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Your Earliest Memories You Can Recall (1 Viewer)

brun

brun

Footballguy
Having this discussion with my son the other day. He says they earliest memories he can recall go back to when he was about 5 years old. I can recall a couple of things that happened when my family was moving from Kansas to Georgia. This would put me around 2 years old.

How far back can you go?

 
Right at the cusp of 2-3 yo.

- riding a tractor 'round the family farm with my Uncle Merl

- going on TV & getting my picture taken with the UVM football team. We were living in the married-students dorm of the University of Vermont while me Da took advantage of the GI Bill from Korea & he had bought a new-fangled reel-to-reel tape recorder to help with his notes for his Masters thesis. He loved Steve Allen's Man in the Streets interviews on the original Tonight Show, but the deck was too heavy to take anywhere, so he would practice his own version with the family.

One day, Da walked his long microphone cord into the bedroom and found me in my usual position, sitting at the end of my bed, chin in hand, staring off to nowhere (my youngest son was the very same way at that age). He did his intro of "Well, let's see what this li'l wikkid has to say......what are you doing, young man?"

"Thinkin'"

"What are you thinking about?"

"The foreign situation"

Huh? Apparently, the Russians had just launched Sputnik & I was worried, in those duck-and-cover days, that those bad, grey men being in space meant they could throw bombs at us from way high up now. Thing is, i was three years old.

My father played the tape for his pal down the hall, Ed, who happened to be interning at the local television studio. In those days, most local stations had three people sitting around a studio doing whatever they could think of to do for several hours before network television came on, so they were always looking for stories & put me on. They couldnt get me to say it again like i had to me Da, but i never shut up in those days and they had the tape, so they got a good 15 minutes out of me. I remember lights & strangers talking to me and the whole teapot tempest of it resulting in me getting a freshman beanie from & my picture taken with the UVM Catamount football team.

 
My earliest memory is actually a dream.  It was a recurring dream I had as a 3-4 year old, but I thought at the time it was a memory.  We had moved from a dump of a house, to a townhouse when I was 2, then back to the first house briefly (we rented it out) then to our current house when I was three.  I remember asking my parents why we had matresses stacked in the basement of our first house.  I had a very clear memory of crawling down the stairs to the basement and seeing matresses stacked on the floor and leaning against the walls.  My parents told me there was nothing in the basement except a little laundry room with a washer and dryer.  I can still picture the matresses clearly as I type this.

 
I remember my little sister coming home and waking up to my uncle being home before that while my parents were at the hospital. I wasn't quite 3.

 
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Leaving preschool and trying to figure out how to get home.  It was only 4 blocks away but I vividly remember being terrified. 

I started following a friend on my block who was with his mom for the rest of the year. 

Thinking back, no one questioned (to my knowledge) why my mom would walk me to preschool in the morning and let me walk home alone. 

 
I remember our first house after moving back to MN from AZ. I was 3. 

There are a few ‘memories’ I have that I can’t quite decide if they are true memories (like I can visualize what happened because I’m recalling them from the event itself) or because I have visualized common stories that my mom/grandparents told about me as a kid.

My grandparents owned a motel for years and I’d go over there during the day when my mom would help clean/do office work. My grandma used to give me a bowl of those strawberry candies (with that liquid inside) to hand out to guests when they came into the lobby. I’ve heard that story so many times I don’t know if I remember it or if I’ve visualized the events from hearing the stories. 

 
About 3yo.  Sitting on the back stoop with Dad, pestering him to let me have a drink of his beer.  He did.  The pestering stopped.

 
I was the youngest of 5 and I remember being home with my Mom when I was 3 years old, I still remember my Big Jim camper and my Six Million Dollar Man action figure.  Around that same time she used to drive her parents to a hospital that was about 2.5 hours from our home so that she could get her Dad (my Grandfather) in to a heart specialist.  My Grandfather had been a coal miner for several decades and he had developed black lung and heart disease.  I remember riding in the back of the car with him and he would tell jokes and kid around with me, he would always be very kind and pleasant, all that time he was dying of heart disease you would have never known it, he acted as though he didn't have a care in the world, wonderful attitude he had about everything that was happening, I never heard him once complain about it.

 
I've found that a lot of times people don't have a firm understanding of how old a memory is, unless there's some date to benchmark it by. I know that the first Christmas I remember is when I was 2.5, because my younger (twin) sisters were born soon thereafter and I remember a Christmas when it was just my older brother and me. After that, I remember various Christmases but have no idea if I was 4 or 7 or whatever. 

