When I was 2 years, 1 month old, my younger brother was born. I remember going to the hospital and my dad holding him up to the nursery window for my older brother and I to see. I also remember getting to eat pizza that day, which I think I was more excited about.
I remember being in a stroller, crying because my brother and sisters were running ahead. We were in some type of park and there was a fountain. I was probably about 2.
It was my birthday and my godparents got me a Mickey Mouse phone. Whenever I picked up the receiver, my godfather would do a different voice of a Disney character. I was CONVINCED I was talking to the real Minnie Mouse down in Disneyworld. I think I was 3.
My parents didn't get married until I was a little over 2 years old. I remember their wedding day, specifically running down a hallway at the reception to find my mom (who was probably in the bathroom LOL).
I don't know how old I was but I remember being in a swing set in the back yard. I also remember the famous blizzard from 1978, which I would have been a little over 3 years old. To be honest, I don't which is the earlier memory.
Waking up at 4am to help my Dad feed the horses before he left for work for a 16 hour day. He worked 16 hours a day 6 days a week, so it was our special time. I was 3.
I have two very early memories and I'm not sure which came first. I was about three. The first one I was on a beach and it was absolutely freezing, I was trying to get my mittens on but not quite managing it. I think my mum or nan eventually helped me. The second one, I was on holiday with my mum, her friend and her daughter who was about my age, the daughter fell out of her pushchair and scraped her knee and she seemed to be crying for the rest of the day.
The morning of Christmas Day, either 1968 or 1969, making me two or three. Sitting at the dinner table playing with these large jigsaw pieces I had gotten from Santa. I can smell cinnamon rolls in the oven. My brother is playing with a spirograph set. A happy, comforting memory.
U really want to hear a story about a preschooler witnessing the worst fight her parents ever had that she still has questions about 30 years later? I'm not even being dramatic, that really is my first memory.
Well what's on my memory now that I can't stop laughing at and have rewatched dozens of times is Kourtney giving birth to her daughter and pulling her baby out of her cha cha for the second time. I'm not a fan of the show or the family but I will continue to rewatch the scene. So funny.
My aunt and uncle brought my new cousin to my house, and I sat in the middle of a bed and held her and she peed on me, and I hid behind a door because I was afraid everyone would think I peed myself. Linda was born 7 weeks before my 2nd birthday.
Another very early memory is that of FDR dying. I was 2 years and 8 months when that happened. In those days it was not unusual for people to have a photo of the president on their wall. I remember my grandmother standing at the ironing board crying, and she told me it was because the president was dead, and when she said "president", my eyes went to that picture on the wall.
i am lying in my twin bed, my brother in the other one, and on the dresser is a radio. And my mom says , listen to Roy Rogers, and when its over, go to sleep. and we did. we must have been like 3 and 5 or even younger. I hv others, but this is a fav.
I remember being at the World's Fair in NY, getting a blown-glass stork, and my father explaining to me that a taco was like a pancake and finding out it was not. That was 1964 so I was 2yo.
After that, it's when my brother was brought home, which was again before I was 3yo. I was sent to a neighbor's house while they got him (adoption) and the neighbor mom made me wear an undershirt which horrified me. I thought undershirts were for boys and I never let *my* mother put one on me. I was too shy to stand up to the neighbor mom though, but I was still angry about it.
chopchop and kats - mine is traumatic, too - parents fighting; I was scared because my mom was threatening to go to her parent's house, and I didn't want to go there. So, we could have a Debbie Downer Society, I guess. But I've had lots of better memories since then, and I'm almost sure my kids' first memories are better than mine, so that makes me very happy :-).
I have three memories that were from when I was either 2 or 3, but I can't remember the order in which they happened.
1. Being on vacation in Baja with my parents. Swimming in the ocean with my dad, playing with another little girl on the beach, and my mom freaking out about a giant-ass spider in the room. 2. Going to a "fancy, grown-up" restaurant in LA called The King's Arms with my parents and grandmother. My mom and I were wearing matching long pink dresses. This would have been 1971 or 1972, and I thought I was hot shit. 3. Going to Knott's Berry Farm in LA, again with my parents and grandmother. The man who owned the park was a member of our church, and church members got in for free.
My brother says he remembers going to an Oregon football game when we lived in Eugene. He would have been 2 or 3.
Mine is traumatic too. I was a pretty rambunctious child. I must have vaulted off something (I liked to fly!) and landed on my head. Needed stitches. Did it again 6 months later! More stitches and another ER trip! Maybe that explains my memory problems now? Haha! I guess I was about 2.
