Your earliest memories, anyone?

[Jester]

My earliest clear memories are from age 3, though there is a snippet or two from age 2, when my family was living in Ohio. Just remember a bit, maybe a snapshot, of being out in the driveway, and I think some of the adults (parents and friends) were sitting in folding outdoor chairs or standing around, talking. I may have been sitting, or standing, or on a tricycle or some junior Big Wheel. And....that's all the detail I have from that.

From age 3, though, I have a lot more memories. At that point, we were living in Illinois (we moved a lot), and I remember the house and the neighborhood and a bunch of stuff. Particularly riding in a big wheel around the cul-de-sac we lived on and playing with my very first two Matchbox cars, a purple dune buggy and a silver 50's station wagon hot rod, which my father gave to me, starting me on a collection that would consume much of my childhood, and even continue a bit into adulthood. I lost the station wagon at some point in childhood, but later reacquainted an exact duplicate. I still have the purple dune buggy, and many other of my early collection. They are currently sitting in my storage unit in Phoenix. I will never sell them. Especially not the purple dune buggy. I just realized....that little fucker is the oldest thing I own.

[Racket_Man]

I was maybe 2 years old (or a little younger) and remember running around our unfinished basement in diapers. I do remember the BIG HUGE octopus type furnace.

[bhskittykatt]

My earliest memory is just a quick flash of memory. I'm about 3, and I'm standing in a parking lot staring at my reflection in the van and thinking about how warped the reflection was looking.

Not long after that, I got MRSA and was in the hospital for like a month or something. Parents said I was in a quarantine unit and the docs came in with full HAZMAT suits and everything. Somehow I recall absolutely none of that; all I remember is some time in the hospital after my quarantine was lifted, when a nurse would come in late at night, wake me up, and give me some cherry-flavored meds. I went through all of that, and cherry-flavored meds is the lone detail I remember from that hospital stay.

[Luna Baby]

I have 2 very early memories, one before my 1st birthday. Mom and my father lived in a small, single wide house trailer behind his grandmother's place. I can remember 'running' (crawling actually) from him and staying just outside of his reach by going under the dining table and through the chair legs. He was a drunk and I was probably making too much noise. Other than that, I really have no idea why he was after me, but he couldn't catch me!

The 2nd memory is on my 1st birthday. Mom sat me in my high chair on the front porch of that same house trailer. I can remember the cake on the tray and getting it all over me. She has pictures of that moment but I can vividly recall the moment from the 1st person perspective-looking at the cake from my seated position and seeing Mom there taking pictures.

Mom has no memory of the first incident. Father was abusive and I believe she blocked a lot of the memories that she could.

[protege]

Earliest thing I remember? I was probably about a year old, but I still remember seeing the full moon outside my bedroom window..and how it lit up the entire room. Then there were the air horns I'd sometimes hear at night--several times a night, in fact--from coal trains a few miles away. That would have been about 1976-77, when the mines were still going.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My earliest memories are from about age 4. I remember a fire in my preschool classroom on the day that Santa was coming to visit. I went to a program run by a class at the local high school (a class I later took when I was in 11th grade), and the fire was minor (I don't remember what started it) so they just moved us to another room for the rest of the day so they could air out the preschool room. The other room was smaller, and there were a number of parents there because of the Santa event, so it was pretty crowded in there. I got a bendy Santa Claus toy.

The other one I remember from that time was when my best friend bit me on the arm because I wouldn't give her the scissors. She didn't break the skin but did leave a huge bite mark on my upper arm. We've been friends since we were 2½ and 3 years old. I still tease her about that one.

[Victory Sabre]

My first memory is when i was about 3. I got it in my head to show my mom how much of a big boy I was, and decided that I was going to dress myself. I got up early and went to it. I didn't do such a good job, as can be imagined.

Another memory from around the same time was a trip to North Dakota in January of 1977. I was 3 1/2 at the time and my sister wasn't 2 yet. We were at a babysitters house eating lunch, and having a good time. The reason for being there I found out years later: the funeral for my cousin Debbie was going on. She was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. I wish I had memories of her. If she'd gotten back to her apartment a half hour later, she would be in her 60's now, and, likely, a grandmother. I wish I had memories of her. All I've got is a needlework of an elephant she made for me when I was born.

[Akasa]

I was about 2 and sobbing uncontrollably asking where Daddy was and when he was coming back. My mom just held me and told me he wasn't coming back.

I didn't find out until I was over 30yo that she had kicked him out that day because she was tired of finding his drugs around the apartment.

[MadMike]

I know I can remember back to at least 3, because my brother was born a couple months before I turned 4, and I can remember being an only child.

