August 2006 Weddings
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NER: Your first memory

I'm stealing this from another board, because I think it's really interesting. What is your first specific memory from your childhood? How old were you? Try to think of something that's a *real* memory, not something you've created in your mind because of photos you've seen.

I have several memories that happened before I was 3 years old (we moved when I was 3, so I can date them to a certain extent).

- I remember sitting on a playground swing with my dad, and he was singing to me.
- I remember going to the pool with my aunt and having to go to the bathroom
- I remember the apartment we lived in
- I have other non-specific memories of my aunt and uncle who lived nearby

I have a LOT of very specific memories between ages 3-5 (we moved again when I was 5, so it's easy for me to do a time line).
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Re: NER: Your first memory

  • I was 9 or 10 month old. My dad would take me to an indoor pool to teach me to not be scared of the water. He would count to three and submerge me, for a second. As a result I was scared of indoor pools until I was about 12. I am still pissed about it.
    "HOW many US citizens and ranchers have been decapitated in Arizona by roving bands of paperless aliens, and how will a requirement that I have papers on me make that not happen?"courtesy of SueSue
  • I have a very vague recollection of falling off the dock into the lake when I was about 4 or 5.... more that I have a recollection of being pulled out of the lake than falling in, though.

    I also remember sitting on my grandpa's lap at this one restaurant he liked when we went there for breakfast, but I can't really date it because we had family breakfasts every Saturday for like 5 years.

  • I remember lying on the floor reaching up to play with these little pompoms that lined the edge of our bedspread. This was in my aunt's house when my mom and I shared the bed/room for a year after my parents separated, so I was 2-3.

    I also remember my 3rd birthday party; I remember swimming and that my mom was infatuated with this bear I got and she played with it more than I did, and also there were a lot of old women who smelled like Florida standing around.

    I remember a few dreams from around this age too. 

    My best friend swears she remembers sitting in a high chair with a bottle thinking her grandmother was crazy at under a year old. Physically impossible, perhaps, but I can't convince her otherwise. 

    imageimageBaby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • I was 3 and a half and it was christmas eve when my sister was born. It was in a Syracuse blizzard and I remember my dad waking me up late (early?) and it was dark and we drove to the hospital. The hospital was dark and empty and I hung out with the nurses and they let me sit on tall swivel stools and gave me chocolate milk and oreos (and I did NOT get that stuff at home so it was a BIG DEAL)
    imageLilypie First Birthday tickers Pregnancy Ticker
  • I remember my brother's 5th birthday.  He's 25 months older than me, so I was almost 3.  The part favors were plastic dinosaurs and I really wanted the brontosaurus. 

    I also remember my brother trying to describe the sensation one feels when s/he needs to urinate during my potty-training.  For some reason I believe this conversation occurred in a walk-in closet.  Another boy my age, a neighbor who was also potty training, was there as well.  It's kind of funny to think there was a time when I didn't know what it meant to 'have to pee'. :)

  • Mine is sometime before 1 year.  My first word was apparently the alphabet (yes, I know, but I'm not kidding).  I'd can remember standing up in the front seat of our car (and yes, I know, my mother was a great parent), turning around to the back, standing on my tiptoes to see over the seat, and reciting the alphabet to people.
  • Even creepier?

    My FI apparently had a memory from before he was born (according to FMIL).

    According to FMIL, she asked him when he was a little under a year (he was an early talker, too) if he remembered being in her belly, and he told her yes.  She asked him what it was like, and apparently his response was:

    "it was dark, and it went boom boom boom"

    She stopped asking him questions about it after that.... Wink

  • Interesting question.  Mine is really disgusting, just a warning.

    I was 2 and a half.  My sister had just been born and my parents had to take her to Boston for surgery, so I was staying the night at my grandmother's.  I remember waking up in the middle of the night and throwing up.  Only I didn't know what was going on or what was wrong with me because it was the first time I was conscious that I was throwing up.  I remember being scared to death.  I was in a strange bed and my parents weren't there and I had no idea what was wrong with me, but for whatever reason, I didn't get out of bed.  I just stayed there.  My grandmother found me asleep there the next morning, I can't even begin to imagine how scared or worried about me she must have been when she saw the mess.

  • I remember little snippets of events around 4 yrs, like visiting my cousin when we went to Poland. Mr. swears he remembers being carried by his parents as a baby but I don't buy it Confused
  • I remember walking on the hill by a house I lived in up until I was 3. We could walk to the top and see the highschool they were building.