 
Watching my mom take a black snake out from under the back deck to the woods on a stick.  We moved out of that house when I was 3, so it was sometime before that.

 
One of my favorite early memories was when I was 3 years old, holding my father's left hand (my older brother held his right) as we crossed the parking lot to see Star Wars (ANH). Back then, without the competition or revenue of home video, hit movies stayed in theaters for ages. This was in the wintertime, roughly 6-7 months after the movie opened, and my Dad was finally taking my brother to see it. He had to take me, of course, but I was a good kid--must've taken two naps during that movie!.

 
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Being on the operating table about to go under at 3.

Getting my toe caught in one of those cement water fountains at the park - also at 3.  It was a tough year for me.

 
ooo, another pretty good memory from the same 3yo time span as my others. My Uncle Arthur (10+ yrs my father's junior) slept on our couch his entire freshman year @ UVM (tuition scholarship - the 1st Vermont student to ever ace their Organic Chemistry final - but no r&b). Art suffered terribly from hemorrhoids, so much so that he fell under the spell of Oral Roberts, TV's first faith healer. thing about it was that Roberts told sufferers to put one hand on their television sets & the other on their afflicted area as they prayed with him for relief. that's how i know it was a real memory, cuz they didn't talk about it til decades later when he & me Da were talking about skooldaze and i mentioned my remembering him with one hand on his butt & the other on the TV, howling to Jesus to beat the band, and they musta laughed for 15 minutes.

 
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3.   I can still see my sister being brought into our house when I was born and playing with my buddy Nels next door.  

 
I was about 3; visiting my grandparents' house. My aunts and uncles were teaching me how to read a digital clock.
Later that year, I remember my aunts and uncles tried to scare me by having me watch the new Michael Jackson Thriller music video. But I wasn't scared because I don't think I had the attention span to sit and watch TV.

 
Sullie said:
I was the youngest of 5 and I remember being home with my Mom when I was 3 years old, I still remember my Big Jim camper and my Six Million Dollar Man action figure.  Around that same time she used to drive her parents to a hospital that was about 2.5 hours from our home so that she could get her Dad (my Grandfather) in to a heart specialist.  My Grandfather had been a coal miner for several decades and he had developed black lung and heart disease.  I remember riding in the back of the car with him and he would tell jokes and kid around with me, he would always be very kind and pleasant, all that time he was dying of heart disease you would have never known it, he acted as though he didn't have a care in the world, wonderful attitude he had about everything that was happening, I never heard him once complain about it.
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I remember my mom backing out of the garage and running over my Big Jim camper. ? I was 3 or 4 at the time.

 
The memories of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I remember we'd all pile into the car - I forget what kind it was - and drive and drive. I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some trees there. The smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called "Dad." We'd eat some stuff, or not, and then I think we went home. I guess some things never leave you.

 
Yeah it was 4 or 5. Really random memory but I remember standing in my kitchen watching someone down the hall come out of the bathroom.

 
Might remember some earlier, but the earliest I can definitely date was my parents putting in a swimming pool when I was 4. Remember learning to swim, and writing our names in the cement area around it.

 
Right at 3.  The neighbor kid from across the road was a teenager and used to try and get me to cross the road and get in trouble with my Mom by fake-throwing hot wheels cars.  One day he accidentally let go and chucked one across the road and then proceeded to run across the road to retrieve it. A car hit him at 50 or 60 MPH.  I'll never forget the sound as long as I live but thankfully I don't have a visual memory of the impact.

 
I remember the spider that lived in a bush outside my window.  Orange body, green legs. I watched her build her web all summer. Then one day there was a big egg in.

The egg hatched and hundreds of baby spiders came out.  And they ate her.

 
Ron Swanson said:
Right at 3.  The neighbor kid from across the road was a teenager and used to try and get me to cross the road and get in trouble with my Mom by fake-throwing hot wheels cars.  One day he accidentally let go and chucked one across the road and then proceeded to run across the road to retrieve it. A car hit him at 50 or 60 MPH.  I'll never forget the sound as long as I live but thankfully I don't have a visual memory of the impact.
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:shock:   Did he die?

 
I can vividly recall my grandmother's funeral in December 1967 when I was 4 and a half.  I have vague memories of my brother falling off a ladder and busting his head open which was the summer of '67 when I turned four. I have lots of vague memories from that time period but it's difficult to pinpoint any of them by date so those are the two earliest memories I can substantiate.

