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Subscribe to RSSSome are as cozy as a lullaby, like the 52-year-old melodic, moving picture inside Scott Rubel’s head of Joan Baez and her sister, Mimi, strumming guitars, “smiling like goddesses,” and personally serenading away his tears. In that moment, he was 3.
Others are sad, like the 43-year-old desperate pleas that still echo inside Lucy Boyd’s mind: she’s wrapped in her mother's arms as the woman begs her husband — Lucy’s father — not to leave their marriage. On that day, she was not quite 2.
Our first palpable recollections — from vital, early mileposts to seemingly random snapshots of our toddler years — stick for good, on average, when we reach 3 1/2 years old, according to numerous past studies. At that age, the hippocampus, a portion of the brain used to store memories, has adequately matured to handle that task, experts say.
In fact, a fleet of neural-engines are simultaneously revving to life at roughly that same age, including our verbal abilities and the revelation that we are each our own entities, says Julie Gurner, a Philadelphia-based doctor of clinical psychology.
“We know that having language can be very important to memories because in having words for our experiences, we can talk about them, repeat them, and structure them,” says Gurner, who lectures on the brain’s anatomy and functions as assistant professor of psychology at the Community College of Philadelphia. “Around the age of three, we are also developing a distinct sense of self that allows you to distinguish who you are from the outside world.”
Meanwhile, research continues to churn up evidence on how, why and when first memories are recorded.
- Last year, researchers at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada reported that the earliest recollections of most grade-school children change or "shift" as they mature – and only by about age 10 are they finally cemented into those singular recollections that adults carry through life. That study was published in the journal Child Development.
- Females seem to form their first permanent memories two to three months earlier than males and, for both genders, inaugural memories tend to be visual and positive rather than verbal or negative, according to a study published in journal Consciousness & Emotion in 2003.
“Strong emotional events truly burn themselves into our memories — both the good and the bad,” Gurner says. “My experience tends to be about half of clients report positive and half report negative experiences. There is likely no one reason we can pinpoint why one person might retain a good memory and another person might retain a bad one. Psychologists are continuing to examine how our predispositions, traits, environment and biology factor into how we frame our own experiences.”
For whatever reason, one lone moment has been selected and stamped in our brains as the first day our life experiences became worthy of mentally filing away and cataloguing. In a sense, they're our cognitive birthday.
For Scott Rubel, that everlasting fragment comes with its own sweet soundtrack – provided by folk singer Joan Baez. That’s the first memory cherished by Rubel, who from age two to four lived on the campus of Redlands University in Redlands, Calif., where his dad was a student.
One night in 1960, a classmate of his father took the family to dinner. En route, they stopped in San Bernardino at the Wigwam Hotel -- which featured an array of 30-foot-tall teepees -- to pick up two more friends: Baez and her sister.
“I probably had seen a couple of John Wayne movies by then and the situation I found myself in seemed like a threat,” says the 55-year-old president of a custom stationery website who lives in Los Angeles. “I began to cry like a baby -- which I guess I was -- and my mother and father held me while the very kind and patient sisters took out their guitars.
“I remember the visual of it clearly as I stopped crying and gazed at these two beautiful women, who [were] dressed almost the same in boots and black skirts with red tops and buckskin jackets," Rubel recounts. "Both had long super-black hair and were true entertainers."
The duo sang and played “until I was calm,” he says, adding that he can mark his age at three years and nine months because he was told Baez had just performed at the Newport Folks Festival.
On the other edge of the emotional spectrum, Lucy Boyd lugs a harsh first childhood memory – the crumbling of her parents’ marriage. During that horrible few minutes, Boyd can picture herself being held by her mother as the woman sat on a piano bench near the front door, beseeching her husband.
“He said he was leaving and she was begging him not to go … I also always had an innate sense of, ‘This is important; I need to always remember this,'" says Boyd, 45, a registered nurse and author from Hixson, Tenn. She knows this occurred just before she was two because her parents divorced in 1968.
Then, there are what seem like mundane first memories – stray threads of our past that seem to carry no special weight.
Paula Pant, 28, remembers sitting on her mother’s lap in their Cincinnati living room. She believes she was 2 years old at the time.
