What is your earliest memory?

[Half-n-Half]

Like the title says, what is the earliest thing you can remember in your life? But more importantly, how do you know?

The earliest memory I have is seeing a bright light followed by sitting in my dad's old red ford truck. We were driving home from a day care center I used to go to and we were in our neighborhood. I can even remember what street it was. It is a seemingly dull and unimportant memory in my life.

What bothers me the most is how my brain knows, or maybe chooses, that this is my earliest memory. Why do I intuitively feel that this is my earliest memory in life? Is it because I have a time line of which to base it off of? Normally when you correlate memories in your head based on time you think of surrounding memories and recreate a time line of events. At least, that's how I see it. But for my earliest memory I have no frame of reference on which to base it. I have no memories that I can distinctly say come before or after it based off of that earliest memory alone. For example, I do not have a memory of getting out of the truck or events immediately after it. Similarly, other memories of my early life have the same void surrounding them yet I am not driven to believe they are the earliest memory. Why am I compelled to believe I was coming home from the day care center, even though I have no events prior? Is it because my mind is filling in gaps? It's like solving a jigsaw puzzle with only one piece. It is almost as if life escapes me, looping forward to my next memory. Is my earliest memory even real? Was the bright light the spark of consciousness?

It makes me wonder if death is just what life was like before my earliest memory; No recollection of events, no consciousness, just emptiness. Life was passing at an infinite rate until my earliest memory, much like how when we sleep we do not recall the eight or so hours spent sleeping or feel like we existed for eight hours. It's almost like when you fall asleep you jump forward in time to when you awake. I am running on a tangent here, but is it wrong of me to look forward to death? Do others feel the same? I often look at my inevitable demise as the ultimate quencher for my curiosity. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suicidal and I enjoy life, I am just curious like so many people in the world who seek out these answers.

I look forward to your answers.

 

[MyNoteToSelf]

I'm a little fuzzy on what your first memory was exactly, but as for the death...I don't look forward to it so much. I mean, when my time comes then sure, I'll look forward to knowing (or maybe not knowing anything). But right now I wouldn't ever want to give this life up just to see what death is like...that's my side of this.


Earliest memory of mine is me sitting in my crib (I'm only 15 right now, keep in mind ) and I wasn't sleepy, so I wasn't happy about this napping business. I quickly scrambled out of my crib and plopped down on the floor (I was well-known for doing this). About five feet from my crib I stopped by my stuffed animals..and fell asleep with them.

Haha, I know this was a real memory because my parents remember it too!

 

[Ashikaga]

My earliest memory is of my fourth birthday. I was told that I had turned four and was so excited that I went around the neighborhood announcing to everyone that I was four.

How do I remnember that? I don't know. Like Half said, I have no memory of events leading up to that or following that.

I suppose we never know as people revise their memories constantly. It is like telling/re-telling stories. Each time, it comes out slightly different. Some details are added, some are edited out, some are given more emphasis than others as your life experiences make you shine a light on certain things/feelings that are significant in your current state. I believe your brain does retain the original copy of the book in its entirety. I also believe that all the revisions and added foot notes written with the same color ink make it impossible to "read" the chapters in the correct order.

Sometimes, two or more "stories" are merged into one. Other times, someone else's story gets stored in your brain and when you pull it out of the shelf after a while, you assume it is your own.

I used to have this memory of myself lying on a futon that is draped over a hood of a car on a sunny day to dry. I remembered how soft and warm the futon was. I must have been 2 or 3. I remembered it so vividly. Then, years and years later, our family friend with whom I had spent much of my childhood gave us a bunch of pictures they had found while cleaning. One of the picture was a small child lying on a futon on a hood of a car with a big smile on his face. Only the child was my brother. I must have seen the picture before and my brain somehow mislabeled it.

So, I don't know if "going around the neighborhood telling averyone I was four" really happened. Either way, that IS the latest version of it that is stored in my brain and until some new version comes out that explains how an oh-so-very-shy child like myself could go up to his neighbors to deliver the news, that is what I tell you if you ask me what my earliest memory is. lol

 

[OSC]

When i read this topic"what is the earliest thing you can remember in your life?",i was trying to pick up my earliest momery,i found i could not think out anything for this.