 
I stayed up past midnight this past weekend and wasn’t blacked out yet....everything after gets a little hazy 

so, 12:00 Sunday morning is my earliest 

 
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I think my earliest memory is of dropping Matchbox cars down some hole in our back yard. I'm pretty sure they were from the 1st bunch that were released in 68, making me not quite 2 1/2. I remember mild weather, so it wouldn't have been Christmas but rather late Spring/early Summer, after my older brother's birthday, since they were his. I remember not understanding why my dad was yelling at me, but once I realized they weren't coming back,  I was more upset by that than about my dad yelling at me. 

 
Christmas 1977?  I remember playing with my red fire truck and drums.  I was 3ish.  Cape Cod trip that same year, I remember being terrified of the pool.  I have vague memories of living at Fort Devins (or visiting my dad?)  I hated that room.  Everything was dark green and cold.  I was probably two y/o.

 
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PIK95 said:
Christmas 1977?  I remember playing with my red fire truck and drums.  I was 3ish.  Cape Cod trip that same year, I remember being terrified of the pool.  I have vague memories of living at Fort Devins (or visiting my dad?)  I hated that room.  Everything was dark green and cold.  I was probably two y/o.
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My peeps are presently upstairs celebrating meeting at a USO dance at Fort Devens 66 yrs ago tonite. My father's opening line was a classic. My mother got bus sick on the way out with her gfs from Boston, they were all already out on the floor & the resting Doyle face is a withering stare in the first place. Me Da walks up to this boiling potato & says, "You look miserable. Care to make it worse by dancing with me?"

 
wikkidpissah said:
My peeps are presently upstairs celebrating meeting at a USO dance at Fort Devens 66 yrs ago tonite. My father's opening line was a classic. My mother got bus sick on the way out with her gfs from Boston, they were all already out on the floor & the resting Doyle face is a withering stare in the first place. Me Da walks up to this boiling potato & says, "You look miserable. Care to make it worse by dancing with me?"
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My dad was there in the early/mid 70's.  He actually enlisted and worked in the post office while all of his buddies got drafted.  He was very lucky.

 
Thomas The Skank Engine said:
Being in daycare at the bowling alley while my mom bowled.  Age 3-4.  Being in the hospital with spinal meningitis at age 4.
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same here on the bowling alley daycare ...it sucked.  Can't remember what age though - it was before kindergarten.  Also, my buddy had that terrible blackjack gum.  Awful.  

ETA:  the daycare was in the basement. Dirty vinyl tile flooring, a couple of folding banquet tables, cast-off crappy toys, a couple of bee-hived hairdo ladies with those stretchy stirrup pants ...smoking heavily of course.  And using those coil, bean bag ashtrays.  Air quality of late 1800s coal plant.  

 
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PIK95 said:
Christmas 1977?  I remember playing with my red fire truck and drums.  I was 3ish.  Cape Cod trip that same year, I remember being terrified of the pool.  I have vague memories of living at Fort Devins (or visiting my dad?)  I hated that room.  Everything was dark green and cold.  I was probably two y/o.
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Weird. That Christmas night in '77, I ate a bunch of mushrooms and had sex for a day and a half with a girl that I had seen around the bars.  We listened to John Lennon's "So this is Christmas" single for an entire evening in the dark. 

 
Binky The Doormat said:
same here on the bowling alley daycare ...it sucked.  Can't remember what age though - it was before kindergarten.  Also, my buddy had that terrible blackjack gum.  Awful.  
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My dad TRIED to put me in a bowling alley daycare while he bowled some misttess girl friend.  I absolutely freaked out and so did my mom when I told her.  I was probably five?

 
PIK95 said:
My dad TRIED to put me in a bowling alley daycare while he bowled some misttess girl friend.  I absolutely freaked out and so did my mom when I told her.  I was probably five?
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omg. 

ETA: are you the real John Bender from the movie?

 
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wikkidpissah said:
My peeps are presently upstairs celebrating meeting at a USO dance at Fort Devens 66 yrs ago tonite. My father's opening line was a classic. My mother got bus sick on the way out with her gfs from Boston, they were all already out on the floor & the resting Doyle face is a withering stare in the first place. Me Da walks up to this boiling potato & says, "You look miserable. Care to make it worse by dancing with me?"
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My mom was a McElroy.  I know a little bit about all that, lol.

 
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