First Memory

[lapal_fan]

Mine is throwing a rock at a French girl... in France.. because she dug this cool hole into the sand on the beach and I wanted to go in it but she wouldn't let me.

Blood everywhere. Panic.  So I ran to my dad, and then my dad had to put up with this irate French guy yelling at us because I'd probably scarred his daughter for life.

I can't remember getting in trouble about it, but I've since been told I'd have only been about 2 1/2.  

She didn't speak English, which was the problem.  So there's pretty much nothing she didn't deserve, so she got a rock to the noggin.

Now yours (I understand this will be really hard for some of the elder posters ).

[bickster]

I think my earliest memory is watching the building of the M5/M6 interchange out of the back window of our house.

[Seat68]

Mine is pretty grim but the less grim part is a pram at a child minders collapsing on my hands. I was probably 2 or 3. 

[sharkyvilla]

I think mine is also when in France, where I somehow managed to headbutt a small model of the Eiffel Tower and got the point of it stuck in my forehead.  Virtually all my early memories are of holiday shenanigans.

[Mark Albrighton]

One of two.

My brother’s christening when I was 2 1/2. It’s possible I’m just thinking of a picture of me taken at it and I’m “remembering” that. It’s very hazy.

The other one is a paving slab which was about to put into our patio and it falling on my foot and me screaming and going to hospital. I was 3 years old at the time and that’s definitely a memory I can recall a lot of detail of. My big toe nail on my left foot has never grown the same since.

[mjmooney]

7 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

Mine is throwing a rock at a French girl... in France.. because she dug this cool hole into the sand on the beach and I wanted to go in it but she wouldn't let me.

Blood everywhere. Panic.  So I ran to my dad, and then my dad had to put up with this irate French guy yelling at us because I'd probably scarred his daughter for life.

I can't remember getting in trouble about it, but I've since been told I'd have only been about 2 1/2.  

She didn't speak English, which was the problem.  So there's pretty much nothing she didn't deserve, so she got a rock to the noggin.

Now yours (I understand this will be really hard for some of the elder posters ).

Not at all. I verified this with my own parents many years ago. It was a very vivid memory of standing on a platform at New Street, waiting for the train to take us on holiday to Devon. I can remember being excited at seeing a real train close up for the first time - but the reality was not what I expected. This was the days of steam locos, remember - and I was suddenly confronted by an incredibly noisy, humungous black monster coming at me, belching huge clouds of steam. I was scared shitless, and clearly remember hiding behind my Dad and gripping his leg in absolute terror. 

I always assumed I must have been about three (that's when most people's memories start), but when I asked my parents, they remembered it very clearly, and were able to date it exactly, as the Summer of 1955 (it was the first holiday they'd been on with me) - which meant I was no older than 18 months. 

[Tegis]

Going through a automatic car-wash.  I must have been 3-4-ish. Scared to death. Remember waiting outside a number of times after.

[Paddywhack]

I've got two, but I'm not sure which was first. I also don't think I can really remember them anymore, I've just been recalling them for 25 years.

One was my dad carrying me through a shopping centre whilst talking to my Granddad. He then noticed I'd finished a lollipop I was eating so he took the stick out my mouth, but realised I'd been enjoying chewing the stick and gave it me back. I've since found out that would have been in Weston-super-Mare in Summer 1989, so I would have been 2.

The other is my mom strapping me into a car seat in the back of a gold car on a really sunny day. Turns out that was my parents Ford Cortina which they sold in 1989.

Both pretty boring memories, but there you go.

[mjmooney]

10 minutes ago, Tegis said:

Going through a automatic car-wash.  I must have been 3-4-ish. Scared to death. Remember waiting outside a number of times after.

Still wondering when to go to a car wash with our granddaughter - I think it would scare her. But when my daughters were about 6/7, they used to regard it as a thrill on a par with with a fairground ride. We always went after dark and played this music as a soundtrack. They still talk about it. 

 

[Stevo985]

I don't know what mine is.

I can remember loads of stuff from my early childhood, but I couldn't even begin to work out which one came first.

Plus I think a lot of my memories have merged or even been completely invented via pictures I've been shown or stories I've been told.

Example, I think I remember going on a boat trip with my parents and they tied me to the boat so I couldn't crawl out into the sea. I feel like I remember that, but apparently I was about 1 so I don't think there's anyway I could remember it. I think I've just been told about it so many times and seen a picture that I think i remember it.