 

[Haruspex]

When i read this topic"what is the earliest thing you can remember in your life?",i was trying to pick up my earliest momery,i found i could not think out anything for this.

Surely you have an 'earliest memory', even if its from 3 minutes ago.

 

[Kinsao]

I think mine is one time when I was lying in my carry-cot on my mum's bedroom floor, and she was doing some cleaning or suchlike, and she had told me not to try and get out of the carry-cot, but of course I had to stand up and try to climb out of it.

I know it's my earliest memory because my mum knows how old I was (about 6 months), she remembers the incident, and I can remember whereabouts on the floor the carry-cot was standing at the time.

I do have earlier 'memories' of a guitar tune my dad used to play, but they're not proper 'memories' - just when I was very young (like 2 years or under) I had a real strong feeling that I'd heard the tune before, like it was something I was very familiar with, and mum says dad used to play it since before I was born, so no wonder. But I have no memory of the first time I recall it.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

Nice topic H-n-H, and a nicely formulated opening post

For the reasons Ashikaga and H-n-H mention, it's impossible to isolate my earliest memory. I may have been told stories by my parents that I falsely categorised as memories, and that my parents have subsequently forgotten. I may have seen things on photographs.

It's my perception that my earliest memory is of my sister being born, when I was 21 months old. I "remember" being on the driveway of my aunt's house, in someone's arms, since my aunt's face is eye-level with mine. My aunt hands me a toy and tells me it's a gift from my baby cousin to my new sister. Of course, I don't know that it's a real memory, since it could be something that my aunt told me later. However, the picture is quite vivid in my mind, so I think it's a likely candidate.

 

[MTR]

My earliest memory....? I openned a bag of tea leaves and ate it! That was just nasty!!
Either this, or being left alone in my house, crying!!
I don't remember how old I was, probably 2 or 3??

 

[Mitsuo]

I can never tell what I'm retro-falsifying. But the earliest memory is coming out of what seemed like a dark void. Light all around me, then a slap to my bum. I couldn't stop crying after that. Then I feel as though something has been taken from me. Something that provided a connection to some magnificent source. It all goes blurry after that....

That was about fifteen minutes ago... I'm pretty sure.

 

[Jericho Desu]

Man well... I have bits and bobs of certain things from my first house which was a flat in Ladbroke Grove (a place in London) which we lived in till I was 4, but one memory sticks out quite abit was when me and some other kid (maybe a relative or a friend) started throwing my toys over the balcony just outside my front door. I still remember when some guy came up carrying one (or more?) to give it back, my mum was real angry, but I don't remember her scolding me.

 

[RavenRockstar]

My first memory is being in the hospital getting the sleeping gas stuff. I remember thinking that it really did taste like bubble gum =D

 

[Eugeniu]

I remember waiting with my dad when my sister was born. I was 2.5 years old then .

 

[Pachipro]

My earliest memory is sitting in a stroller with my sister and being pushed by my grandmother. I remember pointing to a sign of a drugstore that was held up by some metal bars on the roof. I remember saying to my grandmother, "Look a boat", as the steel holding the sign was kind of pointed and to a child maybe looked like the top of a boat. My grandmother replied, "No that's no boat, it's a sign.
I must've been about 2-3 years old at the time due to the fact that we were both in a stroller. I am 54 now!

I have memories going back to that time and every year thereafter.

 

[Goldiegirl]

I have two very early memories...

The first is I am getting a bath and feel the warm soapy water and then am wrapped in a towel and placed into a swing. I can hear the sound of the crank being turned that makes the swing, well, swing. I remember the swing being a blue color. I told my mom about this and she said when I was a baby we did have a blue swing. We don't have any pictures of that swing so I believe it is a real memory.

Then, if that isn't a real memory. This one is. I am not quite two years old. I left my bottle in the playground that was just outside of our apartment. I want it so bad, but it's dark. I ask my mom to get it for me; she says "no" and that if I want it I must get it, otherwise I will no longer have a bottle. I was too afraid to get it. After that day I never had a bottle. You know, somehow to this day, it still bothers me, that my mom wouldn't get that bottle for me. ☝

 

[Tsuyoiko]

Then, if that isn't a real memory. This one is. I am not quite two years old. I left my bottle in the playground that was just outside of our apartment. I want it so bad, but it's dark. I ask my mom to get it for me; she says "no" and that if I want it I must get it, otherwise I will no longer have a bottle. I was too afraid to get it. After that day I never had a bottle. You know, somehow to this day, it still bothers me, that my mom wouldn't get that bottle for me. ☝

I wonder if that was your mum's way of telling you that you didn't need a bottle anymore? It reminds me of how my sister-in-law got her kids to stop using a dummy. She told them that they had to leave it under the Christmas tree, and Santa would take it to a new baby and leave presents instead.

