What's your earliest memory?

[SDFgirl]

I was about 3. I stuck a pair of tweezers into the electrical socket in my parents' bedroom. A spark shot out and it scared me really badly. I started to cry...I remember feeling really embarrassed and ashamed.

The spark burned a hole in my parents' blue carpet and every time I saw that little burned spot, I felt afraid and ashamed all over again. In fact, I wouldn't even go near the spot - I'd walk as far away from it as possible, even scootching around along the walls instead of walking in the middle of the room.

So what's YOUR earliest memory?

 

[AKL_Megs]

I had to have been almost two, because on my second birthday, I got my "big girl bed".

I remember falling asleep in my crib as my mom sat on the floor and reached her arms through the slats of my crib to rub my back.

 

[wdwgirl03]

When I was 3 I walked onto an elevator by myself...I thought my mom and sister were with me but turns out they weren't. Needless to say my mom freaked out. Luckily it all ended well and I got ice cream.

 

[tazdev3225]

I was 2. My mom was cutting onions and left for some reason. I decided to help her and the onion went flying and I sliced my finger. This is a fuzzy memory but I still have the scar. I vividly remember my parents having a bad fight because my dad was a little drunk and had gambled his paycheck in a card game. My mom verified the memory. I was 2 for this memory also. My dad never drank again and never gambled again to make my mom happy. He actually won the game though and they were able to make 2 mortgage payments that month.

 

[kirbsam]

if that doctor slaps my butt again, i am going to really be ticked off.

 

[Becky2005]

Opening the car door & nearly falling out of the car. My mom tells me I was about 3 but I tell you, I remember it as plain as day.

I was sitting on my mom's lap in the front seat of the car (yes, WAY before car seats like we have now). I was fiddling with the door handle. My mom knew I was BUT she knew the door was also locked (do you remember the old push the button down knob type of thing). Unbeknownst to us, if you happen to open the door handle even with it locked, that door unlocked & opened. My mom figured if the door was locked, it was locked. These parts I don't remember, just my mom telling me that she thought the door couldn't come open being as it was locked. I can guarantee you if she thought for a split second that door could open she would not have let me be fiddling like I was.

I wasn't trying to open the door, just happened to pull on the handle, the door popped open and we happened to be going down a hill. Luckily, residential but I pretty much had my head/body hanging out the door while my mom was holding onto me tightly around the waist until my dad could slow down/stop. To ME, it seemed like we were zooming down that hill pretty fast. I don't remember at all how I got back in the car or what. I'm pretty sure he didn't slam on the brakes because I don't remember that part. I just remember fiddling with the door handle & then hanging out the door with the wind blowing in my face.

My other earliest memory is something that my parents say never happened, so I'm not sure if I just combined stuff or what. It was for what would have been my great-grandmother, I'm convinced that when she died they had her in what appeared to be more like type of baby bassinet bed (I'm sure it was some sort of coffin) but she was in what I am convinced is the living room of their house then. It's not a scary recollection or anything just a it is what it is recollection. There were people there but wasn't as if it was a funeral. When I described it for my parents once, they pretty much thought I was crazy. Since they said it didn't happen like that at all and they couldn't even remember if I was there. I know I was younger than 3 though, may have been really really little. Therefore, I don't know if I just combined things & maybe I did dream it but it's something that was vivid even now (can't describe it exactly but can see it in my head). I'm not that good to remember dreams THAT many years and that accurately.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I remember getting a ballerina doll for Christmas and playing with it when I was around 3. It was almost my height and would spin on its toe when the crown was pushed. Of course, the memory is more about feelings and images than complete thoughts like my later memories, but it's 100% there.

I have another memory from 3 years old. I remember my mother cleaning storm windows and me going outside to watch with my hands folded under the glass. A window slipped and landed on my nail. I guess it cut me badly because I can remember everyone screaming. The ice helped and I remember St. Joseph's aspirin being shoved into my mouth with that ice in a bowl on my lap. I remember that I didn't care so much because I got to ride in the front seat of the car. I can remember being so thrilled to be in the front seat that nothing else mattered.

 

[MM27]

if that doctor slaps my butt again, i am going to really be ticked off.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I was three or younger, but I don't know exactly how old. I have two memories from that time. One I got scared in the middle of the night and cried for my mom. She told me to go to sleep and I was afraid in my room, so I went and sat at the top of the stairs where I fell asleep.

