oldest or youngest(?) memory?
- Thread starter rich p
- Start date
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asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
The problem is that one's age is not the first thing one is aware of!
..but it might have been when I was given a humming-top for my birthday. I can also remember being delighted to be told I was 3. Some weeks (probably really a day or 2) later my elder brother dropped the top out of the window. Fortunately it still worked.
..but it might have been when I was given a humming-top for my birthday. I can also remember being delighted to be told I was 3. Some weeks (probably really a day or 2) later my elder brother dropped the top out of the window. Fortunately it still worked.
guitarpete247
Just about surviving
- Location
- Leicestershire
I remeber (another train theme here) my dad had made me a ride on train. The boy 2 doors away told me he should have it as his dad was a train driver. I must have been about 2 as we moved house before I was 3. I also remember my dad had a motorbike. I have seen photo's of me sitting on the fuel tank as a baby so my memory might be from the photo's.
Hover Fly
He, him, his
- Location
- Besides the lake, beneath the trees
I remember being in my pram as ma was yakking to her mate, with one wheel of the pram on the pavement, two on the market steps and one in the air so I was slowly sliding to one end. I stopped the gossip with a well timed YAAAHHHH! I must have been about one. Strangely ma couldn't remember it in later years but her mate could.
Kirstie
Über Member
Our family holiday in Austria when I was 2 years old. At the time I'd got a nasty burn on my foot following an accident with a cup of tea. I had a dressing on it, but desperately wanted to go in the swimming pool, so my mum and dad taped a strong plastic bag around my foot, and lowered me into my rubber ring with my armbands on - the rubber ring had a seat in the bottom of it. I vividly remember looking down at my foot going into the water, and being pleasantly surprised that it stayed dry and didn't hurt! Yay!
swee'pea99
Squire
I'm never sure I quite 'remember' stuff. I know it happened, and it happened to me, but I can't 'see it from the inside' as it were. It's more like a programme I can remember. I do know that when I was pretty young - 3? 4? - my mum suddenly realised I'd been sitting in the corner swallowing marbles, one after another, took me into the bathroom, and held me over the bath by the ankles shaking me while they dropped out, clang, clang, clang in the bath. I do remember it, in one sense...but do I have a vivid memory of being held upside down and hearing those clangs? No.
Flying_Monkey
Recyclist
- Location
- Odawa
I've come to think that most of what we think are our oldest memories are more often than not actually 'memories of memories'. I know in my case, if I think about it, I don't actually actively remember the things I call my oldest memories, I remember that I used to remember them and what I used to say about them. Memories are all reconstructions anyway.
It's difficult to pin down memories to actual dates and ages. But I definitely know (from documents) that we moved out of the rather cramped flat where I first lived, when I was about four. And I have clear memories of living in that flat. Lets say, the following date from when I was about three.
I slept not in a bedroom but on a put-you-up in the living room. Shortage of space! When we moved house I was thrilled to get a room for the first time (albeit I had to share with my sister
).
Another occupant in the flats kept a motorbike of which I was mortally scared. Not of the bike driving along normally, but of the sudden noise it made when first started up. Sometimes this lad's mates used to call on him, all on motorbikes, they'd park on the gravel outside and then they'd all start up at once. If I was being pushed past in my buggy (not "buggy"! "Push-chair"), I'd set to howling unconsolably. I can't to this day reason why...
Another noisy thing that scared me, was the toilet. High-cistern job with a chain, even when I could reach the chain I was afraid to pull it. And if an adult came along to pull it for me, I'd run screaming...
I remember first time being stung by a wasp. I was on my own, watching the flies buzzing against the window-pane (more flies in those days!) and noticed a big black-and-yellow one that seemed a bit more slow-moving and easier to catch. So I clambered up on the window-sill and tried to catch it. Cue screams galore, parents rushing, much hugging and kissing in consolation....
I slept not in a bedroom but on a put-you-up in the living room. Shortage of space! When we moved house I was thrilled to get a room for the first time (albeit I had to share with my sister
).Another occupant in the flats kept a motorbike of which I was mortally scared. Not of the bike driving along normally, but of the sudden noise it made when first started up. Sometimes this lad's mates used to call on him, all on motorbikes, they'd park on the gravel outside and then they'd all start up at once. If I was being pushed past in my buggy (not "buggy"! "Push-chair"), I'd set to howling unconsolably. I can't to this day reason why...
