What is earliest memory you have? Anyone distinctly remember as an infant?

[Zeze]

As I'm getting older, it's surreal to think how memories also get older- and it's at the mercy of your brain.

The earliest memories I have are from kindergarten. This I do have many of it: I remember making pancake in a cooking class, being on a swing & playground time, and doing a play.

But that's all I have of it. I do not remember my first day in kindergarten. I don't remember graduating. I don't remember my first day of first grade.

I think that's about early as it gets. I do have some hazy snippets of going over to a friends house or playing with a certain robot toy at a relative's house. But I have no idea what age those memories belong to- 3? 4?

I definitely don't remember anything as a toddler and earlier. Everything I did, I was standing up.

Is this about normal for how an average person remembers about early childhood?

 

[Markbnj]

I have a couple of strong memories from the age of around 3, just images really but they have been confirmed by my parents so I know they are real.

 

[zinfamous]

Those who have such memories probably have false memories.

Hell, the majority of people actually can't properly remember the details of things that happened to them a year ago, even a few months ago.

Memory has become trickier and trickier the more we learn about it.

 

[smackababy]

The earliest memories I have are eating too many cookies and getting sick, a big flood, and hanging out with my father in front of a big lion statue. I am not sure which of the 3 is earlier, but I do remember them. Strangely enough, the pictures from the lion statue I don't remember at all. I only remember jumping off the brick base and my father catching me.

 

[Zeze]

Those who have such memories probably have false memories.

Hell, the majority of people actually can't properly remember the details of things that happened to them a year ago, even a few months ago.

Memory has become trickier and trickier the more we learn about it.

That's actually scary. Because you're right. We don't even remember day-to-day stuff even a year ago.

However, how technology can today. All that massive data in our gmail is an one small example. It's only a matter of time until computer can record audio/visual of every second of our life.

 

[Kaido]

the majority of people actually can't properly remember the details of things that happened to them a year ago, even a few months ago.

dude I don't even remember what I had for breakfast (legit)

 

[irishScott]

I remember sucking on a milk bottle in my crib a few times. I also remember one time I was given juice instead of milk and I didn't like it. I was probably 2. I also have precisely one memory about visiting my grandmother (she died when I was 3). I also have many memories of Kindergarten and elementary school in general.

 

[irishScott]

That's actually scary. Because you're right. We don't even remember day-to-day stuff even a year ago.

However, how technology can today. All that massive data in our gmail is an one small example. It's only a matter of time until computer can record audio/visual of every second of our life.

True, technology is the one of the main reasons rote-memorization has fallen out of favor in the educational systems. It used to be memorizing information at least gave you a speed advantage, you didn't have to walk down to the library and look something up when you needed it, or flip through a book. Now we have Google.

 

[zinfamous]

dude I don't even remember what I had for breakfast (legit)

That's because you'd eat leather and bicycle chains if you can find a way to prepare it.


...and you did, didn't you?

 

[shortylickens]

I remember being in the crib and getting a stuffed animal stuck in between the bars. Mom says theres no way I can remember that.

Perhaps my imagination conjured it up. Of course, that doesnt explain how it correlated perfectly with her story.

 

[dank69]

My earliest memory is from when I was 2-3. Closer to 2 though.

I used to lie on my back and would lay my bottle on my chest and try to catch it as it rolled off of me. When I missed it and it fell on to the floor, I would try to retrieve it by reaching down without getting out of bed.

Well, of course one time I fell while trying to reach it. I don't really remember the fall hurting much.

The next morning I couldn't raise my arm high enough to eat my cereal. Again, I don't really remember much pain. I just couldn't do it. Parents brought me to the ER and x-rays showed I had a hairline fracture in my collarbone.

What is really odd is even though I remember this event from long ago, overall, my episodic memory is complete shit. By the time I finish a round of golf I can't remember much about my round at all.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I specifically remember when I was 3 years old. I can remember details of Christmas and trips we took that had no pictures or videos documenting them. I can remember specific smells from those times too and that helps lock the memory in my brain. I remember that was the same year my dad added onto the house. He took his pocketknife out and cut through the drywall one night. He said, "I'm going to put a hallway right here". I thought it was really cool.

I remember Kindergarten (I was 5 when I started) and I remember 3-5 when my mom was home with me. We'd always take naps in the afternoon on the couch. Once I started school, she started working again.

 

[lxskllr]

My earliest verified memory is from 18mos. I remember being at the ocean for vacation. I have other memories from about that age, but they're just snapshots, with no story to go with them.