    I also remember that when my dad walked in the door from work at the same house as above, he would throw his keys on the coffee table and they would slide across. (Totally random, I know lol)

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  • My earliest memory was from my parents' wedding. I was about 3 and I was in an itchy white dress that I hated and tight shoes, chasing my sister (she'd have been around 1) next to a brick "wall" that just passed my head.
    Team Basement Cat imageKnitting&Kitties
  • I remember getting mad at my grandpa for sniffling. Apparently someone told me that it meant the snot would get into your brain and you would die. I was 3-4.

     

  • What a downer. My memory is so awful and I start remembering things around 4. But even then it's patchy. I really fear aging-- my memory can only get worse.
  • honest-to-god, mine's ER!

     

    When I was little, my grandmother lived in our house.

    One day, she came storming down the stairs. Now, my grandmother, as feisty as she was, never "stormed" anywhere.

    She asked my mother if it was OK if she made a long distance call.

    Now this was way back in the day. We had one telephone in our house, on the wall in the kitchen with a ginormous long cord.

    She picked up the phone and dialed a number.

    Then I heard her saying something like, "that's nice, but I don't want to talk to you, I want to talk to your boss. My name is Elizabeth P----, and I want to lodge a complaint with your supervisor, please." She did this over and over again until she got somebody who refused to send her higher up the food chain.

    Where was she calling? The White House

    Why? Ford had pardoned Nixon.

    Her final speech went something like this: My name is Elizabeth P---, and I'm calling from Ludlow Massachusetts, and I would just like to let you know that not everybody is in favor of this pardon. I just want you to know that. Thank you very much.

     

    But I still remember her talking on the phone. I remember being impressed with how mad she was. And I remember the wallpaper in the kitchen!

     

    a correlary:

    My grandmother's last name was very, very uncommon. And her son, my uncle, was a big politico in our area. When my grandmother told him she did this, and who she ended up speaking to (it was apparently somebody with a pretty schmantzy title) he blew a gasket!

     

    see, the liberal / dem / progressive streak in me is genetic!!

    The Girl is 5. The Boy is 2. The Dog is 1.

    imageimage

    I am the 99%.
  • imageIrishBrideND:

    I remember getting mad at my grandpa for sniffling. Apparently someone told me that it meant the snot would get into your brain and you would die. I was 3-4.

     

    This is pretty funny because another one of my very early memories is getting a really bad cold, sniffling way too much and it all backed up in my ears.  I had to go to the doctor and there was a very painful process to remove it all.  I remember screaming in his office. I was so traumatized by this experience that to this day, I gag whenever I hear someone sniffle.  It is like nails on a chalkboard to me. 

    ETA - why are my early memories all gross? 

  • I remember being three-ish and I would climb out my bedroom window and sit on the slanted roof.  I threw those plastic barettes in the gutters as a game.  This scares the beejesus out of me now (I WAS THREE!).  My parents fought a lot when I was a little girl, so this was my favorite place to go.  I remember liking it up there, but I am terrified of heights now, so I don't know what is up with that.

    I also remember the day my mom and I moved to CT from ME.  I was four and we hadn't ever talked about moving.  We just woke up one day and my mom told me we were going on an adventure.  We got lost somewhere and she was crying.  I remember telling her to follow the other cars because they looked like they knew where they were going.  All of our clothes were strapped to the roof in a trunk and it blew off on the hwy.  We met my to-be stepfather and stepsister at a rest area that night.

    I don't remember too much before I turned six.

    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • Mine are mundane.  I remember looking outside the window of our townhouse when I was about 2.5-3.  My mom had brought me home a glow worm!

    My second memory must be 3.  I was living in Virginia Beach already, and my mom and I were walking up the stairs to our front door.  I was explaining to her why I hadn't eaten all of my lunch.

    When I was 20 months old, my grandfather died.  He had leukemia and ALS.  So when I was a baby, my mom and I spent a lot of time there.  I used to sit on his bed, etc.  I used to think I could remember his bumpy voice (from being on a ventilator), but now I realize that's pretty much physically impossible.  Apparently most memories before 4 or so are false.  3 is pushing it, but plausible.  I must have invented this memory from stories, and then convinced myself it was real.  The mind does that to you all the time.

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  • It's sad, but I can't date some of my earliest memories.  They are a jumble of things, from my first trip to the zoo in an all white outfit to seeing my mom off when she left the Philippines for the U.S. for the first time.  I too am worried about my memory when I get older.  Ugh.

  • Interesting!

