This got me thinking....

[Caveat Emptor]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/22....ap/index.html

CNN article on memory. It got me thinking whether or not it's unusual that I can remember my preschool teacher's name (Miss Plum), the layout of that classroom and every classroom up to sixth grade (and several beyond that into highschool), when and where my family went on vacation going back to 1981 (Florida to visit my late grandparents, we saw Empire Strikes Back when there.) The first major news event I have a clear memory of was when Reagan was shot. My earliest memory is finding my favorite Matchbox toy van stuck in Play-Doh in preschool and being quite upset about it. What are others earliest memories?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Playing hide and seek with my grandfather when I was 2. I remember what I was wearing and the room we were playing in.

I have sporadic memories of being about 2, and after that, my memory starts getting extremely clear.

I am not sure if I remember glimpses of my 1st birthday party. I could either be remembering a later birthday party, or I simply THINK I remember it because I've seen home movies of it. Not sure on that one.

My memory is a weird thing. I remember things I shouldn't and can't remember things I should.

[NotSoInnocent]

I remember falling off the back of a couch and breaking my arm... I was 8 months old.

I remember spitting "icky green stuff" at my mom when she was trying to feed me. It was green beans... and I remember being in the high chair, wearing a scratchy diaper.... and I hated being fed.

I remember the layout of the first apartment that we lived in. I remember crawling around it and chasing our cat. We moved out of that apartment when I was 9 months old.

I remember waking up one day (I know it was day because there was bright light shining in through the window) and reaching out to grab my cat's tail... because he was sitting on my legs and I couldn't move them. He died when I was 7 months old.

Those are my earliest memories... and I shouldn't be able to remember them, but I do.

[Plaidman]

I can barely remember last week, but I got some freaking amazing memories from when I was a kid.

I can remember the layouts of all the houses I've lived in.

I remember peeing in my daiper, and being so scared and shocked that I just started to cry. I remember looking up at my mom as she introduced me to Panda, and Bambi. My first teddy bears.

I remember running away from my sister, towards my mom's boyfriend house down the street. I remember playing with GI-Joes at that house, and taking a bath there. I also remember putting my finger in the electric socket, and I'll always remember the feeling. (It was like having a gear with sharp pokes running up my finger).

I remember throwing away an apple for my Uncle Chef. I also remember how I was taught not to bite people. I bit my cousin. In turn my mom bit me.

I remember talking to my cousin, and us playing our crib music boxes. I also remember my second christmas. I got a giant sock. I don't remember much of what was in it, except an apple that I ate all day.

I remember my mom throwing away a ... woman .... item, with her strict words of don't touch that. I vaugly remember thinking it was spaggitti. I remember my older cousin being able to sit on top of doors. I was jealous. I remember playing my sister atari. I remember visiting a family friend, and being so jealous because they had this toy, that you put a penny in, and got free gum.

All those were between the ages of 8 months and 2 years.

[GingerBiscuit]

before about two my memories are confused and jump around it time- I can never really place them. My first memory is EITHER- my cat (who died last year) arriving from the rescue centre as a kittene, curled up in the helpers overalls, and sliding to the bottom and this tiny, black fluffy tail flicking. I was probably around 2 1/2, OR tying my balloon- my yellow balloon- to a gate, running off to do something and turning round to see it floating into the air.

I have almost dream-like recollections of playing in parks and crawling through the hole in the hedge between my neighbours and ours- probably at about 3.

I remember reading Shakespear in the garden with my dad and all the local kids joing us.

I remember getting a nosebleed while playing in my dads car (no reason to lock it- in our area that would just encouraged them to steal it. Who was going to steal a rusty brown Triumph anyway?'

I remember our Neighbours abusive husband calling my mother a whore, and the dead silence as I asked 'Mummy, what's a whore?' and being worried I was in trouble when my dad dragged me inside.- probably about four or five.

I remember the feeling of wanting a new toy, just once.

I remember getting lost, sperated from my childminder, at about four or so. I was terrified and went into a motorbike shop where I was given my first ever taste of a fizzy drink. It made me feel sick.

[Kittish]

My memory is terrible. My very earliest memories are when I was about 5, just a few brief fragments more like photographs than anything really. And there's NOTHING beyond those fragments until 2nd or 3rd grade (not sure which). And I can only remember MAYBE 1/6 of my total life from that point on, again, all in fragments. About the only thing I can remember even halfway reliably is what I read, and even then I often get confused about just WHAT book it was or when I read it.

Friends and family often don't believe at first that my memory is really as bad as it is, but it's a very common thing for someone to be talking about some event I was present at that I have absolutely no recollection of (some of my own birthday parties, as an example), not even after being told about it in considerable detail. I don't know what the problem is, I suspect it's some sort of 'short circuit' between my short term memory and long term, or else my file retrieval routines are fried.

My memory has been this bad, as far as I can recall (*chuckle*) my entire life.