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I'm not sure which happened first, but I remember it was a daycare I went to before going to preschool at a school where I also went to kindergarten after.
I was 1 or 2, and I was in a yard with other kids going down a slide. Another thing I remember is playing with a toy.
When I was six, I saw a photo of myself walking around in diapers outside while my mom was hanging out clothes. One of our ducks was in the picture. When I saw the picture at age six, I remembered when that photo had been taken - I was about a year and a half old. My main memory of what was going on at that time was that my mom was yelling loudly as she was hanging out the clothes, and the wind that was blowing. My six-year-old self decided to hold on to that memory; that it was important for me to remember what my life was like as a very young child.
I have many memories at age 3. I have vivid memories of playing on the floor with a yellow car. A little larger than a hot wheel car but it wasn't metal. I was more of a hard rubber. I would play with it all day. I also have memories of being at my grand parent's apt in ny city somewhere. I rememnpber the white pots and pans, the gas oven and stove and there was a certain smell. They were Italian and great cooks but it wasn't the smell of food. I also remember hearing All My Loving by the Beatles at their apt for some reason. When I went to my best friends house at the age of 25, their house had that that same smell and it brought me straight back to that memory. I have dozens if memories of that age. I know they all occurred before I was 4 because our family moved to the country (Nassau County) when I was 4 and all preceded that house.
Last edited by trusso11783; 10-16-2016 at 10:41 AM..
What is your explanation for why "everything was green"? Why did everything appear to your visual senses to be "green" to you (with there even being a "female green person" who attended to you and other "people in green with green masks")?
I can't answer for the OP, but I know that many operating rooms in older hospitals have green tile walls and the Drs and nurses wear green sterile clothing (scrubs) and the towels and cloths the sterilized instruments are wrapped in are also green.
It is said that our strongest recollections are tied to our senses, and I believe that because my earliest recollection has to do with my mother feeding me beets while I sat in the high chair. I remember it vividly because I REALLY disliked the taste of those beets and I immediately unloaded them from my mouth onto the bib and the tray of that high chair.
When I was older, I recall asking my mother when this event took place, and she said that I was probably about 6 months old at time. She remembered it--due to the mess that I created--but she was very surprised that I remembered it.
Ironically, I now love to eat beets, but I was definitely not a beet-lover at the age of 6 months!
Brain development in a newborn does not support this.
I agree. And, as part of the BA in Psychology degree I had earned many years ago, we also studied neurobiology/neurosciences and, on my own, I've done enough readings in these areas. What this man claimed doesn't seem to be plausible. Heck, within hours (or even less than hours) of having come out of your mother's womb and being slapped on the backside by medical professionals, you don't even have a mind yet that can form coherent thoughts using the symbolic representation of thoughts which we call "language". That is, you can't even form words or sentences yet to help you organize your thoughts in a graspable, rememberable, retrievable form.
Even if a person (such as this referenced man) never studied neurobiology or the neurosciences at-large, you would think that he (or any other person) should be able to figure out, by common sense alone, that what he was claiming has a very high degree of improbability.
Mine was of being put down for a nap. I had a mobile and my mother wound it up. I remember the mobile had blue, green and turquoise translucent fish that made a pattern that seemed to dance on the pale pink wall behind me. My mother was wearing a gold charm bracelet that jangled as she wound the mobile.
There was a music box that played typical music box music. My mother closed the blinds and said something too me. I heard the door close softly.
After that, I guess, I must have fallen asleep.
From discussing this with my father, the description of the room, the mobile, and where the window was, he pieced together that I was under a year old, because we moved soon after that. I also remember that I was the only child in the room, and the position of the door and the closet.
What is strange to me, is it's a rather unremarkable event. Commonplace. Why do I recall it?
"Unremarkable" to your present adult mind. But way back then, all those dangling translucent fish with those standout colors with a backdrop of a pink wall in the background and with a music box playing its music box-sounding music must have been a wondrous and memory-prone sensory experience to an infant. It wasn't, as you say, "commonplace" for an infant not too too long beyond her birth to experience the combination of all these sensory events happening all at once.
My earliest memory was when I was three. A relative asked me how old I was, and I said "Twee". Couldn't pronounce my "thr" apparently. The relative thought it was cute and kept saying Twee, Twee and laughing. I remember being upset and insisting I was three, but kept pronouncing it wrong, which led to more laughter.
Kind of sad my earliest memory was of being mocked.
I can't answer for the OP, but I know that many operating rooms in older hospitals have green tile walls and the Drs and nurses wear green sterile clothing (scrubs) and the towels and cloths the sterilized instruments are wrapped in are also green.
I was thinking along the same lines (more specifically as to the clothing or scrubs that medical practioners often wear inside a hospital treatment or surgery area . . . which, if I recall correctly, is often a light pale green color).
Everything was green. Walls, ceilings & people in green with green masks. Physically struggling against 2 green people & crying.
A female green person leaning over me & saying "Hush! There are sick people here!"
I remember trying to tell her "I know THAT. I AM a sick person; here." ... But all that came out was a wail.
Then a big, rubber "cup" with a hose on it was shoved over my face. I struggled to fight it too because it smelled funny & was making a hissing sound but it was no use ...
The hissing cup covered my mouth & nose & I suddenly felt a searing burning in my throat & then ... nothing.
Adenoidectomy in a AFB hospital in Japan in 1970. Age 18 months.