I also remember when my mom was pregnant with him, and told me she "had a baby in her belly." Lucky for her, I didn't think to ask how it got there.

I think up until around that time, they still had me sleeping in a crib. I don't remember ever sleeping in the crib, but I do remember the day they brought a bed in for me. That's probably about where my memories started.

I freaked my mom out a few years ago by being able to describe, in detail, the place we lived in all those years ago. Interestingly enough, I can remember things from when I was three years old, but I can't remember where I put my car keys five minutes ago. Apparently my long-term memory is great, but my short-term sucks.

[morgana]

Morgana-- So watching Big Ass Spiders is a no go for tonight then?

You're into getting puked on? That's kinky . . .

[AccountingDrone]

My absolute earliest memory is sitting on a lawn playing with the black and white cat that was theoretically my sisters. I would have been about 2 and a smidge years old. Next would be at about 3 and a half or four and sitting on the kitchen table being taught to sing scurrilous songs and play craps by my dad and his army buddies. I can roughly date it because my mom would have *never* let this happen if she were around, so it has to have happened when she was back in the US because her father had died and they were holding the funeral. The next earliest real memory I have is flying in a gooney back to the US at the age of 5. Flying MAC back in the 60s got hinkey - one generally hopped around, I can vaguely remember layovers in Iceland, and somewhere in Canada and ending up near Boston and then a civilian plane to Florida for a month at my Grandparents - we flew into the Tampa airport and I saw an adult my size [very squee for a little kid ... ] Unfortunately the month wit my grandparents was because my sister was at Sloan Kettering being a guinea pig for using cortisone for leukemia - there is one final picture of her with that steroid moon face from that time period.

[cindybubbles]

Thanks for the memories! Now let's keep them going!

I remember walking around in one of those baby walkers in my grandma's house.

[Waggy6]

I remember the little things that matter to little kids. we moved from Columbus when I was about 2 so these memories are from 2 or younger.

I remember sitting in the hallway looking at the blue carpeting on the floor and looking into my bedroom at all the toys.
I also remember how whenever we got home my mom would say in a singsong way "home sweet home" and would let me press the buttons to open the garage door.

Years ago we knocked on the door the that house and the owners were kind enough to let us in. I immediately recognized the light switches. Until then I had not been able to place that memory.

[Sakka]

A couple early memories...

The first, I'm about two or three years old, very early 80s. I remember walking with mom to a nearby house and the door opening to a very dark interior and it smelling funny/bad (those relatives smoked like chimneys and I'm asthmatic).
In the dim light (That house was very poorly designed for natural light, had very small windows, and the haze from the smoke didn't help any), are two kids playing on the floor with toy cars/trucks. I remember having a death grip on moms leg and pressing my face against the back of her knee while the adults were laughing and being very amused at my reaction. Mom tried to get me to join the two kids explaining that one was my cousin and the other (who was a year older then I am and was bigger) was the kid next door to cousin.
That was the first time meeting my cousin who is closest to me in age, I'm the older by twenty one months.


The second, I'm about the same age as above, and I'm at my grandparents (also smokers). I'm sitting on my grandpa's lap while the adults are talking. I'm just looking around the room when I hear a clicking noise. Looking around I find grandpa clicking his teeth together. When he had my attention, his top teeth moved in his mouth. Of course my eyes get big like saucers as I watch. After awhile of wiggling his dentures in mouth, he partially slid one set partially out. After several moments of the dentures not moving, I reach out to towards his mouth, when he quickly puts his dentures back into place, clicking his teeth at me. I would giggle like crazy and squirm while he'd hug me tightly.

A few years later, he passed away from cancer.

[Cia]

All these occurred in the house we lived in in San Diego, CA in 1967-1968 so I was 2 - 3 years old.

- running around in the attached garage w/ my older brother and then my mom giving us little boxes of raisins.
- looking in a bag of onion rings wondering what they were.
- my Mom saying we're going to go see my Dad and wondering what a 'Dad' was - I also remember walking out on the docks, Dad was in the Navy, scared that I was going to fall through the space between the planks, a person in white standing on the deck of a large grey ship waving at us and my Mom pushing a baby carriage containing my younger brother and possibly my sister too.
- watching a marching band marching by the bottom of the street.
- being sent to tell my brother to come home from a birthday party and being scared of the little dogs living there. The man of the house had to pick me up so I could get my brother.
- watching tv
- being over at a friends house across the street and looking back at my house where a moving truck was parked in front
- my sister "asking" me, she was maybe a year old, to remove the wires from from her stuffed skunk Flower's hand after she pulled the flowers off since they were poking her.