What’s Your Earliest Memory?

[RabbitsRock]

I have a memory like an elephant, although DM thinks that some of my memories are from seeing old photos rather than actually remembering. My earliest memory is from a holiday in Wales when I was around 18 months old & I can picture myself lying in bed in our little cottage with the sun streaming in from a high window behind me.

What I take to br my earliest memory is like these, lying in my cot looking up at my mobile.

Sitting on the worktop in my Grandparents kitchen with a tiny cup of coffee while Grandpa peeled potatoes.

I would have been 3-4 I think.

I remember being held up at the hospital nursery window by my dad and him pointing out which one was my new brother, then going to see my mum and being given a red telephone as a present. I was 19 months old.

My earliest memory was watching my father and brother-in-law (my sisters were all much older) chatting and drinking beer when I was two years old. I thought they were drinking soda and I wanted a sip. My niece, who was slightly older than me, told me it wasn't soda and to not drink it, but my father said I could have a sip, so I did. Obviously it wasn't soda and it didn't taste good. I felt betrayed and I was totally traumatized that my father would lie to me and give me something unpleasant to drink, which is undoubtably the reason I remember that particular incident.

Another early memory from around the same time: I was attending a large party or some sort of holiday celebration at someone's house. I had something very important that I wanted to tell an adult, but I couldn't speak well enough to make myself understood and I felt very frustrated. I tried to tell one of my adult sisters, but she couldn't be bothered with trying to understand me. I remember that there were only two adults in my life who could really understand my speech at that time, my mother and one of my sisters. I remember wishing I knew how to write so I could write it down and remember whatever it was later because I felt it was very important. I wish I could still remember what it was, just in case it really was important. Maybe baby me had all the answers. 🤷🏼‍♀️

My mother confirmed my earliest memory dates back to when I was 2.5 years old. At first she told me we had never had the holiday I remembered. I was able to recall the accommodation, the people we were with and what I was eating (I was upset about this which is probably why I remember). After a few minutes and much to her amazement the penny dropped and she confirmed I’d remembered correctly. We don’t have any photos of this holiday.

Sitting in the back of my aunt’s car on a red tartan rug with my grandmother, outside the hospital while my DF and aunt went into the hospital to fetch DM and my new baby brother. He was born a week before my second birthday. I can also remember his christening.

About 4, being grabbed by the throat, with my hair being pulled by my mother as she spat in my face telling me I’m always getting her in trouble with my dad.
my new school shoes had a scuff on them and he went bazerk.
Remember it like it was 2 minutes ago.

She was and still is a cunt.

Splitting my head open in a play area shortly before my 3rd birthday. Still have the scar!

mine is being age 3 sitting on a stone edging in my parents garden having my photo taken beside some really big flowers and I was wearing orange and brown dungarees

Its a odd collection

sitting in a row boat looking through clear water of the bay
and the same holiday my mum dumping a large crab wrapped in paper on the kitchen table

then there's at home i toddled outside found a kitten came back inside and dumped it on my parents bed and thats how we got our first cat

Looking at two ladybirds caught in a jar in the back garden.

Looking at a hole my dad had punched through a door during an argument with my mother.

Wearing wellies, being put standing in a pond full of tadpoles, silently freaking out because they were so disgusting.

Oh that’s lovely!

I remember lying in my cot, when I told my mother she didn't believe me, until I described the cot, which had been discarded when I had moved into a bed at around 18 months.

I can remember sitting in the living room window wistfully watching my elder brothers walk off to school. I watched them until they reached the end of our cul-de-sac and went out of sight. I really wanted to be going with them, remember the feeling of longing so well (shame when I DID go and didn't like it)

Also there was a pipe in the airing cupboard in the bathroom, I could peer down the pipe and see into the kitchen below. I saw my mum come into the kitchen in her red housecoat and start filling the kettle. I called down to her and she looked up startled and said something, I can't remember what. At the time I didn't consider it but reflecting, it must have been really bizarre to my mum to hear one of her children piping down at her "Hello mummy, I see you!"