I also remember lining up all the sofa cushions from the couch on the stairs to make a giant slide. It was a weird 70s couch with 4x3 cushions. Like a small foam air mattress with many pieces. We would play for hours on the child-made slide. Not so safe but safer then leaping off things on my head. Although sometimes the top cushion would go with you like a sled and the whole thing would crash on top of you. But it was soft :)
I thought a skunk was a cat and tried to pick up the "kitty" and was immediately sprayed, I ran to my grandmother's house and she yelled at me to go home and slammed the door, my mother ran out of our house to scoop me up and was hit by the smell, I still can see the expression on her face. She picked me up and carried me into the bathtub where I marinating in tomato juice. We found my little jacket ten years ago in a shed on the property it was a size 2
That's all you need to say. I laughed so hard reading those words that I missed the rest of the story lol!!!! I hope u don't mind but I have to steal that for a joke!
I was 3 or 4 - my parents had hung a red crepe paper bell from the ceiling light in my bedroom for Christmas and I remember my dad picking me up so I could "pat the bell goodnight". Around the same time I also remember playing with a doll sitting under my mother's sewing machine with Elvis Presley on the radio (my parents hadn't gotten a TV yet). Pretty good memories about childhood - I was lucky.
My brother coming home from Viet Nam. I didn't even know who he was. I remember sitting on the floor on a blanket looking up and a man in uniform was hugging my mother. I was too young to understand but I remember I didn't like it ;>.
@Harry Martin, "my father explaining to me that a taco was like a pancake and finding out it was not" That really made me laugh.
@Lurky Loo, "looking up and a man in uniform was hugging my mother. I was too young to understand but I remember I didn't like it" I wonder what was going through your little mind. Hey, that's MY mommy, not YOURS. :)
When I was almost 3 my Dad left me in a running car to take a neighbor's trash cans up from the street. It was long before carseats and I was behind the wheel playing and knocked the car out of gear. So my oldest memory is of being in the car rolling back down a hill as Daddy came running. He jumped in and stopped the car. And has been my (flawed) Hero ever since
My first memory was when my parents called us into the living room to tell my sister and I that my dad wouldn't be living with us anymore. My sister was older and started crying. I just remember feeling like I should cry, but not being able to. I also wondered why my dad didn't want to live with us anymore. I would have been about to turn 3.
Yes that was pretty much it LOL. And disapproval that my mom would hug a strange man, too ;>. My brother broke the ice pretty quickly though because he said I used to climb up in his lap and share his bowl of ice cream with him. I will forgive much if it involves ice cream!
My beloved grandfather's funeral when I was two and a half. I remember walking down the aisle at the funeral home for the viewing and seeing the backs of the chairs. I remember being lifted by one of my parents to say goodbye to grandpa and shrieking when I saw him in the casket. I guess even then I knew on some level that he wasn't coming back home. Jeez, what were my parents thinking??
I was 2 1/2 and we were buiding our new house which was next door to the house we lived in. We were playing in what would eventually be the basement and grabbing chunks of sheetrock to use as chalk.
My parents fighting...throwing and breaking my Donald Duck dish set as they each took turns throwing the dishes from the drying rack. We had spaghetti that night. My mom was drunk; he kept reminding her of that. I must have been 2 because they split before I turned 3. Says a lot that so many have this similar first memory. I will mind better how my SO and I argue around our 2 yr old son.
@goes in circles - me too! My son is almost 4 and my daughter is only a few months, but I think sometimes I forget that some memories stick. If for nothing else, I am glad this post reminded me of that.
@Harry Martin, I really laughed at that too :) Sounds like something my husband would say to our son :D
@Lurky Loo, so sweet :)
@Momster, I like that memory, it SOUNDS comforting :)
I've got two first memories: 1) I remember running through the kid door at Chuckie Cheese for my third birthday, I remember really liking that place (it's hard to believe they are still around 30 years later) 2) I remember being at the babysitter's house and the "big" kids where watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which scared me to death since I was only 3 at the time and hiding behind the couch. I haven't watched scary movies since. I don't know what she was thinking...she did have this Disney sing along that I remember loving, with Donald and Daisy Duck dancing to some oldie I can only remember when I hear it....
IIRC my earliest memory is when I was almost 3 and I was at the park with my dad and stepped on a piece of glass. I have other memories of being at my front door and looking out. I too, like one of the posters above, remember going to chuck e cheeses. When I went they had a little theater and I crawled under it with the other kids.
I was watching watergate on tv. My young little mind actually thought it would be a gate made out of water. I was quickly disappointed when it was only news.
