Your very first memory?

I’m not sure which, exactly, is my earliest memory, but they all begin when I was 2. I remember being upset the night my baby cousin was being born because my parents wouldn’t let me visit the hospital when my uncle and cousins stopped by to get me and my sister. It was late at night, way beyond bedtime, and only one very dim light was on in the living room. I was excited, because I finally wasn’t the youngest anymore, and I wanted to see “the baby”.

I also have a memory of a severe snowstorm, same place – also late at night – when my parents were out in the backyard trying to convince a cat to come inside, whose owner neglected it. I remember sitting on the couch and looking out the door while I was huddled in a blanket. Eventually my parents got the cat inside, which made me happy (I wanted to keep him anyway), but then he crapped on my mom and dad’s bed, which really pissed my dad off… I was also 2 then.

I have lots and lots of memories from that age.

I think it’s amazing what we are able to retain from such a young age.

I must have been 3. I remember pouring hot maple syrup on the snow and eating it like taffy. It was on my great uncles farm, which is now mine.

When I was almost two, my family visited my aunty’s family. My first memory is of my uncle’s German Shepard barking at me – I was so scared of it I wouldn’t go outside. I was even scared of it through the gate.

Sitting in the back seat of a car, in a baby seat. Some lady was driving, and my mom was in the passenger seat. We were stalled in traffic, on a bridge. It was very hot and bright, and my mom and this lady were talking. My mom was having a smoke, and I remember looking at the cigarette smoke, it looked like it was blue because of how bright the day was.

Her sowing kit was next to me, it was an orange bag basket thing, and I was trying to reach out to it but couldn’t get at it.

Also my mom cursed me with second hand smoke haha.

I’m not sure which is my first memory.
1. waking up in my crib (not sure if I was 3 or 4) and climbing to the top of the crib to unlock the chain on the door. Finding no one was home and I climbed on top of the kitchen table and sat there and cried. Just as I just started to cry my mom walked in with my siblings. She ran off to pick them up from school that was just 1 block away. She didn’t want to wake me and thought she would be back before I woke. After that she never trusted to leave me alone since she discovered I could break out of the room.
2. Next memory was when I was 4. I was in my uncles wedding and I remember my mom getting me dressed and putting on my slip and stockings and new shoes that I adored. Then it jumps to my uncle carring me out of the house to put me in the car. He carried me so I wouldn’t get my dress dirty while walking. It was a copy of the brides dress. I was the flower girl.

I have a memory of climbing out of my crib and padding over to my parents bedroom door (which was closed).

I believe this is my first memory. Not sure of my age, but since I was still in a crib, I’m thinking one or two.

Trying to start my parents’ car and drive to the store to buy my brother a new white crayon since I had broken his. I was about 2½.

@janbb lol! That was very thoughtful of you.

@TheOnlyNeffie I loved that brother very much.

It might be this question.

Helping my Dad and Grandfather build the house we lived in for eleven years. I was about three, I hammered a nail into the wall in a cabinet to hold a shelf in place ( missed shelf but got the nail into the wall. It was still there when we moved.

Twas my first birthday. Just the two of us…a lady who was caring for me, and myself. Chicago, 1956, basement apartment with the bars on the windows. I remember a song playing on the radio…but, I can’t remember the name of it at the moment.

@filmfann good call. I found that a few seconds after I posted my question. I figured it had been asked, just not since I’ve joined. I thought it would be alright to ask again, since it seems most people like telling stories, and I like to hear them. :)

@TheOnlyNeffie Yup – it’s a good one to revive periodically.

I had to look up what the darn thing’s called so I can say what the memory was!

My first memories are being in my sunshine-yellow baby walker (built very much like this baby’s from around the same time). I remember the parts that attached the top to the bottom were thin stick-looking bits of stainless steel, and I’m sure they’re not built like that today. I’d scoot across the floor in this vehicle. I’d look at my hands. I’d play with the little rotating purple and blue flowers. The pin attaching them to the walker looked like a yellow pistil. I’d sit and watch the sun rays streak across the living room floor. I guess that’d make me about a year old, so that would be 1970.