“My mom was talking to a guest, one of her friends, who was sitting opposite us," says Pant, who now lives in Atlanta and runs a financial-advice site . "The guest wanted me to sit in his lap. My mom tried to put me in his lap. I started crying, so my mom reversed course, keeping me in her lap. That’s it. It’s a standard, everyday childhood event; nothing special or out-of-the-ordinary. There's no reason it would be seared in my mind as my first memory. And yet it is.”
While such fragments might seem to lack any larger meaning decades later, often they do carry some form of subconscious heft, Gurner says.
“This woman may only remember what she sees as an insignificant snippet of memory because it may be the only trace left of a memory that likely was more extensive at another time,” Gurner says. “Often, especially in early memories or before language, we have a hard time keeping our memories in a context. Our memories can fade, and if they do not disappear, sometimes we can be left with the bits."
Gurner’s own first memory was notched, she says, at about age 2, taking place on the farm where she grew up. She is standing in her playpen, gazing out the window at a creature in the pasture. As she soaks in the image, her brain is flooded with questions and feelings of amazement because it is the largest single thing the girl has ever seen. The object: a horse.
“That sense of wonder and curiosity has never left me,” Gurner says. “I believe that sharing a first memory is meaningful because it reveals something uniquely personal about us to others. It allows us to share a moment in time from a vantage point of a younger version of ourselves, and gain insight into the younger versions of someone else.
“First memories get beyond the presentations of everyday life – of clothing, career and status -- and reveal something distinctly personal and unique about you … something about our families or environment," she adds. "But all of it has something that has been so resilient that it has withstood many years of other memories and experiences without erasure. For some it will be fun, for others, very painful – but for everyone, it’s personal.”
What's your earliest memory? Tell us the stories of the earliest moments in your life you can recall -- we'll publish our favorites in an upcoming Body Odd post.
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When I tell my earliest memory, folks tend to give me a weird look, mutter "uh-huh" and sort of poo-poo my story. But it's true and it has made a real mark on my life.
I was adopted at age 13 months.
I had a memory of an oval window in a door. The sun was shining through it and the bevels around the edges were causing rainbows in the sunlight. I was entranced. I was sitting on a wood floor, at the base of a set of stairs in the entryway of a house with that oval window in the door. I had to have been less than a year old, because this house and the door proved to be at a house where I lived with my birth mother. This all came to light after I found my biological family at about age thirty, and again just recently, sixty years after the memory with the revelations of the house and who lived there, by an elderly aunt.
I have always loved rainbows, crystal, prisms... anything that would break light into those beautiful colors!...my diamond engagement ring gave me such joy, to watch it twinkle in the light!.
I had one other memory before age one. It was of falling down steps outside. Later on, stories from a biological brother filled in the memory. I had been crawling around outside, he was supposed to be watching me, but I slipped away and got up the steps, then fell. He got a spanking. So his memory of the event was pretty clear!!
That pretty much ended my early memories. I have very little recollection of my new life after the adoption until I came down with whooping cough. That, I remember! and I was four then.
I wouldn't poo-poo it. My first memory is prior to my birth and being told to go get all of the light from the bottom of the ocean. My second first memory is my mother putting me on a scale to be weighed after I was born and the nurse had the same hair as my mother only it had more red in it. I couldn't figure out why their hair didn't move. I got older and found out it was hairspray and called a beehive.
Amazing that some people have memories from a very early age. I don't recall anything general or specific from before I was four. I look at photos from those early years and have no memory of that time, and even memories from when I was pre-school age are vague.
Wow! So similar to my first memory!! I remember sitting on the kitchen floor of our neighbor's house, playing with Russian matryoshka dolls. Sunlight was streaming in through the window and I remember watching the dust particles floating around. It glittered and floated down but I couldn't feel it if I reached out. It was magical to me and I still love that visual and anything that sparkles. It's almost comforting. My mother tells me I was 18 months at the time.
I also remember when I was 4 at preschool and I was painting the number "5" over and over in different colors like a rainbow. And at 5 I stood at the top of our staircase and thinking to myself "I must remember this moment for the rest of my life". I was just looking down into a room that seemed huge at the time, and all my toys and pets and happy things were down in that room. I guess I wanted to keep that memory forever.
