I made the mistake of staying up until 3 am last night to finish a book I stupidly purchased (when will I learn that I can't buy books on weekdays!!) and I'm not fit for work. So I figured I'd post a poll for fun.

What age were you in your earliest memory? What was this memory? Was it a full memory (i.e. sounds, images, thoughts) or more of a snapshot?

My earliest "full" memory was being introduced to my cousin shortly after her birth. I was a month shy of 2 years old. I remember sitting on the giant green rug in my parents' living room as my aunt and uncle brought her over. I remember how excited everyone was that I would have a "playmate". It was more the reaction of the adults than the event itself that made it stick.

I believe that I remember being taken to visit my mother when she had gall bladder surgery when I was 1 yr 9 months because I have an image in my head of my mom lying in a hospital bed that is an early image and it doesn't involve the birth of my sisters. But I will acknowledge that I could have made it up a long time ago and then simply forgotten that fact.

What age were you in your earliest memory? What was this memory? Was it a full memory (i.e. sounds, images, thoughts) or more of a snapshot?

I have two very early memories, more snapshot then full memories.

The first I was maybe two, I had cut my toe & I remember that I thought the stiches were a bug.

The second memory was when I was about three, we were getting ready to move to the new house & the moving guy called me a boy, that made me really mad & I remember they were taking down the bunkbed at that time.

I have many very early memories, pre-age 3. I only know because of where we lived, who was NOT there, what car I was in, and so forth. It would be very hard to narrow it down farther without grilling my parents or siblings about where we went, what we did, when they bought certain items, etc.

Some are "snapshots"; others are full events. One such was visiting 6 Flags, and asking my mother what "no rain checks" meant. She asked where I heard that term, and I told her it was "on that sign over there." She was surprised I could read that, and a few other adults turned and stared, so I quit asking what things meant. I think that was maybe when I was 2, but I could have been 3.

I was about 9 months old- the memory was of my grandfather lifting me from my crib, blabbing "ah-da-da-da-da" and rubbing his stubbly cheek on my face. I know this is earlier than one is supposed to remember, but when I described the wall behind my crib to my mother, she told me that it was the farmhouse that we moved from when I was 9 months old. There were no survivng pictures that could have influenced me (they were lost in the move from NY to CT). BTW, the sun rose and set on my grandfather as far as I was concerned.

My next memory was soaping up a bathtub with my best friend, slipping and sliding, while singing "I'm gonna be 3 tomorrow". Don't really know how old I was, but we had a great time- until our mothers came in and threw a fit!

I remember slipping though a round intertube in a pool and going under water and looking up through the water. I was never afraid or felt like I was drowning. When I told my mom about the memory, she said it happened when I was about 1 1/2 - 2 and her friend's mom just matter-of-factly reached down and pulled me out (my mom was a young mother of 16-17-18 years). Ironically, years later on the Jersey coast I nearly drowned again by the Atlantic undertow and my friend and I were saved by the life guard - we were both on the swim team and thought for sure we could "beat it". NOT That lifeguard saved our lives. And I still love the ocean and the water.

This is a great question! (I want to know what your book is that kept you up all night, tho.)

I used to have a memory of black and white squares getting bigger and smaller and bigger and smaller before my eyes. I told my mother about it once and she said, that's kinda weird. In the house I was born in, the floor was that black and white linoleum squares laid out like a checkerboard. My mother said that my father (and he was the only one that did this) used to hold me up over his head and toss me up in the air and catch me. So, that's what I was remembering, the tiles coming closer and farther and closer and farther. My dad died when I was about a year old so it would have been before then.

I remember lying in my crib and I remember being swaddled tight like a papoose. I had one of those scary stuffed animals with the plastic faces (a rabbit) and I remember it fell over on me and I remember lying there and struggling, trying to get it off my face so I could breathe but I was wrapped up so tight I couldn't get my arms free. I don't know how old I was but I imagine pretty tiny; I think you stop swaddling by two or three months.

I also have a sensory memory that pops up with regularity. In our household there was a terrific rivalry between my 17 year old mother's love for Elvis and my 16 year old aunt's love of the Beatles. My mother tells me that my aunt used to hold me tight and dance frantically around the room with me to her Meet the Beatles album at full blast till my mother insisted she stop for fear of whiplashing me.