I was watching the Donny and Marie show with my Mom and sister, and started pulling the beads off a costume necklace to see how many I could fit up my nose. I was three, and eight beads in case anyone was curious
And big hugs to the Debbie Downer Society xoxo
@OMAMA I hope you are doing well. I haven't seen you around :)
Seeing Lincoln's tomb/gravestone in Springfield, IL. It seemed huge to this 2-1/2 year old; I thought that God himself must be buried there. It started my life long obsession with Lincoln and the Civil War.
18 months--my dad gave our dogs away --he put them in our woodie station wagon and when I asked him where they were going and he told me they were just going for a ride....and they never came back. He gave them to some friends with a farm because my mom didn't want dogs.
I also remember around this same age playing with my parents--it would be dinner time and I would call them "Mike and Nancy" (not their names--I made those names up) and I would pretend I was their next door neighbor--and I remember one night my mom inviting me to stay for dinner after I had been "visiting" them.
My earliest memory is of my mom breast feeding me during a party my parents held. We were in the bed room and I heard all of the adults laughing and talking loudly just beyond the door. I guess it was a great party. I really have to ask my mom how old I was when she stopped breast feeding me.
Another early memory I have is when my mom was trying to put me to sleep and pretending to be asleep herself but I wasn't buying it. I kept lifting her eyelid and telling her to stop faking because I knew she was faking. That's probably an older memory. My memory is very good from my childhood. I think the breast feeding thing is much earlier though...I hope.
Thank you everyone. You either made me laugh at putting beads up your nose or smelly "cats" or u made me feel like I'm not the only one still a little sad that my first memory wasn't a loving one.
I remember I fell of the back porch when I was about three. I was leaning forward looking at a butterfly, when I went over the railing. I still have a scar across the bridge of my nose.
My heart goes out to all of those sad first memories, hugs you guys... My very earliest was my brother pushing me down a flight of stairs because I wouldn't stop talking and he didn't know how to yet. We are exactly a year apart and my "gift" of speech by nine months was a source of teasing for him, he says he remembers being so mad at my chattering that he just pushed and down I went. I can even remember the way the fall felt, and I remember it didn't really hurt (those soft baby bones) but that I mostly felt bad for him because he didnt talk. He is still one of my best friends...and I am still very chatty!
My first memory? I don't usually like to talk about my past, but I suppose I'll answer your question. My first memory was of me, coming to in a five-peso-a-night hotel in Juarez. I was covered in blood. I couldn't remember who I was. I looked in the mirror, and the face of a stranger stared back at me. I had no identification. No money. My fingerprints appeared to have been painstakingly removed over a period of months, with some type of caustic agent. To make matters worse, as I looked around, I discovered a dead man lying on the floor, between the bed and the wall: his crappy shoes, Foster Grants and Members Only jacket practically screamed CIA. He, too, had no identification. I had only managed to loosen my tie, splash some cold water onto my face and run my fingers through my hair, when I heard heavy footfalls coming up what I assumed were the stairs and hallway just outside my room. Soldiers, from the sound. Lots of them. I knew it was time to Check Out. I jumped through the only window available (which was, luckily for me, already open) and ran down the darkened alley I found myself in. I heard gunfire, and people yelling behind me. I never looked back; just kept on running. Now, it's 20+ year later, and I'm still running. Still running...
Two things. 1. I remember tying my shoelaces when I was about 2 and a 1/2 years old. I remember everyone telling me how clever I was. 2. A while later I remember carrying a type of milkmaid stool with my twin brother sitting on it. Next thing I remember was me dropping the stool and my twin had blood spouting from a hole in the centre of his nose. I am reminded of it every time I see his face, with a scar in the middle of it!!!
Hugs to everyone with traumatic first memories. I'm shocked mine isn't traumatic as well. My very first memory is of my father throwing me up in the air and catching me in the kitchen. I remember clearly noticing how much dust was on top of the refrigerator.
I was around 2 and my two older brothers cut the lining under the couch and shoved me and my other brother under it and sat on it, trapping us.
Later one of them told me they did that because our parents were violently fighting. They were seperated at the time. For several years I was always pissed that they did that but now I know.
My sister was born when I was 14 1/2 months. I remember my dad introducing her to my older sister and me. I do not remember my brother in that scene, which is odd, but then again this is not a well-formed memory, just a snippet. A little bit later, within days or weeks, I have another memory a little more detailed, in which my older sister told my my new younger sister needed her diaper changed. I was 15 months myself, so not very equipped for the task, and this was back in the cloth diaper days. I remember trying to do it, and then I remember poo smeared on absolutely EVERYTHING, myself included, and my dad yelling at me about the mess I made, and I need to leave these things for SOMEBODY ELSE TO DO! I was very tramatized that he said I shouldn't even TOUCH the baby!