I remember far more of my early years than I do of last week. I can remember those times vividly - which dolls and pets I had, their names, playing with them, books, songs, teacher I had, clothes I wore...the list goes on. I always say my favorite age was 5...and it's definitely one of my lottery numbers. :)
For the longest time I couldn't remember anything before turning 5 years old. Then one day I remember standing behind my grandma's body. Well, being forced to really. And I kept trying to see around her at what was going on. But Grammy would keep pushing me behind her and she was serious which wasn't like her when dealing with me.
Then I remembered it was a bank robbery. And I asked my mom about it and she confirmed I was four and we were visiting them in Tucson. They needed to go to the bank and planned to buy me ice cream on the way home. But the bank was robbed and grammy was trying to hide me.
To this day, that's my earliest memory.
Like Luci-1356914 my first memories are of being within the womb, then of the birth, and seeing my dads face after; I later learned that he picked me up and was staring at me and simply walked out of the room forgetting that I had another parent who might also like to admire their progeny. I remember that at a year old I dropped a pan on my toe while trying to climb onto the counter, and had a rooster that was as tall as me that would stalk me on the farm. I remember my sister being born 9 days before I turned 3. That's just some of the highlights. I remember a lot, especially after I turned 18 months old. In other words the article generalizes, and some of us have very vivid memories of those early years.
Those are incredible first memories! Luci-1356914 and Joe-1352307 thank you so much for sharing these memories. I have seen early memories in dreams, but the first thing I can remember is standing at a wall and people were calling my name. I turned around to look at them and something inside of me recognized them. I called each one of them by their name. One way my brother, several were my cousins. It was as if I had just arrived and met them for the first time, but I knew who they were . They asked me if I was ok and I said I was just fine. I think I must have been about 4 or 5 years old. I don't consciously remember anything else before this time.
I believe that speech (ability) development has a lot to do with the ability to retain memories, as someone in the article stated. My mom has told me that I talked very young...by one year old I was talking well in sentences, and that my pediatrician was amazed at my speech and always remarked about it, as he had a daughter born within a couple of days of my birth, and so was noticing such things in my development. So I have always thought that may be part of why I have some very early memories.
My first early memory is one of those that you do not really know why you remember it. I was just over a year old, and was laying in my crib looking up at a little plaque with Jesus on it, that hung over my bed. I remember the light from the window streaming in...it was just at dawn and everyone was still sleeping, and I distinctly remember listening to the hum of our refrigerator while gazing at the picture bathed in the window light. I told my mom about this memory as an adult some 40 years later, and she could not believe I remembered that since my younger brother was only thirteen months younger than me, and so I had only occupied that crib in that spot for a little over a year. She still had the plaque she said, and found it somewhere in the attic and gave it to me. i said that is not the right one...that shows Jesus as a boy and His whole body, and the one I was looking at was of Jesus face...close up. My mom was perplexed about that, but I know that is what I saw.
My other very early memory that I can pinpoint to as having been when I was just two years old, was when I found my dad unconscious in the bathroom. I was knocking on the door calling "daddy, daddy, daddy" and he was not answering. It is possible that I had heard him fall or something, because I knew I had to get in there and so I was trying to push the door open but his feet were somewhat in the way of the door opening. I did manage to push it far enough open to get my little body inside and I very clearly remember my dad lying with his head near the commode and there was blood on the floor (now know my dad had a bleeding ulcer). I called my mom, who came and then immediately called for an ambulance, and I remember the medical workers coming in our house and taking my dad out on a stretcher. In my just two year old understanding, the stretcher looked like the toboggan we went sledding on (and since that would have been months before, I guess I remembered earlier when I was only two), and so I kept asking my mom, "why are they taking daddy away on a toboggan?" When I mentioned this memory to my mom a few years ago, she again could not believe I could remember that, and she had even forgotten about me calling the stretcher a toboggan until I reminded her. But she did say again, I talked so well so early that no one could believe it. This memory is not something anyone ever told me about...we didn't ever talk about my dad's emergency situation over the following years. I am sure I remember this because it obviously was a frightening situation for me.
And, I am not sure of the impact that these very early memories have on us, however, I did grow up to attend nursing school and worked as a Registered Nurse for many years.