 

[NuclearNed]

I have a very vague memory about the first house where I lived as a baby. We moved from there when I was 2.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have memories from living in a part of Amsterdam called Osdorp in the Netherlands, living there. That should not be possible, i was just a few months old baby.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I have one memory from roughly around 3 years old according to my dad. Not really much too it just a vision/picture of a place I lived and an item in it.

 

[Printer Bandit]

i remember my past life. it wasn't pretty.

 

[notposting]

Most of my older memories are more like snapshots (well...Polaroids ).

The first memory I really have is when we moved to Hawaii from San Diego (dad was in the Marine Corps). It's just a view from the upper balcony of the hotel or whatever when we first got there, into the courtyard. In a way it makes sense, because this was TURMOIL for a maybe 2 year old. I don't remember the glorious BEACH-FREAKING-FRONT apartment we lived in while in San Diego. Some old pictures of that. Actually, the pictures helped me clarify that the memories I had built up from hearing stories (like wandering off to the beach alone, gj mom) were false, since nothing looked the way I was imagining it.

edit: that first view is also a snapshot, to clarify.

 

[clamum]

I've read several times that there's not very many people who truly have legit memories before like two years old. Link

I have a really vague memory of holding my younger brother when he was just an infant (I was 2.5 years old when he was born). But it's not much of a memory. My earliest is from preschool.

 

[stargazr]

I remember the day of JFK's funeral. I was three, and my family gathered together while it was on TV. It was a very sad day.

 

[mmntech]

Earliest memories I have are of my grandma's old house and our family vacation to Hilton Head Island. Would have been around 3. I can still remember the layout of that old house.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

My parents moved from the apartment they lived in when I was born to their first house about a year before I started kindergarten. I have some memories of the apartment and many of the move, so call it 3 1/2 or so.

 

[Scarpozzi]

i remember my past life. it wasn't pretty.

I can't imagine what your life without neffing would be filled with.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I remember several little things here and there around 2-4 (we left for San Diego before I was 5) that I know weren't captured on home videos or anything else to distort my memory. I remember going to a Chinese restaurant with my family and grandparents, and while I don't remember eating I do remember one of those quarter-prize things, me and my first brother getting rings (mine had a green gem, his had a purple one). I remember the "Is It Alive?" song watching Sesame Street. I remember my mom baking some kind of cherry bread while I was watching Sesame Street. I remember my mom being out of town and my dad letting me watch Creepshow 2 with him, although I didn't know what show it was until only a few years ago (I strongly remembered the tidal wave of black goo at the end of "The Raft"). I remember my maternal grandmother trying to share a Snapple with me once, seeing chunks of what was probably fruit bits that I assumed was backwash, and being disgusted and refusing to drink from the bottle. I remember sticking my finger into an electrical socket once and getting a shock. I remember being left in the backyard to watch my dad mow the lawn, and a full-grown rattlesnake chilling out just a few feet where I was, and because of those Dial-an-Animal books I even remember knowing it was a rattlesnake. I remember having a serious fear of Gila monsters thanks to that book as well. I remember several nightmares quite vividly. I remember my dad re-roofing the house, and how he would carry me over this patch of leaves that I thought looked like vomit. I remember my brother chasing our cocker spaniel Missy around the house. I remember digging through dirt for ladybugs with my brother. I remember playing Mean 18 with my dad on his old computer at the time. I remember playing Super Mario Bros 2 at my grandparents', although I remember thinking that the curtains on the character selection window were real curtains and that I was looking into some weird magical box. I remember my maternal-side uncle coming over once and bringing some kind of pachinko game. I remember my dad taking me to his cubicle at NASA once, and being oddly fascinated with the many yellow/green stencils and protractors and stuff. I remember going through mud with my dad a paternal-side uncle on the latter's Bronco, and I remember on the drive home watching the sun set and seeing the silhouette of a neighbor's sailboat.

I think the reason I remember a lot of that stuff is because interesting things stopped happening in my life starting in 6th grade, so those earlier childhood memories are all I really have before the days of forums.

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot the one day we got snowflakes in Houston, and running over to tell my mom and a family friend of her's, who was eating Mac-and-Cheese (which I thought looked disgusting). I was watching Looney Tunes at the time, one of the WW2-themed episodes, and while I thought the snow was cool, I didn't realize how rare it was at the time and couldn't be arsed to get away from the TV and go play outside.

http://www.wxresearch.com/snowhou.htm

That would had to have been the Feb 1994 date, which would have meant I was still 3 years old. Earliest one I can probably "verify".

 

[dank69]

I can't imagine what your life without neffing would be filled with.

fapping to sears catalog