@aprilsimnel wow, very young. How cool :)

most of my earliest memories are more of smells rather than contextual. I remember vaguely playing piano in Church, some flashes of television shows. I am trying to trace when I became entirely sentient

I was about 3. My mother took me “down the shore” for the weekend and dad didn’t come. She never went anywhere without him. We rented a room in a big old house, not on the ground floor. She locked me in the room and said she would bring back some donuts and bananas. She did not come back for a very long time. Next thing I remember is her sitting on a lawn chair at the ocean. I remember being extremely happy. I have a clear picture of us near the lawn chairs and there’s a man with his arm around mom. He is handsome and we are all smiling.
I bet they don’t supply beaches in NJ with chairs anymore.

My first memory is of a circular woven rug. I do not remember other than that rug and I could describe it right now. I have no clue why I remember it.

I asked my father when I was in my teens if this rug existed and, if so, when. He said it was when I was about 2 years old.

@Arisztid I think that is one of the things about this particular question that really interests me. Obviously an event like the one in my first memory seems like something that most people would remember. Not necessarily everyone, but it certainly has some punch to it. The more random memories are really a bit more interesting in my opinion.

My first real memory is coming home from school on my 9th birthday wondering what I was going to get. I asked for this huge pink teddy bear and I got it! .

I think I remember when I was 7 months old and it was my grandmother’s birthday. We were sitting at a table and then someone handed me a purple bunny toy, which I still have today.

@Laina WOW! At 7 months! That’s incredible. It’s also very cool that you still have the toy :)

I was about 2 years old because my little sister had JUST been born weeks before.

My Mum and I we’re driving to the grocery store while my Dad stayed home with my sister. As we went through a intersection a guy in a truck ran a red light and slammed into our car. He hit the driver’s side rear door and quarter panel. I was in my car seat behind the passenger’s seat. Luckily, everyone was okay.

I don’t remember the accident, what I do remember is after. I was sitting there in my car seat crying. I can see the big tear drops on the seat belt like it was yesterday. My Mom was talking to a lady and two teenage boys outside of the car. (She had already looked me over to make sure I was okay.) My Mom sent the two boys to our house on their bikes to alert my Dad what had happened.

The most vivid part of my memory was the lady my Mom had been talking to, opening up my car door and giving me a big smile then handing me a little bag of mini oreos. So, there I sat all teary-eyed eating oreos :D

To this day when it’s brought up in chatting, my Dad still laughs that my Mom sent two boys on bikes to warn him; while he had a newborn and no car. Luckily, the neighbor was home and quickly drove him and my sister to us.

@HeatherGrace that’s a great story :) It’s so funny the details that stick out in memories like this. Similar to the story with a specific rug being the focal point, to the teardrops on your seat belt.

As someone with an action packed first memory, I also remember more about what happened afterward than I do the actual event. I wonder if that’s common.

@TheOnlyNeffie : Thanks! I love little snippets of memory from when I was a little girl :) The oreo one is my favorite by far. This lady was walking home from the store to her family and her own children. The oreos were for her son who was just a year older than me. It was such a simple and kind gesture that has stuck with me for 20 years :)

@HeatherGrace that really is great. It made me smile.

My mom and my grandma in the kitchen looking upset and concerned about something.I asked them what happened and they told me that my dad won’t return home any time soon because he went to USA.And that was everything they told me than but 6 years later when my dad returned in the country I found out that my parents actually divorced when my dad left us and he also got remarried in USA and he was going to have a baby too with his new wife.
I’m not sure if that really is my first memory but that’s definitely the most clear early memory I have(I was 4 when that happened).I also have some very unclear memories of sleepless nights because of fever and some very unpleasant memory where my mom(she’s a doctor) gives me some very very horrible taste medication.

I remember being in my mothers womb.

To remember it , it is like climbing down a ladder into a swimming pool and letting go of it.

It is a feeling memory.

I remember watching my little sister learning to walk. I must have been around 3.

Standing on a table in a “pretty” dress, getting my picture taken. I have seen the picture and I would have been 1½.

Another memory was at 2½ when my little sister was born, going to the hospital with my dad and he was pointing her out to me on the other side of a big window.

I think it’s interesting that many of these memories seem to be happy ones, or at least not negative. I’d have expected the majority of them to be traumatic or sad memories.

@ChazMaz wow, really?

@eden2eve I noticed that, too. Maybe it says a lot about the optimism of a child.

I was around 2 or 3. A few of my family members from Hong Kong came to visit us in California, and we took a trip to Reno. My dad is carrying me on his shoulders, and as we were going down the escalator, he put me on the railing. And I was clutching onto a small stuffed elephant-looking animal that he had won for me from some kind of carnival-type game (ring toss or something).