I love reading these stories of early memories! I have really early, clear memories and most people don't believe me. I think my earliest was when I was six months, there was a black cat in my bed and I thought..."This must be the weasel from my book" ( I still have the book about an animated weasel 30 some years later) As an adult I found out that we had cat-sat for a friend for a few weeks. It was my only early experience with a cat so of course I thought it was a weasel.
I can also remember my mom putting me in this awful orange itchy dress, I fought her and screamed at her so she wouldn't put me in it. In my memory I was three or four but when we found the picture and looked at the date I was only a year and a half. I remember being a "complete" human being at that point with my own opinion, feelings and thoughts.
These early memories have helped me parent my own children. I don't talk down to my children or act as if their feelings aren't real just because they are toddlers. The relatives I had that were mean, rude and nasty to me as a child I will never forget. I tell them now " I remember you hitting me because I accidentally spilled milk---I haven't forgotten" The difference is I am big enough to hit back now.
Also wanted to mention (from my comment #1.7) that I did grow up to attend nursing school, and worked as a Registered Nurse for many years. I am not sure if the early memory of my dad's emergency situation had anything to do with that, but most likely our earliest memories may have some influence on our later lives.
Joe - Actually to be more detailed my first memory was being outside sitting on a man's lap who had white hair and it was a stone building. There were many other people around and lots of blue tapestries. There was a gentle wind in the air and I would say standard temple torches, etc. We had a conversation and that was part of the conversation that we had.
The really intriguing part to this article was that last night before it was even published I was talking about having a memory of "walking with someone and having a conversation about some things I should not remember but it wasn't about me, although it was". LOL, the girl in the article's name is Lucy. I know why my name is spelled Luci and not Lucy. It has it's legitimate reasons.
I've heard that other people have said the same or similar things, like Gen. Patton.
Earliest memory for me, has to be my Parents let me watch Sat. Night Live once and I saw the Muppets on it. I must have been 3 or 4 at the time...
My earliest memory is of being in my crib, which was right near the front door of a house. The door had a diamond patterned window in it that I hated to look at because sometimes an older lady would come through the living room, peek up out through that glass, and then come stand over my crib and lean down near my face to look at me. Scared the crap out of me and I would try to cry, but I was so scared just this little whimper would come out, and the lady would be so close and looking like she was mad at me or something. I remember this happening more than once, and I never understood why my family would let some freaky mean old lady come stare at me that way.
So I never forgot her face or that diamond window on that door, and I still remember what my whimpers sounded like and how I would try to hide from her in the corner of the bed. I didn't get to ask my mother about that lady until I was grown up, and she was astounded when I described what I remembered. She said we moved from that house way before I was a year old, so I was really little. Anyway, she had no idea who some old lady was since no neighbors came in the house, we didn't live there long, and she remembered me whimpering and shaking all huddled up in the corner with my face away from everyone as if I was terrified. She said she would hear me and come to see what was wrong, but she said my eyes would be big as saucers as if I saw a ghost or something. She never found anything for me to be scared of and forgot about it since we we only lived there for a couple of months.
She thought a minute and then remembered the landlord's wife, who had lived in the house for many years, had died a few months before we rented the house, and we just looked at each other and it sank in why my mom could never see anyone there but I would be looking at something. My mom was freaking out when she started thinking out how no one ever was in the house and we didn't know anyone there, so who else was she?
Seriously, those are my first memories. I remember I had these Tinker Bell old sheets made from something else on that crib, and I still get creeped out when I see her since she makes me think of that lady staring down into my face.
Oh, and I remember seeing a hail storm when I was really little and thinking it was diamonds falling from the sky since it was sunny from one side and storming, too. The hail made prisms that was soo pretty!
And I remember sitting in the bathroom with the dictionary reading words out to my mother...lol. I lvoed that dictionary:)
Ah, my earliest memory is Christmas Day when I was not quite one. It was late in the day, because when we got to my grandparents' house it was dark outside and we came into the entryway where the tree was lit. My mother put me down on the floor while she took off her coat and greeted her parents. I remember three things distinctly - the contrast between the darkness and bright lights on the tree, the fact that on the lower branches at least they were bubble lights and I remember watching the water bubble inside the bulbs, and the sound - whoosh and tinkle of broken ornaments - when I accidentally pulled the tree over when I grabbed the electric cord to get a better look at the bubble lights. It must have startled me enough to imprint on my memory.