My other memory was when I was carrying my big doll (it was almost as tall as I was and was hard plastic) down the front stairs of my grandmother's house. I fell and the dolls foot punched me in the stomach and made me lose my breath. I remember how terrified I was.

 

[hulagirl87]

I was 2 1/2 and was goofing around with my sister in my room. I laughed and fell backwards right on the corner of the wall. My head hurt so I ran to my mom in the kitchen. Little did I know but my head was split open and I trailed blood all through the living room. I had to go get stitches and my parents had just seperated but my dad came over and drove while I sat on my mom's lap in the car and she held a towel to the back of my head. I remember that it was snowing and around Christmas time. When I laid at the dr's office, I had to lay at my stomach and my mom sat right at the end of the table where I could see her. When we got back from the doctor I got to eat cookies and have hot chocolate

Interesting how a lot of our first memories have to do with a trauma...

 

[TerryKitten]

Mine was 2 1/2 when I was left at the babysitters the night my brother was born. She had MASH on. I also remember my baby brother came home from the hospital a few days later. I remember seeing him sleeping in his crib and thinking "we are going to be swell pals".

 

[bookgirl]

The morning of my third birthday. I came in and sat at the table and told my mom I was three years old today.....she has no memory of it at all.

I have some vague memories of times that my mom says happened when I was younger but that is the first one that I can actually pinpoint in time and space so to speak.

 

[nskjerven]

Maybe not my earliest but one that is very vivid to me.

Around the age of 5 hiding on the floor of PoftheC in Disneyland with my teenaged cousin in the seat

It of course is now my favorite ride...and I took my children on it very early and shared the horror of it all with my daughter (she's now 12 and loves it and loves that it scared the crap outta her when she was little just like it did to mama)

Sorry to sidetrack...had to add my Disney memory to the list

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

Hidding behind the chair at 5 while dad set the kitchen on fire (age 5)
Standing behind my grandmas walker singing (It was my stage) (age 3)
Staying up till 2am watching mash with my dad (ummm well, 2- 16,he died when I was 16)

 

[Becky2005]

Around the age of 5 hiding on the floor of PoftheC in Disneyland with my teenaged cousin in the seat

It of course is now my favorite ride...and I took my children on it very early and shared the horror of it all with my daughter (she's now 12 and loves it and loves that it scared the crap outta her when she was little just like it did to mama)

Sorry to sidetrack...had to add my Disney memory to the list

Too funny! I have the opposite...apparently my mom took me on a ride which she doesn't remember which one -- I'm thinking either POTC or Snow White at WDW from the basic descriptions I've gotten. She asked the person working it if it was scary, they said no & apparently I screamed bloody murder the entire time being scared to death on the ride but the way it was set-up I was in the front by myself, my mom was in the back so there was no way she could get to me.

I have completely blocked the memory out. I don't remember it at all. I had to been about 4 or 5 when we went. We didn't manage to get on either ride when I went as a family with my kids in 2005...I'm just waiting for me to go on one of the rides and have it come flooding back or something. I want to manage to get on them, just so I can figure out which ride it WAS.

 

[jsmith]

Watching JFKs funeral on TV-we didnt have a TV so we went to a neighbors to watch-the whole neighborhood was there-i was about 2 1/2 (born in march of 1961)

 

[Handbag Lady]

I have two and I'm not sure which is the earliest.


I was in my crib and there was noise and shaking. My dad's giant hand scoops me up and then I feel safe. Turns out it was the '71 Sylmar Earthquake. Years later when I described this to my dad, he doesn't remember exactly but he says it probably happened as he does remember sending my mom to get my older sister (we shared the same room).

I was in the kitchen in my high chair and I had a cup with orange juice. I somehow spilled the OJ all over the tray and my dad was mad.

 

[Jsme]

I remember carrying kittens around in my wooden pocketbook. I have no clue how old I was but I know I was small.

 

[ZachnElli]

Halloween, 2 days before my 3rd birthday. My parents were broke from just buying thier first house and my brother and I went as ghosts, sheets with holes cut out for eyes! I remember being under that sheet.

 

[TheGoofster]

this reminds me of what the comedian Steven Wright said.

"When I was a baby I kept a diary.
Day 1 - today was the big move
Day 2 - Everyone is talking to me like I'm an idiot"