To this day, whenever I hear "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or especially "She Loves You" I am filled with such an incredible adrenaline rush I feel like jumping out of my chair and screaming at the top of my lungs and running around and having a seizure. I get very choked up and the hair stands up all over my body. I know this is from the experience of being clasped tightly to the passionate body of my young aunt and feeling all those feelings of unfettered joy and lust course through her body into mine. Research tells me that She Loves You was released as a 45 single when I was 6 months old.

1. I am standing out in the back yard, but I'm in the shade. I look up, and I'm under the big lilac by the back door. It's not blooming and I watch the leaves move in the breeze. I spend what seems like a fair amount of time watching a little black orb spider make a web. I can hear Mom hoeing the garden, but she stops when I go to her and tell her about the spider.

That has to be an early one, because I'm wearing nothing but a diaper and a sun hat.

2. I'm in the kitchen, sitting on the floor. It's the same house. The floor tiles are checkerboard red and cream, and the cupboards are painted cream with tiny red pinstriping on the edges of the counters.

Mom has her back to me, and she's singing to the radio - it's a Roy Orbison tune, but I can't remember which one. I remember his voice. I'm carefully putting wooden clothespins into an empty milk bottle, and when it's full, I call her and she empties it back on the floor for me.

Again, an early one, because I have a sense that it's very hot outside.

3. A year later. I think it's the summer I turned three (My birthday is in August). I'm standing on the front steps of the house (same one) and I know I'm not allowed to go down them by myself, so I'm holding on to the wrought iron railing. The steps are concrete, and there seems to be a million of them, but I suspect there were only about 8.

I'm wearing my very favorite dress. It's a white cotton trapeze dress with no sleeves and big black polka dots. There are matching shorts and a hat, too. I'm waiting because Auntie M--- and Uncle J--- are coming with the family to see the new baby, and I'm all excited. I run inside to see if she's still asleep.

Mom contends that she made me about a dozen of those little dresses, but I only remember that one.

4. I'm sitting in a tree, and it's not as hot as it was earlier. It's a massive weeping birch that dominates the front yard. Dad has lifted me up there, because I wanted to see, but I have to come down soon because we're going out. I feel like I'm in a balloon, because the branch is swaying under me.

When he lifts me down, I see I'm wearing a navy blue dress with white socks and Mary Jane shoes.

______________________________­______

The summers from 1963 to 1967 were so hot where we lived that most kids roared around in as little clothing as they could. When I was a newborn, it was so hot in the house that I spent the first 6 or so weeks of my life in the baby carriage under the lilacs with nothing on - just some folded diapers under me.

MessyONE:

I'm wearing nothing but a diaper and a sun hat.

I'm wearing my very favorite dress. It's a white cotton trapeze dress with no sleeves and big black polka dots. There are matching shorts and a hat, too.

I'm wearing a navy blue dress with white socks and Mary Jane shoes.

Hmmm. I'm noticing a recurring theme with your memories. I'll bet you told your mama "This diaper just doesn't do a thing for my figure! And can I get it in another color?"

She insists that I had a thing for shoes ever since I started wearing them. I have also loathed the color pink ever since I can remember, so probably you're right.

;-)

mommy and daddy were in the bed next to my bassinet. she was squirming and crying, and i thought daddy was hurting her.

he wasn't

Granddaughter loves shoes, practically since birth, starting with her teeny baby booties, she would hold them & coo to them. Shoes is one of her first words. If we are at the store, & sees shoes, she get really excited. She'll be two in Sept.

playing in the neighbor's pool and exploring the back house, knowing it was haunted. I was 1 1/2.

The book that kept me up was the third book in Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy.

It's interesting that everyone here seems to have early memories. The reason I had brought this up, was that at a party over the weekend the discussion had come up. There were a group of us who had memories at ~2 years of age, and then there were a bunch of people who claimed to not remember anything before 10 or so. It was claimed that we were unusual.... It appears that this isn't the case! (Not that I'm saying a slice of the DP boards is really a representative sample of society at large.)

Research will tell you that everybody goes through a massive loss of brain cells before age 5. It is the brain's way of clearing out cells that haven't been used up to that point to make room for those that are being used to branch out and mature. Experts claim that memories made before this time are no longer obtainable. I've had that argument on this board though and don't really want to go into it again so I'll just say everybody above is in that rare half percent that do retain memories :)

Oh and I have a policy of never starting a new book after 6 pm. I read over 100 pages an hour so that gives me time to finish it and still get to bed at a reasonable time!

What? Were they arm wrestling? >:-)