I have another event from pre-momory days that haunts me endlessly, only because my mom told the story to me. Please: If your child does something regrettable just by the nature of being a baby (babies pick things up and clumsily play with them), please don't tell them about it when they are older. It is not their fault, and it should not be part of their guilt complex.
I was 2 and went to get my ears pierced. This was in the days of spraying a numbing agent and using a needle to make the holes. I wanted them done. Would have been 1971. WUWT, my mum did the same thing to me. I was a toddler and flushed a pair of matching panties down the toilet. They matched a top, so how little would I have been? No congratulations on being able to use the toilet. Heard about it for years.
2 1/2 or so - our dog was having puppies on our back screened in porch and my mom was on the phone telling someone (she had to ask the lady on the party line to get off the phone Gah i am old)and her best friend carol picked me up and set me on the counter next to the sink so i could see them thru the window. Can still see it all after 46 years.
I was a year old and I remember the walls of the apartment I lived in. It was blue. I even remember what the refrigerator was stocked with because I had a view of it's insides from my highchair in the kitchen. I miss Libby Juice Nectar.
I was a year old and I remember the walls of the apartment I lived in. It was blue. I even remember what the refrigerator was stocked with because I had a view of it's insides from my highchair in the kitchen. I miss Libby Juice Nectar.
I have a few unremarkable memories from just before I was 2, but here's a more interesting story:
My mom likes to tell us about how when my younger sister was about 2, she turned to my mom and said "I remember when I was the mommy and you were the baby. My maternal grandmother died when I was 3 months old, over 2 years before my little sister was born
@Carrie, I've loved Lincoln since childhood too! We should talk! =)
For my first birthday party, my mom made me a Raggedy Ann cake. She was very skilled at decorating, and I swear I remember someone holding the cake up to show me. I reached out and grabbed a handful.
Woah, Principessa! That is quite a story! Did your sister ever make another comment about that or know things about your grandmother that she had never been told? Weird!
As far as I know, she didnt really talk about it after that, and my mom says that if she knew then what she knows now about past life theories, she would have asked her questions, but at the time this happened she was early 30s with 3 daughters under age 10. When Meira said that, she was just like "that's lovely, eat your carrots". In her defense my sisters and I were champion shit- talkers.
The earliest memory I have is being with my grandfather, buying a watermelon from a pile on a table under a string of bare light bulbs in front of a local market in Illinois. I still remember the day my younger brother came home from the hospital; I was a year-and-a-half old at the time.
The view of my parents kitchen from my walker, all red brick & avocado green circa 1970's.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 2 years, 1 month old, my younger brother was born. I remember going to the hospital and my dad holding him up to the nursery window for my older brother and I to see. I also remember getting to eat pizza that day, which I think I was more excited about.
ReplyDeleteI remember being in a stroller, crying because my brother and sisters were running ahead. We were in some type of park and there was a fountain. I was probably about 2.
ReplyDeleteIt was my birthday and my godparents got me a Mickey Mouse phone. Whenever I picked up the receiver, my godfather would do a different voice of a Disney character. I was CONVINCED I was talking to the real Minnie Mouse down in Disneyworld. I think I was 3.
ReplyDeleteThe backyard of the L.A. house, I was about two or three years old.
ReplyDeleteThe Mum was always saying..."go play outside" so I probably remember the yard because I was locked out of the house. LOL.
My parents didn't get married until I was a little over 2 years old. I remember their wedding day, specifically running down a hallway at the reception to find my mom (who was probably in the bathroom LOL).
ReplyDeleteI don't know how old I was but I remember being in a swing set in the back yard. I also remember the famous blizzard from 1978, which I would have been a little over 3 years old. To be honest, I don't which is the earlier memory.
ReplyDeleteMy dad giving me a hug before going somewhere. He patted me on the back as he hugged me, and now I hug by patting people on the back as I hug them.
ReplyDeleteI remember taking a bath in the sink at the babysitters house and watching chickens out the window.
ReplyDeleteWaking up at 4am to help my Dad feed the horses before he left for work for a 16 hour day. He worked 16 hours a day 6 days a week, so it was our special time. I was 3.
ReplyDeleteLearning how to swim. I was 3.
ReplyDeleteMy dad throwing my dog against the garage wall. I remember thinking I wanted to kill him.
ReplyDeleteJust call me Debbie Downer. Waaah waaaaah.