Another noisy thing that scared me, was the toilet. High-cistern job with a chain, even when I could reach the chain I was afraid to pull it. And if an adult came along to pull it for me, I'd run screaming...
I remember first time being stung by a wasp. I was on my own, watching the flies buzzing against the window-pane (more flies in those days!) and noticed a big black-and-yellow one that seemed a bit more slow-moving and easier to catch. So I clambered up on the window-sill and tried to catch it. Cue screams galore, parents rushing, much hugging and kissing in consolation....
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I remember being taken to nursery school by a neighbour when I was about 3 years old. She had just parked the car when I pointed at the dashboard and said "Choke!" She asked me what I had just said, so I repeated it - "That thing says 'choke'".
Apparently, she told my mother about it later that day. She'd been really shocked that a child so young could read.
I also remember my father taking me to see a steam train go under a local bridge. Unfortunately, he decided that it would amusing to do a 'Michael Jackson' and dangled me over the parapet just as the train passed underneath! I was terrified and started screaming. Not one of his better tricks...
Apparently, she told my mother about it later that day. She'd been really shocked that a child so young could read.
I also remember my father taking me to see a steam train go under a local bridge. Unfortunately, he decided that it would amusing to do a 'Michael Jackson' and dangled me over the parapet just as the train passed underneath! I was terrified and started screaming. Not one of his better tricks...
CharlieB
Junior Walker and the Allstars
- Location
- Therivermeadowatthepileofstones
First bike accident at age 3, smashing my jaw into a thousand pieces. Except it was a little trike.
Some while ago, discussing this same subject with other people, it seemed to be all traumatic experiences. Thus I had this theory that your first memory would be the first terrible thing that happened to you.
However, from most of the responses above, that's that theory out of the window…
Some while ago, discussing this same subject with other people, it seemed to be all traumatic experiences. Thus I had this theory that your first memory would be the first terrible thing that happened to you.
However, from most of the responses above, that's that theory out of the window…
CharlieB
Junior Walker and the Allstars
- Location
- Therivermeadowatthepileofstones
I also remember my father taking me to see a steam train go under a local bridge. Unfortunately, he decided that it would amusing to do a 'Michael Jackson' and dangled me over the parapet just as the train passed underneath! I was terrified and started screaming. Not one of his better tricks...
Jeez…
My youngest vivid memory:
I was in my Dad's secondhand shop,
which had plenty of toy and teddies, and at 18 month old, I loved it!
But I liked one oy in particular best - a "dog teddy", so played with it until closing.
But then came the time to put it back. I wouldn't give it back, and held it tightly, crying.
In the end, it was easier to just let me keep it, my parents got some piece and quiet and I was a happy child!
Despite wear and tear and having it's ear reattached (I used to carry it around by its' ear), I've still got that teddy now,
and I'm nearly 29 now.
I was in my Dad's secondhand shop,
which had plenty of toy and teddies, and at 18 month old, I loved it!
But I liked one oy in particular best - a "dog teddy", so played with it until closing.
But then came the time to put it back. I wouldn't give it back, and held it tightly, crying.
In the end, it was easier to just let me keep it, my parents got some piece and quiet and I was a happy child!
Despite wear and tear and having it's ear reattached (I used to carry it around by its' ear), I've still got that teddy now,
and I'm nearly 29 now.
ttcycle
Cycling Excusiast
I was about a year, maybe less, had just woken up and it was more an audio memory as I couldn't see anything and visually it was all grey. I could hear my parents and brother saying in Cantonese 'oh she's not quite awake yet' (doesn't quite translate very well - the cantonese version is more cooey). The youngest other memory is probably from when I was about 2 or 3 I was looking up at my mum and my brother on a very small homemade wooden stool eating some pork from some soup my mum had made. I was wearing this little burgundy coloured jacket with little white stickmen on the bottom, I used to wear that all the time - in fact my other memory is that I painted over the jacket with poster paints...thankfully it was wipe cleanable...ahem!