I didn't "connect the dots" until a few years ago when I overheard my mom talking about how I was so sick with recurring strep & ear infections when I was little, had to be immunized with 3 times the normal dose of the Measels vaccine in order to have a titer high enough for them to bring me to the US ... had to have surgery at 18 months old ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by mordant
My earliest memory was a traumatic one ... I was confined to my high chair in the family kitchen and the washing machine which was running in the same room of my parent's small apartment become unbalanced and started "walking" towards me. Since I was strapped into a high chair I must have been less then two, I suppose. I'm sure the memory is associated with the emotional content, as I was terrified. I can still remember the sound that machine made as it lurched towards me.
I have another memory of being in the doctor's office and being set on a scale, but I don't think I was an infant being weighed, I was probably just parked there for safekeeping. Again it is the emotional content ... everyone was making a big deal about what a big boy I was and how I was growing and I felt the center of benign attention; I actually bought into all of this and thought I actually WAS Da Bomb. My guess is I was probably around two and a half to three and a half.
Other than that however it's pretty much a blank slate until a couple of vague memories of Kindergarten (again mostly the emotional content, one situation I was bored, the other embarrassed). Memories don't start to feel very connected really until I was about 8.
The other thing I notice at age 59 is that memories become somewhat hazy and fragmented beyond a certain distance into the past, perhaps 20 years or so. That gauze curtain seems to follow me at a continuous two decade or so delay. It's an effort to remember names, order of events, and other specifics beyond that point. This may be more pronounced for me than for others because my life has been, by my lights at least, relatively chaotic, and I've reinvented myself at least twice (divorced from 1st wife, widowed from 2nd). I know that the traumatic aspects of my first marriage especially seem to have been almost erased, my brain just can't access much of it, no matter how hard I try. I seem to almost automatically forget pain and disappointment; unfortunately that removes some of the context of positive happenings as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ellie
I remember my mother being pregnant with my brother, who is less than three years younger than I am -- and what she was wearing one day with her enormous red gingham belly. Also remember our neighbors coming to stay with me while we were waiting for him to be born.
Quote:
Originally Posted by don1945
I have a couple of very distinct recollections from when I must have been very young. One was when I was sleeping in my crib one night and I woke up and saw something dark at the end of the crib. I sort of froze in fear and laid there until I finally fell back asleep. When daylight came, I looked up and realized it was some clothing my mom had tossed over the top of the crib rail, and I was very relieved to see what it was.
Another time, I remember sitting in my highchair, eating Cheerios that my mom had put on a plate for me to pick up and eat. She was ironing in the kitchen and watching a little TV. We had one of the first TV's to come out, and our neighbors would come by to watch this new fangled contraption.
Being that I was still in my crib and still using a high chair, I must have been around two at the most at that time.
Don
Quote:
Originally Posted by CP79
I have a vague memory of my mother holding me outside of our van, in a parking lot. I would have been around 2.5-3
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nor'Eastah
My earliest memory was of being in my carriage (so less than a year old) in a sunny side room of the house where we lived when I was born. It was daytime, and I was napping. My mom and a couple of women friends came into the room, waking me. The other ladies wanted to see me, and I recall my mom trying to make me smile, with her voice and expressions.
All I remember was that I was very irritated by all this, and burst out crying.
I do not believe that it's impossible to remember anything prior to 3 years of age. My dad died at age 32, when I was 3, and I have distinct memories of him prior to that (I couldn't very well have memories of him after that, now could I?).
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12
Interesting question.
Mine was of being put down for a nap. I had a mobile and my mother wound it up. I remember the mobile had blue, green and turquoise translucent fish that made a pattern that seemed to dance on the pale pink wall behind me. My mother was wearing a gold charm bracelet that jangled as she wound the mobile.
There was a music box that played typical music box music. My mother closed the blinds and said something too me. I heard the door close softly.
After that, I guess, I must have fallen asleep.
From discussing this with my father, the description of the room, the mobile, and where the window was, he pieced together that I was under a year old, because we moved soon after that. I also remember that I was the only child in the room, and the position of the door and the closet.
What is strange to me, is it's a rather unremarkable event. Commonplace. Why do I recall it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElusiveOne1
I'm not sure which happened first, but I remember it was a daycare I went to before going to preschool at a school where I also went to kindergarten after.
I was 1 or 2, and I was in a yard with other kids going down a slide. Another thing I remember is playing with a toy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retriever
It is said that our strongest recollections are tied to our senses, and I believe that because my earliest recollection has to do with my mother feeding me beets while I sat in the high chair. I remember it vividly because I REALLY disliked the taste of those beets and I immediately unloaded them from my mouth onto the bib and the tray of that high chair.
When I was older, I recall asking my mother when this event took place, and she said that I was probably about 6 months old at time. She remembered it--due to the mess that I created--but she was very surprised that I remembered it.
Ironically, I now love to eat beets, but I was definitely not a beet-lover at the age of 6 months!
Imagine that! Remembering as far back as two years of age or even age one or even prior to age 1 (e.g., 6 months)! And some of you have witnesses who are or are probably reliable-enough to verify your memories and be able to gauge accurately or relatively accurately hold old you were at the time (such as Retriever sharing that, for such a unique event as regurgitating beets, it became a memorable event and his or her mother was able to probably reliably-enough state that he or she was around 6 months old at the time of that event)!
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