I don't remember one thing before the age of five, but I remember just about everything from that point on.
I have several early memories. We lived in a house outside of town and I remember having a birthday there. I was probably around 2 or 3. My mother who is 91 now also was a cleaning nut liked to keep the house clean. I remember her making us sit in our little rocking chairs until she got the living room clean once. In another house we lived in (we rented from her cousin at the time) I remember walking right into a spider web that was outside and as big as I was and it freaked me out. I also remember climbing up and getting into a cabinet with the baby aspirin in it and I shared them with my sister (she's 18 mos. younger than me). Got into trouble for that one. Also remember mom putting me in the shower with her (I must have been walking but not talking a lot yet). Scared me to death then. Never did get to learn to swim. I like showers though.
Wierdest memory I still have comes when I was about 9. We had just lost my dog Mitzi. I remember crying my eyes out when I learned she was dead. That night or the next one I was sleeping in my room and I swear to this day she walked into the room and came over to my bed. I will never forget that.
I think major life events play a role. One month before my 3rd birthday we moved from Minneapolis to Duluth. We lived there almost exactly one year, and then we moved to St Paul. I have a few memories associated with my first home and several distinct memories of the move to Duluth and life while we lived there. I think without those distinctive differences it may have all blurred together.
I remember being born!
Good stuff.
My second birthday is the first clear memory and 2 months later my mother crying in front of the TV. JFK had been killed.
I'd like to say I spent 9 months trying to get out and the last fifty trying to get back in but only half true;-)
I remember sooooo much. But I would say one of the earliest memories is of my mom holding me in what seemed a large overstuffed rocking chair feeding me a bottle, but I have no idea how old I was but must have been very young. I remember standing, holding on to our coffee table contemplating letting go to get to the couch. So that would be prior to really walking, very young. I remember being a toddler and my grandmother handing me to my grandfather to rock to sleep. I'll never forget the smell of his cologne or hair tonic or whatever he was wearing and the feel of his starched white button down shirt.
I knew how far back I can remember so why do I did a study to tell me so?
I remember right after my 2nd birthday, looking at houses with my mom and dad to move out of our cruddy little apartment. Which I have small clips of memories of that too. But looking at houses is the first full memory I have. I remember something....a toy...a pacifier maybe? Something I was holding falling away from me as my mother held me and falling under the fridge. Followed by about 10 minutes of crying because she wouldn't look for it. lol
These baby and "birth" memories are fun to talk about but the truth is research has determined that most or perhaps all are not "real." Sure, you remember them plain as day but almost always (perhaps always) they were created much later in life as the subject dreamed, thought about, listened to parents stories about, looked at pictures, watched videos, imagined or otherwise developed "memories" as a result. In fact, research actually demonstrates quite convincingly that MANY memories we hold are fragments of reality and other stuff combined to create them. Anyone like myself that has a large family understands this... I often listen to stories my brothers tell about childhood and often they tell the story MUCH differently than how I remember it. My 3rd brother often still tells a story of falling and burning his hands on a hot leaf-burning barrel in the yard... my mother has confirmed that it was actually ME that it happened to. My brother remembers otherwise and still disputes it.
Understanding that memories are typically not entirely accurate or sometimes just plain phantom memories is important to being an informed human being. This fact has also been proven repeatedly in studies of eye-witnesses to crimes - people simply remember things unreliably, incompletely and often see things that were actually never even there! This is why eye-witnesses have come under such scrutiny in modern criminal justice. Memories are heavily influenced by your subconscious brain, biases, beliefs, knowledge and other memories.
It's still fun to talk about them though!
It may seem impossible, but I remember the feeling of being in an incubator. Just the feeling of being surrounded by white and warmth. That was 1946. Jump ahead to the next one and I remember seeing the most magical thing on our TV. So much beauty, pomp, and pagentry. Now I know by the year I was watching the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I thought I could turn the TV off and then back on to finish as I thought everything was supposed to be happening in that box!
