Earliest childhood memory

[MargaretR]

A comment in another thread has caused this one

Childhood amnesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Individuals’ first memories significantly reflect their personality traits."

My earliest memory is the disappointment I felt when I had to walk instead of riding in a pram.

So that either means I am an idle so and so, or the fact that I am easily taken for a ride- both ring true

[mobertol]

Just been reading some letters of my Grandads which mum has scanned and sent me.
He specifically mentions his first childhood memory which was paddling in the sea in 1914 in Blackpool and running along the beach besides the donkeys! Mt Gt-Grandma Lucy went there with 5 children to run a guest-house for Ghurkas!

Grandad was always a happy soul -presumably his first memory affected all his life.

Mine is of my sister falling in a rockpool in Cornwall when i was about 5 -she got out of going to church and I didn't. Went with dad and we bought a present for mum on the way back, which was an ashtray with a green fish in the bottom, he let me choose it. Think it was a Troika -got broken years ago...,

[cashman]

Earliest i remember was Christmas Day 1952, Had got a 3 wheeler bike fer Christmas, Went tearing down Maudsley St on pavement, across Arnold St, n hit the corner of the St Johns pub. Did me Arm,Leg, n grazed me face, Got played hell wi n carted off to Accy Vic. Was up me nans at the time.

[garinda]

I was two years and three days old when I lost my only child status, and my brother was born. Bringing the gift of a golliwog, as some sort of compensation. I remember sulking at the bottom of the stairs in the hospital, the day he came home.

I have lots of memories before that.

My Nan washing my hair with Stardrops in the kitchen sink, when my nice baby shampoo was upstairs in the bathroom.

Being disappointed at getting a pedal tank you sat in, from Father Christmas.

Clothes feature in many early memories. I know all the colours of what I wore as a baby, even though there are only black and white photographs of them.

I think my very earliest memory was around my first birthday. I sneaked into the unused front room, opened a display cabinet, and ate the baby and crib, made out of Royal icing, that had been made to go on top of my christening cake.

Greedy, with an interest in fashion.

Nothing much changes.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by cashman

Earliest i remember was Christmas Day 1952, Had got a 3 wheeler bike fer Christmas, Went tearing down Maudsley St on pavement, across Arnold St, n hit the corner of the St Johns pub. Did me Arm,Leg, n grazed me face, Got played hell wi n carted off to Accy Vic. Was up me nans at the time.

So have you lived recklessly/dangerously ever since?

[mobertol]

Not earliest memory now i think about it -can remember some things from nursery school -blowing bubbles from clay pipes and making a papier-mache dinosaur.

Also remember throwing up violently when I had whooping cough and mum gave me some hot milk -still can't drink it to this day -will have been between 2 and 3 then!

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by garinda

I think my very earliest memory was around my first birthday. I sneaked into the unused front room, opened a display cabinet, and ate the baby and crib, made out of Royal icing, that had been made to go on top of my christening cake.

Greedy, with an interest in fashion.

Nothing much changes.

Must have been an early walker like my first son. He could walk at 9 months and used to hide food under a lamp in the corner of the living room. I'd find him eating at all times of day, fruit and biscuits and found his secret store after a while because of a trail of ants! He also used to answer the phone!

[garinda]

Originally Posted by garinda

I was two years and three days old when I lost my only child status, and my brother was born. Bringing the gift of a golliwog, as some sort of compensation. I remember sulking at the bottom of the stairs in the hospital, the day he came home.

I have lots of memories before that.

My Nan washing my hair with Stardrops in the kitchen sink, when my nice baby shampoo was upstairs in the bathroom.

Being disappointed at getting a pedal tank you sat in, from Father Christmas.

Clothes feature in many early memories. I know all the colours of what I wore as a baby, even though there are only black and white photographs of them.

I think my very earliest memory was around my first birthday. I sneaked into the unused front room, opened a display cabinet, and ate the baby and crib, made out of Royal icing, that had been made to go on top of my christening cake.

Greedy, with an interest in fashion.

Nothing much changes.

As my brother sometimes reads Accy Web.

I love you now, and you're a great brother.

Even though the golliwog has now lost his jacket, because it was shoddily constucted in the first place.



Another bad memory, now family legend.

I once remember saying to my Mum that I could feed my baby brother his nursery slop.

Mum thanked me, propped us between cushions on the sofa, and went into the kitchen.

I remember thinking if I eat all the food he might starve, and I'd be King Tot again.

Gobble, gobble.

'He's finished it all Mummy!'

[mobertol]

Originally Posted by cashman

Earliest i remember was Christmas Day 1952, Had got a 3 wheeler bike fer Christmas, Went tearing down Maudsley St on pavement, across Arnold St, n hit the corner of the St Johns pub. Did me Arm,Leg, n grazed me face, Got played hell wi n carted off to Accy Vic. Was up me nans at the time.

You were lucky my first bike had stabilisers and it was a snowy winter, didn't get to use it for ages...

Also spent a day at Accy Vic when about 7 when I broke my ankle falling off a space-hopper! Waited for ages as a group of kids had eaten laburnum seeds and were having their stomachs pumped -hadn't thought of that in years. Remember this awful nurse telling me to hurry up and stop being soft as there was nothing wrong with me -went home with a pot -hope it wasn't Margaret!

[Margaret Pilkington]

One of my earliest memories consists of running head first into the gas oven in our kitchen and not only knocking myself out, but bleeding all over the lino....and being upset.
Not because I was bleeding, but because I had made a mess of the lino.
I would be about 2 years old at the time. I still have the mark on my forehead from this escapade.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by mobertol

Must have been an early walker like my first son. He could walk at 9 months and used to hide food under a lamp in the corner of the living room. I'd find him eating at all times of day, fruit and biscuits and found his secret store after a while because of a trail of ants! He also used to answer the phone!

Walking and talking at seven months.

Mind, I was born a month after my due date.

So in theory you could add a month on.

I wouldn't want to have been born in '64.

Hanging on to a tidy middle of a decade, is so much more me.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

One of my earliest memories consists of running head first into the gas oven in our kitchen and not only knocking myself out, but bleeding all over the lino....and being upset.
Not because I was bleeding, but because I had made a mess of the lino.
I would be about 2 years old at the time. I still have the mark on my forehead from this escapade.

So your first memory was of pain and suffering, then you spent a large part of your life relieving suffering of others - that fits

[garinda]

I've got friends who say they don't remember before they went to school, at four or five.

I think that's totally weird, and almost unbelievable.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

So your first memory was of pain and suffering, then you spent a large part of your life relieving suffering of others - that fits

Yes and worrying about the bloody mess(literally) I had caused.
I spent much of my career mopping up blood.......so yes, I guess it does Margaret.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by garinda

I've got friends who say they don't remember before they went to school, at four or five.

I think that's totally weird, and almost unbelievable.

That wiki link in my 1st post could explain that -

"However, adults who had traumatic and abusive early childhoods report an offset of childhood amnesia around 5-7 years old. It has been suggested that this is because stressful experiences can injure memory centers and possibly make it harder to form memories."