    I was about 2 years old. It was right after my sister was born. All these people were coming over to the house wanting to see my baby sister. I apparently had an inferiority complex that no one cared about me or wanted to see me anymore. Some lady asked me where my sister "Jane" was and I said, "I'm Jane." She said, "No you're Caden." And I looked her right in the eye and said, "No. I'm Jane."

    I remember it b/c afterwards I felt terribly guilty about lying.

  • I have trouble putting a timeline on my memories, but I have a bunch that are environment specific, so that helps me place them.  I have memories of my preschool class for instance.  I also remember being at my aunt and uncle's house in Memphis, and I know that was very early because one of my other early childhood memories is handing the phone to my mom and watching her scream and melt down when she found out that aunt (her sister) died.  :(

    Another good one was the time I ran around a blackberry plant barefoot and got purple stains on my feet and my dad convinced me that when I woke up in the morning, my whole body would have turned purple.

    image
    "As of page 2 this might be the most boring argument ever. It's making me long for Rape Day." - Mouse
  • When I broke my arm. I was 2 and I was at my Granny's house supposedly taking a nap with her. My uncle -- who was 12 -- convinced me to get out of bed and play tag with him and as I was running out the front door, I fell and broke my arm. We didn't realize it was broken, but because I had hurt myself we thought it best that I go get back in the bed with Granny. So I did.

    When my parents came to get me later, my mother immediately noticed I was holding my arm funny and that's when my uncle and I had to confess about the tag and the fall.

    My next memory is getting the cast cut off. I saw the big saw and refused to let the doctor do it cause I didn' t believe he wouldn't cut my arm off. (coincidentally Jflute has scars from when he was getting a cast removed and they cut him!) My grandfather was there and bought me a popsicle and that was enough to convince me to let the doc cut the cast off.

    image
  • imagecaden:

    Interesting!

    I was about 2 years old. It was right after my sister was born. All these people were coming over to the house wanting to see my baby sister. I apparently had an inferiority complex that no one cared about me or wanted to see me anymore. Some lady asked me where my sister "Jane" was and I said, "I'm Jane." She said, "No you're Caden." And I looked her right in the eye and said, "No. I'm Jane."

    I remember it b/c afterwards I felt terribly guilty about lying.

    That's the cutest story I've ever heard.

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  • Oh, I forgot a really cute one...

    When I was around 3 or 4, I was sitting around my mom's office... she worked in retail management, so she had a little back room office thing. I got bored, so I went to go bug her, and a customer came up to the counter when I was talking to her and said customer asked me where I got such pretty dimples (I have huge dimples in both cheeks) and I told her "I don't know - God just made me that way."

  • My first actual memory is from when I was 4. ?My mom took away my?pacifier?and I distinctly remember starting to suck my thumb just to spite her.

    ?

    Edited to note that I then sucked my thumb until second grade.?

  • imagelyssbobiss:

    I have a few:

    1. Standing at the top of the stairs in my house when I was about 2-3 screaming "No!  I will not make my bed!  Kids in Russia do not have to make their beds!"  Honest to God.  I don't know where the Russia thing came from.

    This isn't a memory, but yours reminded me of a story about my cousin, after the Band Aid Do they know it's Christmas deal. He would have been about 9. He made a sandwich and wrapped it up and wrote "Africa" on the outside and stuck it in the outgoing mailbox. A for effort.

    imageimageBaby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • Hmmm, my first very clear memory is probably from when I was about 4. We had these four blue, metal stairs (big stairs) down to our back yard from our kitchen door. I was carrying a drink, and I remember my mom telling me not to worry about the glass breaking if I was going to fall. Something along the lines of, "Save yourself first, don't worry about the glass." Weird.

    I also remember a bike accident I had when I was about 5. I was visiting my bio dad for a summer and I was in a neighborhood that I was unfamiliar with. I went around a corner fast, and immediately I was on a STEEP hill. I went over the handlebars, and I got all kinds of messed up. I still have some scars. Oh, and I lost a couple of finger nails. ::gag::

    BabyFruit Ticker
  • I swear my first memory is my first bath as a baby. When I was 10 I told this to my family and everyone laughed at me insisting that (a) it wasn't possible and (b) my first bath was filmed so I don't remember it, I remember the film (which by the way, I don't remember ever seeing). In any case, if that is not a "real" memory, my first memory is visiting my mom and new baby sister at the hospital at age 2. I remember the hospital had a fish tank, I wore a blue jacket, I held my dad's hand as we walked through the doors, and my mom's bed was HUGE (not really, I was just little), and I ate potato chips. I don't remember anything about my sister though. Lol. I was indifferent to her I guess.
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