My first memory is a sneaky one. I was in my crib, supposed to be taking a nap, but I was standing and planning an escape over the crib rails. My hands and mouth were on the top of the crib rail - I still remember how the crib rail smelled and tasted. My older brother was making noise in his bedroom, which was right next to mine, and I heard my mother tell him to be quiet because I was sleeping. I remember feeling very smug and sneaky, and a tiny bit guilty, that they thought I was asleep when I was actually awake and planning my escape. It was enjoyable and a little empowering. I don't think I would have remembered standing in my crib, had I not heard my mother in the next room - it was the fact that my brother was told to quiet down for my sake, which was not really fair because I was awake - that made the memory stick.
I remember being in my crib too - it had a couple of loose bars, and I could remove them and escape. I was two years old, I went downstairs after being put to bed - my parents were still up - I asked for a piece of cheese. My dad chased me back to bed. I have a couple more distinct memories of him, which I cherish. He passed away when I was three.
I remember my dad smiling at me while he took the mobile off of my crib and I was so angry with him because I could almost reach those little bears.
My first memory is of my mom teaching me how to spell simple words. I think I was 3 and I was sitting on the floor with my mom and she was using letter fridge magnets to spell words like "cat" and then asked me how I would change it to spell "mat".
My first memory is of sitting in the bleachers at a baseball game and the next scene is leaving the stadium on my dad's shoulders falling asleep. I was about 3 or 4 years old and I had just attended my first baseball game at Fenway with my dad and Grandpa. :-)
Mine, if they are real memories, are kind of silly. I remember lying in my crib sucking my big toe, a feat my parents later told me I could do before I started to crawl. The next one, in the same context, was being upset because I could no longer get my toe to my mouth. As I said, silly . . .
In the one very early memory I know is real, my brother started chasing me across the yard and my father yelled at him to leave me alone. We had just moved into a new house and I wasn't quite three.
My first memory was that I was sitting in a seat in a movie theater and there was singing and music and then these cowgirls came dancing out of the walls of the side of the theater! I wondered how they did that. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I brought it up to my mom. She was amazed that I remembered that. She said I was about 3 and she and my aunt had taken my sister and I to the Easter show at Radio City Music Hall. The next time I went there, I noticed the curtains and doors on the side!
My earliest memory is of being in the lobby of a movie theatre with my family - it may have been my first time ever at the movies. I was probably around three years old. The first part I remember is wandering to the door that went into the auditorium and watching a minute of the end of the previous showing. I can distinctly remember seeing a tan-colored dog -- maybe "Old Yeller"?
As I stood and watched I grabbed onto my dad's leg next to me. I was a real daddy's girl, always wanting my dad to pick me up and hold me. I tugged on his pants leg and then turned and looked up at him to say "daddy, pick me up" -- and then realized to my horror that it was a stranger, not my dad. I must have backed away quickly and reacted with great fear, because the last thing I remember is people laughing at me and turning around to find my dad a few steps behind me.
To this day I can remember that sensation of terror!
I've done that as an adult. You are standing next to someone looking at something, they change positions with someone else, and you reach for them without really looking. Can be pretty embarrassing.
My first memory is about 11 months old. I was at my grandmother's house. I saw an aunt & got my finger stuck in the lace of a curtain & couldn't get free. The aunt came to me & was angry, I didn't understand why so I kept moving the fingers that were stuck, making the situation worse. When I was about 8 years old I asked the aunt why she was mad at me. She explained she was going out & no one else in the house was coming to help me, so she stopped with an anxious face, but I was trying to get out of the curtain by myself. She felt she had to get firm with me to get me to stop trying to get my tangled fingers free from the curtain. She said I couldn't walk & she was afraid I would fall off the small bed I'd been put on that was about 3 feet from the ground.
I was born in September 1953. In August of 1955 (not quite two years later), my grandmother (my mother's mother) died. I remember being in my mother's arms as she stood next to the casket. She began to cry, and one of her sisters reached to take me from my mother's arms. Maybe the emotional fear of seeing her crying and of being taken away from her (albeit, temporarily) are why the memory still sticks more than 55 years later.
my earliest memories are at the time of my younger sisters birth. I would of been 3. I can remember sitting in an empty hospital lobby, alone with my 2 year old sister, and being told to sit still and not get up. I remember the serenity of the orderly lobby, the large glass lobby windows and entrance to my left, and the large pictures that hung on the wall behind us. I remember just feeling in awe of this large, quiet, serene room with it's unusual decor and lighting. there was a window on the opposite side of the room, with a face, the receptionist. I remember feeling accountable to her. I remember as time went on she payed less attention to us and at some point I contemplated exploring this room, but my father came back shortly. Other memories around that same time, jumping on the sofa while one of the old programs like, 'I love Lucy', was planning on the t.v., my angry older brother, who would of been 10, telling me to stop jumping, and strangers showing up at our door, there to 'help' us. I could sense their lack of experience with children and took the opportunity to run around and not follow their direction, something I would of never got away with if my parents had been home. I felt happy and free.