I have two very early memories and I'm not sure which came first. I was about three. The first one I was on a beach and it was absolutely freezing, I was trying to get my mittens on but not quite managing it. I think my mum or nan eventually helped me. The second one, I was on holiday with my mum, her friend and her daughter who was about my age, the daughter fell out of her pushchair and scraped her knee and she seemed to be crying for the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteThe morning of Christmas Day, either 1968 or 1969, making me two or three. Sitting at the dinner table playing with these large jigsaw pieces I had gotten from Santa. I can smell cinnamon rolls in the oven. My brother is playing with a spirograph set. A happy, comforting memory.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandfather putting me on the back of the neighbor's horse and riding it. I was upset when he took me off. 2 yrs. old.
ReplyDeleteU really want to hear a story about a preschooler witnessing the worst fight her parents ever had that she still has questions about 30 years later? I'm not even being dramatic, that really is my first memory.
ReplyDeleteWell what's on my memory now that I can't stop laughing at and have rewatched dozens of times is Kourtney giving birth to her daughter and pulling her baby out of her cha cha for the second time. I'm not a fan of the show or the family but I will continue to rewatch the scene. So funny.
ReplyDeleteMy aunt and uncle brought my new cousin to my house, and I sat in the middle of a bed and held her and she peed on me, and I hid behind a door because I was afraid everyone would think I peed myself. Linda was born 7 weeks before my 2nd birthday.
ReplyDeleteAnother very early memory is that of FDR dying. I was 2 years and 8 months when that happened. In those days it was not unusual for people to have a photo of the president on their wall. I remember my grandmother standing at the ironing board crying, and she told me it was because the president was dead, and when she said "president", my eyes went to that picture on the wall.
Wow, what an amazing memory. FDR is my favorite president.
Deletei am lying in my twin bed, my brother in the other one, and on the dresser is a radio. And my mom says , listen to Roy Rogers, and when its over, go to sleep. and we did. we must have been like 3 and 5 or even younger. I hv others, but this is a fav.
ReplyDeleteI remember, I was 2 years old at the time, trying to remember what it was like to be a baby.
ReplyDeleteI remember being at the World's Fair in NY, getting a blown-glass stork, and my father explaining to me that a taco was like a pancake and finding out it was not. That was 1964 so I was 2yo.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, it's when my brother was brought home, which was again before I was 3yo. I was sent to a neighbor's house while they got him (adoption) and the neighbor mom made me wear an undershirt which horrified me. I thought undershirts were for boys and I never let *my* mother put one on me. I was too shy to stand up to the neighbor mom though, but I was still angry about it.
Running away from home at 18 months, probably because my mom won't let me forget it...
ReplyDeletechopchop and kats - mine is traumatic, too - parents fighting; I was scared because my mom was threatening to go to her parent's house, and I didn't want to go there. So, we could have a Debbie Downer Society, I guess. But I've had lots of better memories since then, and I'm almost sure my kids' first memories are better than mine, so that makes me very happy :-).
ReplyDeleteI remember Enty sharing his bacon with me.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to the hospital to have surgery on my hand. I have flashes of being in the car, then being on a gurney.
ReplyDeleteI also remember sitting for a picture wearing a pink Snoopy sweatshirt. In both cases, I was about 2 years old.
I have three memories that were from when I was either 2 or 3, but I can't remember the order in which they happened.
ReplyDelete1. Being on vacation in Baja with my parents. Swimming in the ocean with my dad, playing with another little girl on the beach, and my mom freaking out about a giant-ass spider in the room.
2. Going to a "fancy, grown-up" restaurant in LA called The King's Arms with my parents and grandmother. My mom and I were wearing matching long pink dresses. This would have been 1971 or 1972, and I thought I was hot shit.
3. Going to Knott's Berry Farm in LA, again with my parents and grandmother. The man who owned the park was a member of our church, and church members got in for free.
My brother says he remembers going to an Oregon football game when we lived in Eugene. He would have been 2 or 3.
Mine is traumatic too. I was a pretty rambunctious child. I must have vaulted off something (I liked to fly!) and landed on my head. Needed stitches. Did it again 6 months later! More stitches and another ER trip! Maybe that explains my memory problems now? Haha! I guess I was about 2.
ReplyDeleteI also remember lining up all the sofa cushions from the couch on the stairs to make a giant slide. It was a weird 70s couch with 4x3 cushions. Like a small foam air mattress with many pieces. We would play for hours on the child-made slide. Not so safe but safer then leaping off things on my head. Although sometimes the top cushion would go with you like a sled and the whole thing would crash on top of you. But it was soft :)
I'll be in the Debbie Downer Society, too. I really hope my children have better first memories. I'm too afraid to ask them.
