What is your earliest memory?

[Thumper]

Hey folks just wondering what your earliest childhood memory is?Mine is aged 31/2 I was on holiday in wales with my mam and dad and some teenagers took me out for the afternoon...to the coal slags!We slid all the way down them and it was great fun,until I got back to mam and dad who were furious with the older kids for taking me somewhere so dangerous and mam was furious cos I had slid down them wearing white trousers and a pale pink jumper .My son's earliest memory is really weird because when he was born he wasn't breathing and spent the first 4 days in an incubator and when he was 2yrs old he said to me"when I was born why did you keep me in a fishtank?" so did he really rememeber it or was it just something silly a child would say????x

[helenwyler]

Ah Thumper, what fun!!

My earliest (and we're talking mid-1950s here, when toddlers were still strapped in their prams and put outside in the garden for their afternoon 'rest') was waking up in the pram and trying to get out....but being harnessed in I ended up dangling over the edge, presumably yelling my head off!

I remember the house well...we were only there for a year, so I would have been 2 or 3. I also remember in that house being given Beecham's Powder mixed with jam, and eating raw yeast... YUK to both!

[NickInTheNorth]

When I was just two and a half my dad converted his mothers front room into a shop!

I was given my own hammer to "help". I always assumed I was 4 or 5, and was astounded when I found out a few years ago that I was so young

[Whitewater]

My first memory is lying in my pram with feet sticking out below the covers (around about 18months old I guess) when my older cousin, a girl, bit my big toe, I'm sure she has been bullying me ever since. She certainly left me howling.

[Thumper]

Ah Thumper, what fun!!

My earliest (and we're talking mid-1950s here, when toddlers were still strapped in their prams and put outside in the garden for their afternoon 'rest') was waking up in the pram and trying to get out....but being harnessed in I ended up dangling over the edge, presumably yelling my head off!

I remember the house well...we were only there for a year, so I would have been 2 or 3. I also remember in that house being given Beecham's Powder mixed with jam, and eating raw yeast... YUK to both!

Oh Helen you poor thing!.....god it made me laugh though!lol x

[justine]

my earliest was at 5. I remember mum and dad telling me i was starting a new school. Wish i had understood what baording school meant, i would not have been so keen, but that was where i was to spend the next 10 yrs.Not that i knock the education i got but was it worth all those years from home...My father was in the army and i have few memories before that, i think as it was so traumatic i remember it well..There must be a few good memories there somewhere...

[Thumper]

Justine that is very sad it seems a very young age to go to boarding school even if your dad was in the services.I have nothing against boarding schools as I did consider it for my eldest before me and his Dad split but 5yrs is sooooo young to be away from home x

[justine]

i know.i did not know that when they dropped me off for te first time it would be six months before i would see them again. Dont get me wrong i enjoyed my years there.I went to one school called harecroft hall in cumbria, and a Royal navy boarding school in yeovil in somerset.I would not consider thinking about sending any of my children to boarding school as you miss out so much with parents. I dont have much to do with mine but then i dont really know them...

[Anne x]

My baby brother outside the front door with a cat net over his pram and I managed to cope a bucket of sand over him my mother came out to find the baby screaming and spluttering !!! I did live to tell the tale only just !!!

also cold winters mornings with the frost inside and outside the windows no D Glazing then or C Heating Brrrr

[karia]

Hi Folks,

A friend of the family threw a black coat over me for a laugh when I was about 18 months old...the world went black and I went ballistic!

He didn't have any kids of his own and genuinely thought I would find it funny!

karia

[paris]

My first day at school with my new family at almost 5yrs old. I remember the teacher asking if i knew any one else there and i did , a boy called David , so we were sat together to play bricks.
I don't remember anything before that as i had been taken away by social services and put up for adoption and so I've since been told if something bad has happened in your life some people block it from their memory which i obviously did . Jan x

[Thumper]

Wow so far the memories have been so different!It's nice to know that we all have such different lives and different memories though isn't it?Even the sad ones are special because thet are ours and they are what make us the people we are.Keep them coming guys,happy,sad,terrifying...they are all very interesting to read x

[Tubthumper]

There was a sudden bright light, then someone slapped me...

[Thumper]

There was a sudden bright light, then someone slapped me...

Was that the 1st memory or the last ...you sure that wasn't after a night out on the "bad juice" x

[johno]

There was a sudden bright light, then someone slapped me...

Tubthumper thats not fair. i was thinking exactly on those lines & decided to check through the posts, you beat me to it. I think also, that if this is what,s in store for me ,christ do an about turn & stay in the warmth.

[angela5]

Earliest memory was when i was around 3 years old playing at a playgroup run by Nun's, i loved it there and can still remember when they decided to close and i spent the entire last morning crying.
Around that age i also remember staying at my Gran's in Broughty Ferry, there was a lot of steps leading upto the back doors of all the houses, and i was fascinated that the washing lines were so high up. I remember my gran turning some sort of handle to reel her washing in.

[George Brims]

I remember as a toddler being picked up so I could see out of the kitchen window. Outside was covered in deep snow, and a helicopter was dropping bales of hay to some of our cattle in a field a few hundred yards away. I believe this was called "Operation Snowdrop". It was such a bad winter many farmers just couldn't get the food out to the outside beasts, so helicopters were brought in to help.

A few years ago I told my mum she remembered this, and she said that was impossible, as I would only have been about 20 months old at the time. When I told her I remembered the colour of the helicopter (a dark red) she just stared at me in amazement! However as can be seen from some of the responses above, children do remember stuff from very early ages. It just seems to be extremely selective (the really good or bad or unusual bits) up until 3 or 4 or even older.

[cuddlepop]

I remember cuddling up to my granny's fur coat in the back of the car and when I was really cold (no central heating in those day's )granny's fur coat being used as a blanket.
Would have a problem with owing a fur coat now but then being wee you just dont realise.
Also remember sleeping over at her's and being in a hollow or bed recess as I think its called now.
My Gran died when I was four but at least I've got some memory's

[scorrie]

There was a sudden bright light, then someone slapped me...

Sorry to be a "Oneupman", but my earliest memory was the echo of my Mother's words "It's alright dear, I DON'T have a headache tonight"

To be serious though, I remember being in my pram as a baby and noticing that it was outside the house for the first time. I also vividly recall the first time I had solid food as it was the first time I had eaten anything that actually involved the tastebuds. I can also remember crawling into a car aged 1 year 364 days, to go see my Mum, who had just given birth to my Brother. My Dad cooked the lunch that day and we had Charcoal Black fish fingers that were still cold in the middle. RIP poor Marco-Pierre Black, the reluctant chef!!

[mccaugm]

A couple of things spring to mind, my grandad in his sitting room, putting sweets on the coffee table for me. He died when I was just turned 4 so I could of only been about 3 at the time. Also I remember being given my dinner and telling my mum that "I am not hungry for my dinner, I'm hungry for my pudding".