Millions of little rainbows...

I was two and a half, my mother and me visited her uncle in Hamburg. He took me to some public play ground which was exciting because we didn't have anything like that at home. It suddenly rained, only for some minutes, then the sun came out again, and every raindrop everywhere turned into a little rainbow. It was fairyland :)

----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[RevCheesehead]

79. Watching my mom cry during President Kennedy's funeral.

I was almost 2. I remember seeing her cry, running to her, and saying "Don't cry, mommy!"

[yellowdogintexas]

80. My grandfather bringing a kitten to my mother, who very much

wanted a cat. He personally did not care for cats, so for him to hand carry a kitten into the house for her was a big deal. But in reality, there wasn't much he wouldn't do for her....
The cat was orange, grew very large and was named Buttons.
I was most likely between 2 and 3

[Bzzzz]

82. My aunt...

changing my bed clothes, because I wet the bed...she's now deceased and I miss her so very much!