ReplyDeleteI thought a skunk was a cat and tried to pick up the "kitty" and was immediately sprayed, I ran to my grandmother's house and she yelled at me to go home and slammed the door, my mother ran out of our house to scoop me up and was hit by the smell, I still can see the expression on her face. She picked me up and carried me into the bathtub where I marinating in tomato juice. We found my little jacket ten years ago in a shed on the property it was a size 2
ReplyDelete@redrum "I thought a skunk was a cat"
DeleteThat's all you need to say. I laughed so hard reading those words that I missed the rest of the story lol!!!! I hope u don't mind but I have to steal that for a joke!
I remember my adoption agency where I spent the first twelve days of my life.
ReplyDeleteI had a teacher once, a British fella by the name of, Martin Atwood, who said he remembered the birth canal. Non lo so.
*marinated*
ReplyDeleteI was 3 or 4 - my parents had hung a red crepe paper bell from the ceiling light in my bedroom for Christmas and I remember my dad picking me up so I could "pat the bell goodnight". Around the same time I also remember playing with a doll sitting under my mother's sewing machine with Elvis Presley on the radio (my parents hadn't gotten a TV yet). Pretty good memories about childhood - I was lucky.
ReplyDeleteMy brother coming home from Viet Nam. I didn't even know who he was. I remember sitting on the floor on a blanket looking up and a man in uniform was hugging my mother. I was too young to understand but I remember I didn't like it ;>.
ReplyDeleteGetting pushed by my dad on a swing when I was just under 3.
ReplyDelete@Harry Martin, "my father explaining to me that a taco was like a pancake and finding out it was not" That really made me laugh.
ReplyDelete@Lurky Loo, "looking up and a man in uniform was hugging my mother. I was too young to understand but I remember I didn't like it" I wonder what was going through your little mind. Hey, that's MY mommy, not YOURS. :)
growing up with my gma and brother...
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing my dad in a blue robe at the end of a long hallway. We were visiting him in the hospital. He had Hodgkin's Disease. I was 3-4.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was almost 3 my Dad left me in a running car to take a neighbor's trash cans up from the street. It was long before carseats and I was behind the wheel playing and knocked the car out of gear. So my oldest memory is of being in the car rolling back down a hill as Daddy came running. He jumped in and stopped the car. And has been my (flawed) Hero ever since
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I am also a member of the Debbie Downer club. My first memory is really just too horrible to post here.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 3 months old and I had Chicken Pox and my mother had pinned socks over my hands so I couldn't scratch and how frustrated I was.
ReplyDeleteI just want to send out a huge hug and kiss to all here who hv shitty first memories. U r safe now, and we love u!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy first memory was when my parents called us into the living room to tell my sister and I that my dad wouldn't be living with us anymore. My sister was older and started crying. I just remember feeling like I should cry, but not being able to. I also wondered why my dad didn't want to live with us anymore. I would have been about to turn 3.
ReplyDelete@ g strathmore,
ReplyDeleteYes that was pretty much it LOL. And disapproval that my mom would hug a strange man, too ;>. My brother broke the ice pretty quickly though because he said I used to climb up in his lap and share his bowl of ice cream with him. I will forgive much if it involves ice cream!
My beloved grandfather's funeral when I was two and a half. I remember walking down the aisle at the funeral home for the viewing and seeing the backs of the chairs. I remember being lifted by one of my parents to say goodbye to grandpa and shrieking when I saw him in the casket. I guess even then I knew on some level that he wasn't coming back home. Jeez, what were my parents thinking??
ReplyDeleteI was 2 1/2 and we were buiding our new house which was next door to the house we lived in. We were playing in what would eventually be the basement and grabbing chunks of sheetrock to use as chalk.
ReplyDeleteDebbie Downer here too.
ReplyDeleteMy parents fighting...throwing and breaking my Donald Duck dish set as they each took turns throwing the dishes from the drying rack. We had spaghetti that night. My mom was drunk; he kept reminding her of that.
I must have been 2 because they split before I turned 3.
Says a lot that so many have this similar first memory. I will mind better how my SO and I argue around our 2 yr old son.
I was under the age of 2, sitting on a couch, holding my baby sister, for our first photo together.
ReplyDeletePlaying with my mom & dad's shoes when I was 3...Ahh simpler times then :)
ReplyDelete@goes in circles - me too! My son is almost 4 and my daughter is only a few months, but I think sometimes I forget that some memories stick. If for nothing else, I am glad this post reminded me of that.
ReplyDelete@Harry Martin, I really laughed at that too :) Sounds like something my husband would say to our son :D
ReplyDelete@Lurky Loo, so sweet :)
@Momster, I like that memory, it SOUNDS comforting :)
I've got two first memories:
1) I remember running through the kid door at Chuckie Cheese for my third birthday, I remember really liking that place (it's hard to believe they are still around 30 years later)
2) I remember being at the babysitter's house and the "big" kids where watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which scared me to death since I was only 3 at the time and hiding behind the couch. I haven't watched scary movies since. I don't know what she was thinking...she did have this Disney sing along that I remember loving, with Donald and Daisy Duck dancing to some oldie I can only remember when I hear it....
