What is your first memory (and how old were you)?

[Miss Marple]

My earliest memory is that of sitting in a hole dug in a dirt field behind our newly constructed home. My sisters and their friends were all with me (not all in the hole, though). I've been told that we moved from that house when I was 3. I vividly remember the house layout - where the bedrooms were, etc. I rode my plastic firetruck around inside (according to my mom). I remember raising tadpoles in a large pickle jar on the back porch of that house. I have a lot of pleasant memories of life in that house - all before I was 3.

[kalanamak]

My first memory was my mom going into a jeweler and leaving us with my grandmother, near a fountain. As soon as my mom disappeared, we all ran in different directions.

 

 

Did GM need CPR?

[Mom to Aly]

LOL--not that I remember! I was usually the mischevious one, I guess everybody joined in this time!

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . my first memory is of sitting in my crib. I had a copy of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and I was excitedly calling out to my parents to come and listen to me read the book. My mother came in and listened and then told me I wasn't really reading, but must have memorized the words. The thing is, though, that I have a very visual memory, and to this day I can close my eyes and see those words on that page, complete with the pictures. So, I'm pretty sure I actually was reading.

 

I also have several pretty vivid memories from nursery school, including baking a cake as a class project. It was a yellow cake, and when it was my turn to stir, the teacher told me to imagine the batter was as precious as gold and to be very careful not to spill any. And I remember running around on the playground at that school wearing a blue cape . . .

 

But the reading-in-the-crib one is the earliest, I think.

[AndyJoy]

I have LOTS of early memories, though my sister remembers practically nothing before the age of 6!

 

My earliest memory is from when I was barely two. I remember that I was wearing a purple snowsuit and playing with Mr. Potato Head. I was giggling to myself because I was trying to put his glasses on my face. My mom was entertaining guests in the living room and my newborn sister was crying. My dad came inside from the snow and scooped me up and hugged/kissed me.

[Danestress]

somewhere near where they lived in Zanesville, Ohio.

 

He put whistles on the bunk for my sister and I. I remember I couldn't reach them, but my sister climbed up and retrieved them.

 

He just have been crazy to give two little kids whistle - or he had nerves of steel!

 

He died right before my forth birthday. This might not actually be my very earliest memory - I do have a number of very early memories and I am not sure what order they come in. But I choose to say this one was "first" because I don't have many memories of my Papa, and I know he loved me.

[Cricket]

I remember living in our house in Arkansas. We moved there when I was 3. I remember standing on the porch during a flood and watching our rubber ball float away. I remember watching people walking barefoot through water and wondering why they weren't afraid of snakes in the water. I was also terrified of "cool guys"--guys who had combs in their back pockets. :001_huh: Don't know where that one came from! I would watch them walk down the street from our porch. I must have spent a lot of time on that porch.

 

I also remember playing with a girl who always had a runny nose. We used to rub dirt on ourselves because we loved how it made our skin brown. We were convinced that makeup was made from dirt. :lol:

[Rosie_0801]

Definately before age 3. Dad and I would go up the road to see the "bomby cars." Just some old wrecks dumped amongst the blackberry bushes. Nothing at all exciting about them, but the idea of going and the journey sure was :)

Rosie

[vmsurbat]

Earliest clear memory: when I was three, my Mom had my younger brother. When it was time to go pick her up at the hospital, I was heartbroken that I had to stay back with Grandfather who was visiting while my older brother got to go. I was SOOO mad.

 

Next clear memory: Christmas that same year. Everybody was oohing and aahing over the baby, I got to ride my sparkling new red tricycle in the house--from the kitchen, through the entry hall, down the bedroom corridor and back. Since riding bikes indoors was verboten, I distinctly remember the thrill of being a successful sneak that time! (I was usually the good little girl--it was my older brother who was the mischief maker!)

[Jeannie in NJ]

It was older, about age 5, that I have my first memory from. It was my first plane trip. It was from Texas to Venzuela (where we lived for the next 2 years) so it was a LONG plane ride. I was terrified and spent the entire time sitting on the floor in front of my mom's seat, no-one could get me to move to a seat. I also remember a very nice and pretty stewardess that brought me an apple to eat.

I have lots of memories from when we lived there, especially the rats, HUGE cockroaches and our maid that only spoke Spanish and would give us our baths with our underwear on. Oh also once my brother, age 3 at the time, and I wandered off and got lost in the jungle and all the dads searched for us. I also got to ride a zebra another time. Lots of memories from Venzuela but absolutely nothing before that plane ride traveling there.

[HSMom2One]

I don't know which was first, but I have two very early memories. One is of me standing as I held myself up at a coffee table. I pulled a doilie out from under a green ceramic planter shaped like a car and suddenly had dirt and plant leaves everywhere. My mother started to react, but then my mind goes blank and I can't remember the rest. I was just a toddler, but it is a very vivid memory.

 

Another memory is standing up in my crib at night talking to my daddy who had come in to check on me. He worked swing shift at that time and must have been doing the rounds before going to bed. I remember seeing him standing by my bed in a happy, talkative mood as he visited with me. The hallway light was on and he was almost glowing with the backlight.

 

Not to be long-winded, but I have another really great memory. I was maybe five years old or thereabouts when this happened and our family had just gotten our very first television set. That evening I had been sent to bed, but my family was up watching TV in the late evening. I heard them laughing and decided to go out and join them. So I padded out to the front room in my sleepers and climbed up in my mother's lap. She was holding me there when a Chevrolet commercial came on, which I was watching enthusiastically. Suddenly a thought came to my mind and I posed the question to my mother. "Mommy," I said, "How much would I cost if you had to buy me?" Without hesitation she said, "There wouldn't be enough money in the whole wide world to buy you, sweetheart!!" Soon after I was taken back to bed, but the memory never left. One more proof that I was a loved child!

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

[Karenciavo]

I was also terrified of "cool guys"--guys who had combs in their back pockets. :001_huh: Don't know where that one came from!

 

That's so funny and cute. Combs in the back pocket were definitely cool in the 70s, early 80s.