My earliest recalled memory is knowing the sensation of my hands touching my face and the top of my knees, and awareness of sense of an undefined shape to my body. I believe this memory is from the womb. I also have later memory of seeing and riding in a black baby buggy (1950's).. I know I have recalled other very early experiences but have not thought of them for some time and they evade recall right now. I believe much of our early experiences are retained as images, sensations or emotions prior to development of cognitive thought with words, relationship, or concept. Although our more mature cognitive mind is hampered to recall these moments.
My earliest memory is of being with my Mother at the park by the little pond where she used to take me dressed in my little Sailor Suit, and I would "sail" my miniature toy Sailboat on the pond. I was smiling, laughing and happy; and my Mother was happy, doting on me and loving it also. What a sweet first memory. I wish all my life and memories could be so good. Thankfully, I have that one. Thank you, Mother, for those sweet times and memories. Your Son .
I was in the middle of the back seat of a car. One brother on one side another on my other side. One brother was in the front seat leaning against the window and was really sick. My mother was wearing a plaid flannel shirt and was driving the car. We were on a twisty mountain road and it was night. I remember the ligths cutting across the trees as we would quickly turn the corners of the twisty road. My brother sitting to my right was being car sick in a box. All in all I remember feeling i needed to be really aware of everything.
When I later told my mother about it she was very surprised. She said I was only about 18 months old. It seems we had been at a scout camp with my father who had been a professionl scouter at that time and she was driving home quickly becuase my brother in the front seat was very sick with mumps and was running a high fever. She said she was very tense and anxious about driving the mountain at night on just the old two-lane road. I guess the feeling had was anxiety...I don't know, I just know I remember it and can picture it in deatail here as I write this nearly 60 years later.
My earliest memory takes places in my paternal grandparents house when I was three. My grandmother, who was dying of cancer, was lying in her bed. I was standing next to my mother in the living room, which led directly to my grandmother's bedroom, so I could see her from where I was standing. She reached out to me and called me to her, and I didn't want to go, and I felt bad about not wanting to because I loved her. I knew she was really, really, sick, and I was afraid of catching what she had, because I knew she was really suffering. At three, I obviously didn't understand that I couldn't catch cancer, and I guess I felt guilty because on some level I identified that I was putting myself before her. Maybe that's why it's always stayed with me.
I recall getting up and walking at age 1 and then determining I could do that later and went back to crawling around for another 6 months.
Prior to that I remember hating being swaddled in a blaket as an infant because my leg movement was restricted, age ~ 4 months.
My earliest memories are of my mother talking to me while I was in the womb, my head was up so i could have been no later then 8 months in term.
I notice you and one or two others recall a time when your thought as a child was a clear decision to do/not do something. I remember at the age of 4 thinking to myself, "Hmm. I've never drawn on a wall. I might as well do it and get it over with". I knew that I would get in trouble for it (and I did), but something inside me also knew this was a rite of passage for kids and my time was getting shorter to "get away" with doing something like this. At least I knew the punishment would be stiffer as I got older.
'Bouncing' across the floor. I would put one hand down and sort of bounce using that hand as a pivot point. My parents later told me that I never did crawl. The bouncing was much faster. I had to be right at 1 yr old because I was walking very shortly afterwards. Maybe I had a sore butt.
Next earliest memory is my older siblings pulling me in a little red wagon down a dirt road.
My earliest memory is me standing in my crib. It was night time and I wanted to get out. I was crying for my mom. My dad came in and told me to stop crying and closed the door on the way out.