[mjmooney]

There's no denying that a lot of apparent 'memories' are actually recreated from family anecdotes, photographs, etc. Which is why my 'scary train' one came as a bit of a surprise, because it was never mentioned in the family, it just sat there in my memories until I decided to ask my parents (in my late twenties) whether I'd imagined the whole thing. Their reaction was "Wow, fancy you remembering that". 

My next ones would have been a jumble of memories of the flat we lived in in Nechells, until I was about four. 

[hogso]

Separation anxiety. Looking out of the front window of our living room, bawling, at age 3. My mum had left me at home with my grandparents whilst she left for a driving lesson. I can remember watching as she waved goodbye, and left me. 

In later life, at university, I would go months without returning home, and barely even phoning, when housemates would return  home frequently, every week some of them. I did this without a hint of 'home sickness' or any similar emotions. 

I wonder if such experiences when I was young affected my feels when I was a big boy? I assume so. 

[mjmooney]

53 minutes ago, hogso said:

Separation anxiety. Looking out of the front window of our living room, bawling, at age 3. My mum had left me at home with my grandparents whilst she left for a driving lesson. I can remember watching as she waved goodbye, and left me. 

In later life, at university, I would go months without returning home, and barely even phoning, when housemates would return  home frequently, every week some of them. I did this without a hint of 'home sickness' or any similar emotions. 

I wonder if such experiences when I was young affected my feels when I was a big boy? I assume so. 

Going slightly OT here, but I was like that at University. Some of my friends were desperately homesick, whereas I was quite euphoric about having escaped. My Mum used to get very upset that I didn't phone home often enough. I'm glad it was pre-mobile days, or she'd have been phoning me several times a day, rather than waiting for me to be arsed to go to a public phone box. 

[AVFC_Hitz]

3 minutes ago, hogso said:

Separation anxiety. Looking out of the front window of our living room, bawling, at age 3. My mum had left me at home with my grandparents whilst she left for a driving lesson. I can remember watching as she waved goodbye, and left me. 

In later life, at university, I would go months without returning home, and barely even phoning, when housemates would return  home frequently, every week some of them. I did this without a hint of 'home sickness' or any similar emotions. 

I wonder if such experiences when I was young affected my feels when I was a big boy? I assume so. 

My Mum and Dad divorced when I was quite young. My Dad used to have me on a Wednesday evening and drop me back around 8.30. Some of my earliest memories were of me crying at the window as he drove off. I had this one 'memory' of him stopping 40yards down the road, and turning back to give me hug. Turns out this didn't happen and somehow I turned something I wanted to happen into a memory.

University...well basically I disappeared for the first year. Rarely told my parents what I got up to or how I was getting on.

[choffer]

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

There's no denying that a lot of apparent 'memories' are actually recreated from family anecdotes, photographs, etc.

To my dismay, most of my early childhood memories have been dismissed as confabulation by my parents in recent years.

They would say that though, wouldn't they? Most of them were memories of poor parenting.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

Mrs Batterbsy.

[Paddywhack]

It seems most people's earliest memories are of something significant. Why is mine being put in a car?

My dad's is sitting on a bench on Harborne high street by The Junction, watching a bloke giving a talk about a collection of guns that were displayed on a trestle table. My dad remembers how terrified he was because he thought he was going to start firing them.

That would have been 1961/62. I'm guessing you couldn't do that now. THE GOOD OLD DAYS EH?

[AVFCDAN]

22 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

Mrs Batterbsy.

Me Mam and Dad don't even remember me then.

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

I can remember been 2.

This is the weird bit,  these memoriies are supposed to turn off after a while + loads of other things from when you are really small (EG reflexes on the side of a babies back are supposed to work only up to the point they start crawling and things (Funnily enough,  my Chiropractor,  took a video of it as she thought none of her collegues would believe her about it as it is so rare (its like 40 + years late ffs)  Most of the things like that are still on for me reflex wise. 

It's really quite odd,  I can remember painting the coffee table wth nail polish remover,  my parents confirmed I did it and I can even remember the smell and the fact that after a while I got fed up with the brush and just tipped it all out.  If I shut my eyes I can see myself doing it & remeber the smell and stuff + a few other things like my brother coming home (New baby). + me walking home from Nursury aged 3,  remember kncking on th efront door,  mom not happy.  All confirmed by parents / Grandparents so I am 100% sure it's real.

I think it is quite rare to be fair but really good.  

[Demitri_C]

Mine was and I do remember it quite clearly I was sleeping in my bed with my superman covers then i just heard loud noises from above and I shit myself . My mum came in and said it was okay. I said i thought it was a giant treading on houses and my was explaining was just a bad storm and thundering.