In honor of the upcoming new year (2004, what an uninspiring number), I'd like everyone to share their earliest memory. When? Who? What?
Mine is 1981, sometime between December 7th and December 21st. I remember holding out four fingers, looking at them, and deciding that four was an exceedingly great age to be. My parents had just told me that I'd be having a little brother born soon, and I was looking forward to that. We were riding in our blue Blazer, driving on some long curved road in the desert... I think. It was sunny, and everything outside looks yellow in my memory.
I have vague recollections of the house we lived in before I turned two, but it's hard to say if they're real or not.
I have a couple "earliest" memories - not sure the sequential-ness of them.
1) I was born 12/30/66, and I remember looking at a calendar in my room that said 1971 or 1972 so I must have been 4 or 5 at that time.
2) I also remember my brother being born: he was born in 71 so I was almost 5, and I stayed at my aunt's house while my parents were at the hospital. I remember talking to them on the phone, saying, "What was his name again?" That's a very clear memory.
3) I have some vague memories of going to preschool, driving up and down a big hill to get there - I even remember the teacher's name: Mrs: Clockfelter (not sure of the spelling)
Good thread...
I have found that the older you get, the more your earliest memories fade. My parents were missionaries in Japan and one of my earliest memories was of going to Heaven House (a mission-sponsored "pre-school"). Another very early memory was getting lost on the ocean liner we returned to the states on in 1956 -- I would have been five then. I believe I found my mother in the ship's laundry room. With four children all five and younger (the youngest was practically a newborn), I imagine she spent too much time there.
I have a memory of watching a drive-in movie from inside a motel in Louisiana. The motel had a deal with the theater and provided the sound into the room and you watched through a large picture window. My parents say I would have been four years old.
One of my earliest memories in life was waking up from a nap on my birthday in the afternoon, and finding a kid-sized fire engine with a fireman's hat in the living room. I put the hat on and drove the thing into the kitchen where my parents and grandparents were.
My Mother said that this memory was of my 3rd birthday.
My earliest memory is of sitting on my parents' bed with my mother. She was reading a book to me. The bedspread was a red and white patterned print of some kind. My brother had not been born yet, so I must have been two and a half or three years old. That would have been sometime in 1973, then.
Breakfast on Sunday morning at some point before my sister was born (1957), which would have made me 2-3. Other things too, but I don't know how they fit chronologically.
I was born in 1948. I have a very vivid memory of sleeping in the crib next to my mother, and trying to climb over the rail to get into bed with her. My foot/feet slipped down inside her nightgown. She awoke startled and asked me what I was doing. I remember that was the first time I used a curse word. I was perhaps, two and a half.
I also remember being able to sit inside the lid of my mother's Singer sewing machine, and using it as a row-boat. I still have the machine and judging by its size, I was probably around two.
Surprisingly, my earliest memories can be matched with more or less exact dates. The earliest was a moving day - from an apartment to a brand new house. I remember travelling down the hallway and being placed on top of a bed, then being left alone. I had no words for the experience, but something was definitely unusual. I didn't figure out why for a few more years: there were no crib bars. I cried for my parents, and my dad moved the bed so I could see into my parents' new bedroom. I was calm knowing they were in there. This was the middle of May 1969. On May 25th I turned 18 months.
I also remember the Apollo 11 landing, July 20, 1969. I watched the pictures of "astronauts on the moon" on a small color TV. Whatever it was, it sure made my dad incredibly excited.
I think I only remember things like these because I actively re-remembered at ages 4-10. In essence I upgraded the old "no-words" memory to the new format.
I suspect a number of young ones (ages 2-5) will remember 9/11 because of the strong impact it had on adult witnesses.