We left that house when I was five so all this was before that. We once viewed a house that had a red and black speckled carpet, which I promptly sat down on cross-legged. My mum said, "We used to have that carpet in our first house, it was taken up when you were... maybe two?" So weird!

My first definate memory is the day of my sister's birth. I remember the lime cordial I was given to drink and type of biscuits we took my mum. I also remeber this bright red thing in it's fishtank by my mother's bed and telling my parents i thought she was beautiful because thats what I thought I should say.

Probably my earliest memory is when I was aged 4. I hadn't started school and I used to sit on our garden wall waiting for my big (aged 7 😄) brother to come home at 4pm. The big brown dog which would roam the streets in our neighbourhood (acceptable back then) ran up to me and started growling. I was absolutely terrified and thought it was going to kill me. I couldn't move with fear. Mum came running out and chased it away.

I remember being in the lounge when the next door neighbour came in with a cardboard box and said ‘this is for you’. It was all toys her son had outgrown, and I think I remember it because it was so unexpected, literally like a surprise Christmas on an ordinary day. I don’t know exactly how old I was but we moved out of that house just before I turned 3 so definitely before that.

I also remember the paper cups they had at playgroup when I was about 2, they were bright colours with white dots.

Not sure exactly. We lived in a block of flats until I was a year old and I think I can remember tiny bits from there like what it looked like, and sitting watching TV there.

I have more vivid memories from what must have been ages one to three, based on the house we were in. One thing that sticks out is having been dressed in a beautiful brand new cream-coloured outfit ready to go out, and being left to play alone in the garden while my mother got herself ready. At some point I fell over, landing flat on my face, in a huge mud puddle, so covering myself and my beautiful outfit in mud. I was distraught.

Falling out my nanas bed and her picking me up and cuddling me to sleep.

One of my favorite memories she is sadly missed.

Some of your memories go back a long way. Mine are all when I was around 4 or 5. I can date them because we moved house when I was 5.

I remember having a birthday party in the old house. Someone bought me an umbrella as a present. You know those children's umbrellas with a character on them, like a frog or something. I remember standing beside my then best friend with the umbrella up over us both. I think we were singing a song, but I can't remember the song.

I remember a friend of my Mam's calling in. I'd never met her before. I was having a tea party for my dolls and teddies when she came in. For some reason, I took an instant dislike to her and decided she was a witch (she had grey hair).

I remember going to visit our new house, before we moved in. It wasn't far from our old house, so we walked there. I was wheeling my teddy in a toy pram. We met a friend or neighbour of my Dad's. She commented that I was so small that I should be in the pram myself.

I remember Mam packing our things into tea chests for the house move.

I can remember moving day. We didn't have a car, so we sat in the back of the removal van on our sofa and armchairs. The removal men left the shutter up a bit, so we could see out of the bottom of the shutter.

I remember my little brother being born. Dad went into the shop to buy minerals (soft drinks) and a box of chocolates to bring in to my Mam. I was far more excited about the minerals and chocolates than my new brother and asked if they were for me. So Dad relented and bought me some chocolate or sweets. We called into my Granny's house and my Granny and Aunt asked me about the new baby.

I have a memory of feeling annoyed that my DB was stood behind me. It’s in the old kitchen in my DP’s house, I can picture that quite well, but it’s more the feeling of irritation.

I used to think it was a dream, until one day DM was talking about how my DB would always walk behind me in case I fell 🥺 I would have been under 18m.

I told my mother that I remembered her taking me to see her former colleagues in her office. I remembered going through double doors, a large clock and a lady called Mari to the right of the door. My mother was surprised and said I was about 10 months old, just a baby in arms. Experts say that we don't remember anything that young, but I do. My parents both had long memories, so maybe it is hereditary.

I remember going to the scrap yard with my Dad and picking out cooker nobs from a big box.
He used them to decorate a toy cooker which he made for me out of an old bed side table. I was given it for my 3rd birthday.

Two and a bit, and a long train journey. I was given a new teddy to keep me quiet.

I have other memories of the same journey, which never came up in conversation but which I verified with DM when I was in my teens, so I know they're what I remember, not me remembering what my parents talked about.