IIRC my earliest memory is when I was almost 3 and I was at the park with my dad and stepped on a piece of glass. I have other memories of being at my front door and looking out. I too, like one of the posters above, remember going to chuck e cheeses. When I went they had a little theater and I crawled under it with the other kids.
ReplyDeleteI was watching watergate on tv. My young little mind actually thought it would be a gate made out of water. I was quickly disappointed when it was only news.
ReplyDeleteI was watching the Donny and Marie show with my Mom and sister, and started pulling the beads off a costume necklace to see how many I could fit up my nose. I was three, and eight beads in case anyone was curious
ReplyDeleteAnd big hugs to the Debbie Downer Society xoxo
@OMAMA
I hope you are doing well. I haven't seen you around :)
Seeing Lincoln's tomb/gravestone in Springfield, IL. It seemed huge to this 2-1/2 year old; I thought that God himself must be buried there. It started my life long obsession with Lincoln and the Civil War.
ReplyDelete18 months--my dad gave our dogs away --he put them in our woodie station wagon and when I asked him where they were going and he told me they were just going for a ride....and they never came back. He gave them to some friends with a farm because my mom didn't want dogs.
ReplyDeleteI also remember around this same age playing with my parents--it would be dinner time and I would call them "Mike and Nancy" (not their names--I made those names up) and I would pretend I was their next door neighbor--and I remember one night my mom inviting me to stay for dinner after I had been "visiting" them.
@car54 that imagination game is fascinating! I wonder what that means you were thinking as an 18 month old about your neighbors!
DeleteMy earliest memory is of my mom breast feeding me during a party my parents held. We were in the bed room and I heard all of the adults laughing and talking loudly just beyond the door. I guess it was a great party. I really have to ask my mom how old I was when she stopped breast feeding me.
ReplyDeleteAnother early memory I have is when my mom was trying to put me to sleep and pretending to be asleep herself but I wasn't buying it. I kept lifting her eyelid and telling her to stop faking because I knew she was faking. That's probably an older memory. My memory is very good from my childhood. I think the breast feeding thing is much earlier though...I hope.
@josieandthepussycats this was supposed to be your FIRST memory, not one when you were 10 years old ;)
DeleteThank you everyone. You either made me laugh at putting beads up your nose or smelly "cats" or u made me feel like I'm not the only one still a little sad that my first memory wasn't a loving one.
ReplyDeleteCan't remember. I blocked it out.
ReplyDeleteI remember I fell of the back porch when I was about three. I was leaning forward looking at a butterfly, when I went over the railing. I still have a scar across the bridge of my nose.
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to all of those sad first memories, hugs you guys...
ReplyDeleteMy very earliest was my brother pushing me down a flight of stairs because I wouldn't stop talking and he didn't know how to yet. We are exactly a year apart and my "gift" of speech by nine months was a source of teasing for him, he says he remembers being so mad at my chattering that he just pushed and down I went. I can even remember the way the fall felt, and I remember it didn't really hurt (those soft baby bones) but that I mostly felt bad for him because he didnt talk. He is still one of my best friends...and I am still very chatty!
My first memory? I don't usually like to talk about my past, but I suppose I'll answer your question. My first memory was of me, coming to in a five-peso-a-night hotel in Juarez. I was covered in blood. I couldn't remember who I was. I looked in the mirror, and the face of a stranger stared back at me. I had no identification. No money. My fingerprints appeared to have been painstakingly removed over a period of months, with some type of caustic agent. To make matters worse, as I looked around, I discovered a dead man lying on the floor, between the bed and the wall: his crappy shoes, Foster Grants and Members Only jacket practically screamed CIA. He, too, had no identification. I had only managed to loosen my tie, splash some cold water onto my face and run my fingers through my hair, when I heard heavy footfalls coming up what I assumed were the stairs and hallway just outside my room. Soldiers, from the sound. Lots of them. I knew it was time to Check Out. I jumped through the only window available (which was, luckily for me, already open) and ran down the darkened alley I found myself in. I heard gunfire, and people yelling behind me. I never looked back; just kept on running. Now, it's 20+ year later, and I'm still running. Still running...
ReplyDeleteTwo things.
ReplyDelete1. I remember tying my shoelaces when I was about 2 and a 1/2 years old. I remember everyone telling me how clever I was.
