What's your earliest memory?

[Accy cyclist]

I can remember lying in a pram being pushed by my grandad, being forced to smoke a cigarette at a christening by some men when i was about 4 , watching Winston Churchill's funeral at home eating a bowl of Ready Brek when i was 4, and going to Blackpool for the annual wakes weeks holidays in the mid to late 1960's. Someone who lived on our street told me the other year that i watched the 1966 world cup final in his house with a few other youngsters on the street. I was glad to know that i saw it as i often wondered if i did, though i have no recollection of it.

 

[Cycling Dan]

At my granddads house between my aunties legs watching toy story on the tv.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

At my granddads house between my aunties legs watching toy story on the tv.

I'm sure it wasn't as dirty as it sounds!!

 

[Cycling Dan]

I'm sure it wasn't as dirty as it sounds!!

LOL. I thought should I say it or just think of another memory.
That's just your dirty mind at work

 

[asterix]

I never remember a thing until after breakfast.

Age-wise I can remember my 3rd birthday vividly but I have no idea if other stuff happened before or after that so I don't actually know which is my earliest.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

In a kitchen, tugging on my Mum's dress, because she was (temporarily) ignoring me in favour of my little sister, who was a baby in her arms. Little sis is 3.5 years younger, so I guess that made me about 4 then.

Or was it the one where I was swimming, in a very warm salty sea, then reaching the shore, and being surprised because I had legs that weren't there before... no, wait, I think that memory goes waaayyy back...

 

[colly]

During the night my sub-conscious must have dredged up a memory for me.
When I was born I had wonky legs. Either bow legged or knock kneed I can't remember what my mum told me the problem was. Anyway the up shot of that was I had to wear callipers on my legs to straighten them out. I remember having them on, I was walking in the garden of a house we lived in Hammersmith in London so would have probably been older than 2 years. I didn't have them by the time I'd reached 4.
So maybe 3 is the earliest memory.

 

[longers]

Thanks for sharing!

Interesting stuff about the susceptibility of memory to influence. I've got two "memories" that I know I can only recall in particular because I'd had them described to me.

I've also got one that I can only remember from the viewpoint of someone else watching me. I guess I've narrated it to myself and that's how it's been stored? Maybe?

 

[SteCenturion]

03.35 a.m

After that it's a blank.

41.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have a couple of vague memories of my real father when we lived in Northampton... one was him going down a grid (why or how it was uncovered I have no idea) to retrieve the wheel off my wheelbarrow (no idea how it came off either) - I can even tell you exactly which grid and where it was in relation to our 'home'. I also vaguely remember waiting for him to come home from work on the 'corner' of our cul-de-sac so I could have a ride on his motorbike (I understand that this was no more than about 50yds). These definitely happened before my grandparents removed us & my mum from the house not long after my brother was born in 1975 which I also remember... so I would have been almost 3.
Thankfully I don't remember much about my real father or the incident that caused my mum to leave him (he put a knife to my throat whilst drunk and threatened to kill me apparently). Somethings are best not remembered.

 

[SteCenturion]

Feel 4U kid.

Don't remember my natural dad, don't need to or want to though - although I have a vague understanding of why my Mam left him from the British Army base in Cyprus.
Nothing like that though.

Best to focus on the 'good stuff' & put the rest in a little box in our brains marked 'closed' or 'out of order' or suchlike.

I have a couple of vague memories of my real father when we lived in Northampton... one was him going down a grid (why or how it was uncovered I have no idea) to retrieve the wheel off my wheelbarrow (no idea how it came off either) - I can even tell you exactly which grid and where it was in relation to our 'home'. I also vaguely remember waiting for him to come home from work on the 'corner' of our cul-de-sac so I could have a ride on his motorbike (I understand that this was no more than about 50yds). These definitely happened before my grandparents removed us & my mum from the house not long after my brother was born in 1975 which I also remember... so I would have been almost 3.
Thankfully I don't remember much about my real father or the incident that caused my mum to leave him (he put a knife to my throat whilst drunk and threatened to kill me apparently). Somethings are best not remembered.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Feel 4U kid.

Don't remember my natural dad, don't need to or want to though - although I have a vague understanding of why my Mam left him from the British Army base in Cyprus.
Nothing like that though.

Best to focus on the 'good stuff' & put the rest in a little box in our brains marked 'closed' or 'out of order' or suchlike.

thank you I just wish my brother had the same "don't need to or want to though" approach. He can't/won't let go but with the only info we know on our real father (emigrated to South Africa before the UK police caught up with him from what I have been told recently) there is little hope of locating him (thankfully), though this does not stop my brother from going on and on about it.

 

[SteCenturion]

thank you I just wish my brother had the same "don't need to or want to though" approach. He can't/won't let go but with the only info we know on our real father (emigrated to South Africa before the UK police caught up with him from what I have been told recently) there is little hope of locating him (thankfully), though this does not stop my brother from going on and on about it.

R kid is the same - although he's never gone looking.
I believe mine stayed in the Army as a career soldier & I had a very odd "someone's been asking about you" event when I was on a training course at R.A.F St Athan - the instructor wouldn't tell me who.
Maybe your brother will see the light & then switch it off.
Good luck anyway.

 

[annedonnelly]

I have vague memories of the first house I lived in. I was about two and a half when we left.

My first real memory is being at a football match with my dad in July '69 - I would be two & a half. Interestingly I was supposed to be seeing the animals at a visiting circus- as a treat because they'd just brought my baby brother home from hospital. Clearly my dad was more interested in the football - I have no memory of any animals

 

[Paulus]

I can remember being in my pram, a big Silver cross thing with big wheels, the hood was up and the flap attached so the rain didn't come in. I was with a blue fluffy toy rabbit. This must of been about 1959/60 when I was about 2.
I can also remember staying at my Nan's when my mum was in hospital having my brother. That was in February 1960 when I was 2,
The next recollection I have is my first day at primary school, April 1963. A girl whose name was Hazel Fox took me into the school from my mum at the gate.