Early Childhood Memories

[Simplicius]

The earliest bona-fide memory I have is of my mother painting a stencil onto a radiator at the top of the stairs; I was around 3 years old. This one is verifiable, as 1) the radiator and the stencil existed, and the stencil was applied by my mother as remembered, and 2) the radiator is featured in no photograph and was removed well over a decade ago, and I have no memory of its removal or indeed its presence save this one instance.

[TithonusSyndrome]

For some reason, I have memories of completely impossible shit happening when I was little, like the sun and moon exchanging places several times in succession during midday.

[Mayabird]

My earliest possible memory is me crawling along the floor (I kept crawling long after I could walk, just because I liked to) and finding the kiddie door in my way to the kitchen, then turning around and seeing my mother pregnant. If this is a real memory, I would have been about two and a half at the time. However, this memory could have been helped out by photographs from when she was pregnant with my brother, so I don't think it counts.

The first definite genuine memory I have is from when I was three. It was the moment I figured reading out. We were driving down the road in the family truck, all of us together, and I was looking at road signs and suddenly realized what it all meant. The words came together or something. It wasn't just recognizing shapes and colors and knowing there was meaning behind it, but knowing the actual meaning of the letters themselves. And then I was really excited and started reading off EVERY SINGLE SIGN we passed.

"Bridge may ice in winter" was my favorite.

[aerius]

I used to love fountains as a kid, still do. I remember the big fountain at Square One shopping centre when it was still outdoors as well as spending hours watching the fountains do their thing at Wonderland. Forget the rollercoasters and other rides at Wonderland, I probably could've amused myself all day watching the big fountain there. Fountains and taking a plane across the ocean are about all I can remember from my early childhood, the plane I sorta remember but the fountains are crystal clear.

[NomAnor15]

I try to remember as little as possible about life before 18.

Amen, brother. Except that I am 18, so I say before age 15

EDIT: To actually answer the question, I remember not long after I was born (I don't actually know how long, exactly) being held in a warm shower to loosen up mucus in my sinuses, and then someone sticking a blue object up my nose to suck it out. After that, I don't remember much for the next 4 years, at least.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I remember crawling around on the floor of my room, with music ("The Hockey-Pokey") okaying, on a soft plush mattress.
This was in our first or second apartment, I'm not sure which.

Then again, I have a memory from what was definetly our first apartment, going out through the stairway at night and the street, while in a baby carriage.

So, age 0.8-2Y old.

I actually have a massive amount of childhood memories, up until the point I left London, with far, far less (proportionally) after I moved here.

[Johonebesus]

My earliest memory was evidently from before my third birthday. My parents took me to a doctor to take a blood sample. My father explained that they would stick a needle in me to get the blood. Now my mother at the time had a sewing machine (I remember lots of things from that general time period) and constantly told me that needles hurt so I wouldn't wander in and play with the pin cushion. As I was lying on the table, a big bowl with a huge needle in the middle started coming at me. Thinking it was going to go right through my stomach, I panicked and started screaming. I remember the terror but not much of the adults' reactions. The next thing I remember is walking through the parking lot holding my father's hand and happily saying to him, "you were right, it didn't hurt at all!" He became furious, and I didn't understand why.

Several years later I was in a hospital and saw the exam light, one with a reflective dish and a fluorescent rod sticking out of the middle, and realized that this was the giant needle that I thought was going to impale me in that first memory. Later still, as a teenager, I asked my mother about it. She remembered it as being in the Fall/Winter of 1977. She filled in the details: evidently I was so hysterical that the doctor decided not to try to get the blood sample. That's why my father was so angry.

I also remember the Christmas before my third birthday and a couple of toys I got, my spider man action figure (this was before Kenner's Star Wars toys completely killed the old style big dolls), running around the dining room table, a nightmare about demons living in the wall, "Laverne and Shirley" and "Barney Miller" on T.V., and many other little things from before we moved in the Summer when I was three.

[Korto]

I remember... dappled sunlight... shining through banana palms. The ground was covered with fronds... they were brown. There was a caravan.

It's my earliest memory, and it's like a mental photograph. No context, just a single, still, picture. Don't know how old I was, either.

[FSTargetDrone]

Earliest memories...

Roasting marshmallows in a camp fire outside my preschool on sandy ground.

Standing in front of a cubbyhole cabinet in Kindergarten. Don't know why, but that moment sticks in my mind.

Overhearing my mother talk with my kindergarten teacher about a miscarriage she (mom) had had. I didn't quite understand what she meant at the time, but this was eventually confirmed to me by my mother when she mentioned in passing that the only time she went to a hospital in an ambulance was after her miscarriage. I never asked her about it over the years (I am 34 now) and the topic of conversation quickly changed. All I know about that incident is that I was born first.

Being in the basement cafeteria of the above kindergarten, smelling vanilla as the teachers made cookies for the class. I always associate the smell of vanilla with kindergarten.

Clumsily dancing (as well as kindergarteners can dance!) with my little friend Melanie in the living room of her house, sometime in 1979, just before we moved away and I entered first grade. I had a picture of her for many years and I can still see it in my mind's eye. Her hair was dark brown and she had freckles. I sometimes wonder where she is today.

Entering first grade and meeting another new student, Marvin XXXXX who came from the Philippines with his family. He was my first friend at school. We stayed friends through 8 years together and after graduation I never saw or heard from him again.

Learning to ride my bike without the training wheels, by myself, circling around and around at the top of our long driveway.