2. A while later I remember carrying a type of milkmaid stool with my twin brother sitting on it. Next thing I remember was me dropping the stool and my twin had blood spouting from a hole in the centre of his nose. I am reminded of it every time I see his face, with a scar in the middle of it!!!
Being in my crib, watching my parents watch Different Strokes. I was around 2 years old.
ReplyDeleteHugs to everyone with traumatic first memories. I'm shocked mine isn't traumatic as well. My very first memory is of my father throwing me up in the air and catching me in the kitchen. I remember clearly noticing how much dust was on top of the refrigerator.
ReplyDeleteFalling off a swing and bleeding from the mouth, and my mother calling the dentist. I think I was four.
ReplyDeleteI was around 2 and my two older brothers cut the lining under the couch and shoved me and my other brother under it and sat on it, trapping us.
ReplyDeleteLater one of them told me they did that because our parents were violently fighting. They were seperated at the time. For several years I was always pissed that they did that but now I know.
Walking up the steps to the Old Worthington Inn to eat lunch with my mother and godfather. I was 2, and apparently ate a huge amount of food.
ReplyDeleteSome things never change.
Well done, Thomas
ReplyDeleteMy sister was born when I was 14 1/2 months. I remember my dad introducing her to my older sister and me. I do not remember my brother in that scene, which is odd, but then again this is not a well-formed memory, just a snippet. A little bit later, within days or weeks, I have another memory a little more detailed, in which my older sister told my my new younger sister needed her diaper changed. I was 15 months myself, so not very equipped for the task, and this was back in the cloth diaper days. I remember trying to do it, and then I remember poo smeared on absolutely EVERYTHING, myself included, and my dad yelling at me about the mess I made, and I need to leave these things for SOMEBODY ELSE TO DO! I was very tramatized that he said I shouldn't even TOUCH the baby!
ReplyDeleteI have another event from pre-momory days that haunts me endlessly, only because my mom told the story to me. Please: If your child does something regrettable just by the nature of being a baby (babies pick things up and clumsily play with them), please don't tell them about it when they are older. It is not their fault, and it should not be part of their guilt complex.
*traumatize
ReplyDelete*memory
I need to proofread before submitting!
I was 2 and went to get my ears pierced. This was in the days of spraying a numbing agent and using a needle to make the holes. I wanted them done. Would have been 1971.
ReplyDeleteWUWT, my mum did the same thing to me. I was a toddler and flushed a pair of matching panties down the toilet. They matched a top, so how little would I have been? No congratulations on being able to use the toilet. Heard about it for years.
2 1/2 or so - our dog was having puppies on our back screened in porch and my mom was on the phone telling someone (she had to ask the lady on the party line to get off the phone Gah i am old)and her best friend carol picked me up and set me on the counter next to the sink so i could see them thru the window. Can still see it all after 46 years.
ReplyDeleteI was a year old and I remember the walls of the apartment I lived in. It was blue. I even remember what the refrigerator was stocked with because I had a view of it's insides from my highchair in the kitchen. I miss Libby Juice Nectar.
ReplyDeleteI was a year old and I remember the walls of the apartment I lived in. It was blue. I even remember what the refrigerator was stocked with because I had a view of it's insides from my highchair in the kitchen. I miss Libby Juice Nectar.
ReplyDeleteI have a few unremarkable memories from just before I was 2, but here's a more interesting story:
ReplyDeleteMy mom likes to tell us about how when my younger sister was about 2, she turned to my mom and said "I remember when I was the mommy and you were the baby. My maternal grandmother died when I was 3 months old, over 2 years before my little sister was born
@Carrie, I've loved Lincoln since childhood too! We should talk! =)
ReplyDeleteFor my first birthday party, my mom made me a Raggedy Ann cake. She was very skilled at decorating, and I swear I remember someone holding the cake up to show me. I reached out and grabbed a handful.
Woah, Principessa! That is quite a story! Did your sister ever make another comment about that or know things about your grandmother that she had never been told? Weird!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, she didnt really talk about it after that, and my mom says that if she knew then what she knows now about past life theories, she would have asked her questions, but at the time this happened she was early 30s with 3 daughters under age 10. When Meira said that, she was just like "that's lovely, eat your carrots". In her defense my sisters and I were champion shit- talkers.
DeleteFeeling cold in the L.A. Coliseum at a football game we took the train down the coast to attend. I was nearly a year old and am glad I went.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Bowl
The earliest memory I have is being with my grandfather, buying a watermelon from a pile on a table under a string of bare light bulbs in front of a local market in Illinois. I still remember the day my younger brother came home from the hospital; I was a year-and-a-half old at the time.
ReplyDelete