There aren’t any physical pictures of either of these events (the game or the escalator ride), just a mental image… and the stuffed animal in my closet. Hee :)

It was kinda crappy.

But the first thing that I can remember is being in the hospital and running to my mom, they had to put stitches in my lip because I had fallen off a chair.

@TheOnlyNeffie – Yes.

@ChazMaz : Mind. Has. Been. Blown! o.O

Funny thing. I found out later in life. My Dad can remember being in his mothers womb too.

@ChazMaz : That’s incredible and so fascinating :D

@ChazMaz I have no words. That is… beyond amazing.

Wtf? I thought the brain wasn’t physically developed to remember experiences until age 4. How do you know you were 2? Or 7 months?! Sounds a little bit bullshit to me. Give me scientific evidence and I’ll believe you. Lol

@TooBlue : I remember what happened, my Mom said I was two..

Do random flashbacks to the day of my mother’s death count?

@HeatherGrace Scientific evidence…

@TooBlue in my particular case the actual event is documented, it was pretty significant. So my age at the time is indisputable. How can you offer scientific proof of a memory? What sort of evidence would you require? I remember things about that day that were mundane and never discussed. I didn’t necessarily understand a lot of that memory at the time it happened (which is in fact a lot of what I remember.. not knowing what was going on), but when I was older and asked my parents about these mundane details they turned out to be accurate. I remember, just as I’m sure the people sharing their stories remember. How would you go about proving YOUR earliest memory, regardless of your age at the time?

@TooBlue I wasn’t even 2 when my mom died. I remember everyone upset, & total confusion. It was also the 1st day I ate spaghetti. What’s your “scientific evidence”?

I don’t need to prove my memories, because I don’t run around claiming I had them at 2 years old or even in the womb, Wtf! Just show me evidence or credible research that shows a baby under 2 years old has the capacity to recall events in detail, and I’ll be happy. Until then it’s just mistaken memories to me.

Sorry to those who claimed memories prior to the age of 1. I’m not disputing them, but I can not help to prove them. This article should be sufficient in backing up my own claims, I believe.

@TheOnlyNeffie Almost 2 isn’t under 1.

@Draconess25 I’d hope not. ;) My apology was actually directed at those who did claim memories from womb-1 year. I can see how it might look like I was apologizing to you, though, since you were pretty close there in the conversation. That article should apply to and “prove” your memories.

The key and most crucial part of that study showed that the children “remembered” the event FOUR MONTHS after it happened. Not two or three decades like many of the examples here. How do we know those children didn’t forget the event maybe a year or two later. I’m far from convinced. Sorry.

Well, the children in the study were between 1–2 years old. I was 3. Should I find studies specific to the exact age of my memory? I feel like it’s silly having to prove that I remember a significant event from my childhood, especially after I’ve shown an article that demonstrates that long term memories can be formed long before the age that my specific memory happened.

@TheOnlyNeffie Sorry, I didn’t read anyone else’s memories. I’m just feeling argumentative today. Sorry ‘bout that.
@TooBlue Nyehhh.

@TooBlue I was 2. My parents can back up many of my memories from around that age, and I only lived in one place at the age. Sorry to burst your bizarrely skeptical bubble.

@TooBlue This question was about our earliest memories, not about proving them wrong.

“Bizarrely skeptical”. I think that should be my next internet user name. Thanks!

@TooBlue Glad I could be of service.

All in all, I think it’s good to question things. But just because your memories don’t go back that far doesn’t mean it’s impossible for everyone.

@Draconess25 you don’t have to apologize. After you said that you were feeling argumentative today, I realized that I’m feeling a bit combative myself. A tired Neffie = a cranky Neffie. Time for me to go to sleep before I get any crabbier. :)

@TheOnlyNeffie Meh, I’m not tired, just tense. Get to bed! ^^

I was three and I have 2 photos to back up my memory.

I think i was 2 or 3 years old, and we were in England at the time, and there was snow everywhere. We were in our front yard, taking a photo of me and my dad in the snow, next to a snowman maybe that my parents had made. I went my pants ‘cause i couldn’t hold it in, haha.

My very first memory is my grandfather’s picnic table, where I sat learning about corn from him. My mother is absolutely amazed that I can remember this because he apparently got rid of the table when I was very young. She’s also amazed I can remember the corn lecture. That’s less surprising to me, however, because I received it several times before my grandfather died.