I have a very definite memory of my German nanny rocking me to sleep when I was very, very sick when I was a toddler. I can remember the swivel rocker and her sweet smile and even the tune she hummed quietly to me. She was so kind to me, much kinder than my mother was to me, and I think that reinforced the memory.
I remember smells and sounds the most...at least when I smell something it brings back the memory... I remember my dad fixing the outboard boat engine in the garage. I remember the grease and gas smell and the sound of the motor running and stopping, running and stopping. I must have been 2+ years old.
I even remember what the floor sounded like when you walked on it in my grandparents house when I was little. It was a plastic/rubber coated steps that led to the basement. It made a sticky plasticy sound (it wasn't really sticky, i just sounded like it). Mostly, I remember snippets like the article says though.
Me too!!!
I remember as far back as 2 years of age. My father and I taking my baby turtles outside to the drain basin after a rainstorm. I can remember the grit in the concrete piece and how it felt in my hand watching my turtles floating around then later, seeing them in their little plastic house with the fake palm tree island. My father coming home real late one night and starting me screaming not knowing who was standing in my doorway. He went to college days and worked as a inspection mechanic at night and had come home covered in grease. My mother telling me she'd be right back and me dragging the stool to the window and the noise it made across the hardwood floor. Laying on the floor looking up at my mother's canary while it took a bath and sang. Walking to the trolley stop, the sounds of the trolley coming, the squeal of brakes as it stopped and the bell ringing. Playing on swings in a concrete playground while orange and yellow leaves went across the ground. Walking from my grandparent's house to my pediatrician when it was dark and all the maple trees were rustling in the wind. In my head I have many snapshots of my first few years but I can't put the story behind each memory.
The smell of coffee brewing I think is the strongest scent trigger I have. When I stayed at my grandparent's the coffee was set up on a timer the night before so every morning I woke to the smell of coffee. Sitting on phone books at my grandparent's house eating breakfast with them, all proud to be having coffee like them, but mine was in a tiny china teacup that was a drop or two of coffee into milk and sugar.
Hopefully my most recent memory will be of laughing at all of you pathetic people pouring your hearts out to an internet site.
Or maybe it will be me calling you a jacka$$.
Dr. Phil needs to pay a visit to this thread and try to help all of you figure out your problems.
First stop - FishTacos.
The only one I see having a problem here is you.
Good one, FishTacos. These nutcases with memories of swimming in amniotic fluid or sucking on their big toes as infants are a riot! No doubt they also remember being abducted by aliens.
Fish - I think you are the one who needs help - why would you intentionally ruin a pleasant sharing time just to insult us and contribute nothing? You are a troll - go troll elsewhere.
My first memory of life has always been the same moment, and I can see it today just as I saw it while growing up. I was 2 or 2 1/2 years old, it was 1953. I see our apartment in Wiesbaden, Germany on the day my cowboy boots came back from being re-soled. I ran from room to room in a circle, living room to den to dining room. They were new when we left Austin, Texas (when I was 19 mos old) and I must have worn them constantly, wearing out the soles and heels, though I don't remember anything prior to the day I got them back from the cobbler's. My mother said I was absolutely overjoyed to have them back.
For those of you who have shared your recollections of being in the womb, you’re not alone! Check out the book “We Lived in Heaven – Spiritual Accounts of Souls Coming to Earth” by author Sarah Hinze (published in 2006 and available on Amazon).
I will read this book because my first memory was spiritual.I'm not sharing it here because too many people will be in disbelief.Then again they might be able to relate to it and won't admit it for fear of being made fun of.Let's just say it was the best memory that I have had to date.Because of my first memory I know that God and heaven exist.
My first memory was when I found out there was no Santa Claus. I cried so hard I could hardly start my car.
Wow, enjoythemoment... not only early hippocampus development, but early motor skill development as well!
Unlike stinky FishTaco, I've enjoyed reading your memories and there's definitely nothing wrong with us! My earliest memory was my first birthday, with mom, grandma, and great grandma singing.
Thank you but I must confess my memory skills have become considerably duller as the aging process has done it's dirty deed. My motor skills are still pretty good,though. I think.
LOLOL!! Good one!!
car as in a plastic car or car as in a car that u get when ur 14 or older?? how old were u when u cried?? can u even guess how old u were??
I think I was about 17 and it was a 1953 Chevy.