 

[Half-n-Half]

I wonder if that was your mum's way of telling you that you didn't need a bottle anymore? It reminds me of how my sister-in-law got her kids to stop using a dummy. She told them that they had to leave it under the Christmas tree, and Santa would take it to a new baby and leave presents instead.

That reminds me of something similar that my mom did. I remember one morning when I was really little my mom wouldn't let me into her bedroom (where the bathroom was that I used to get ready for school) until I got my school clothes all by myself. I was scared of monsters and the dark at the time and begged my mom but she still made me do it. Looking back I guess she was trying to get me to grow up

 

[Goldiegirl]

I wonder if that was your mum's way of telling you that you didn't need a bottle anymore?

I am sure it was a convenient opportunity for her to take to get me away from my bottle. Truthfully though, it hurt me deeply that she wouldn't help me. It still lingers today. I know that might seem odd, but when that memory pops up, it is with a feeling of such intense sadness, and it's not the bottle, but rather that my mom let me down. Maybe that was also my first realization that my mom wasn't perfect......☝

 

[bakaKanadajin]

I think this is nearly impossible because science says it is. But... I have a memory of being in a hospital on a flat kinda table with a border around it, supposedly so you won't fall off. And the door is open and there's a hallway out there. I have a hospital bracelet but it's around my ankle.

I never got sick as a child so the only time I would have been in a hospital would be shortly after being born. But, that's of course nonsense because I don't think memories form before age 2-3.

But neurons are strange things. Could it be possible that my brain registered something so early and there's one connecting line or whatever keeping that neuron alive because through a freak accident or whatever it imprinted itself strongly enough so that I've kept thinking about and pondering over it all through my life? I don't think it's from a dream, it's one of those things that's leftover from childhood and you just feel you know it happened. Dreams usually dissipate altogether don't they? We certainly have more memories of life than memories of dreams.

It's an interesting question. If anyone here is into Japanese novels one of the characters in 1Q84 has this same problem, a haunting memory from infancy he shouldn't have but is sure exists.

And above all else, talking about your failing and ever accelerating memory and sense of time, well its one more reminder of the fact that the only thing we have is the moment, the perpetual now, and that time doesn't actually exist. That much has become clear to me as my 20's have tried to take-off and fly away like a magic carpet escaping from under my feet.

 

[Anchyyy]

My earliest memory is when I was around three and got flu. My parents brought me to the hospital and there the doctors said I need infusion. Here my memory starts: I obviously wanted my mum to come with me, but the nurse took me and slammed the door behind. It's interesting that I don't remember the nurses face, but what I do remember is the broken door.

I once read that a child remembers mostly the things that were somehow traumatic to him or things that got him extremly happy.

And how do I know that this is the earliest memory? Well, the next thing I know I was in the second class of primary school getting beaten up by a big girl

 

[Danny om]

I remember my mum taking me to one of her friends house with my sister. A rather large breasted Jamaican lady picked me up and hugged me. I remember the urge more than the visual part; I HAD to grab her boobies!! They were nice! Everybody in the room started laughing so I started laughing and grabbed `em again. Ooooo! Ice cream, sunshine and feeding the ducks.

 

[Kinsao]

@bakaKanadajin: I think you are probably right; I have some memories that I know are from the 6 months to 1 year period and they aren't things my parents ever told me about, nor do we have pictures. Not saying it's common but no reason why it shouldn't be possible.

On a slightly different note, when I was about 7 years old I had a memory which I thought was a dream and later on it turned out to be real! I thought I had once had a certain doll, and I kind of 'remembered' being in the shop and buying it, but I thought it had been a dream. Later on it turned out that a 'friend' had stolen it, but it was later found in her bedroom and she had to give it back to me. Actually it was a kinda weird feeling, seeing this doll from my 'dream'. @_@