The Earliest Memory You Remember in Life.

[lazypucker]

Don't know how old I was, maybe 3 years old. I remembered going to the doctor, and he had a giant aquarium (probably the size of a 60" TV) full of exotic fishes behind his desk.

[bc-chris]

my earliest memory would have been preschool... so that's what.. age 4?

there's no way to forget preschool... my teacher was robert munsch!
at the beginning of his books they are 'dedicated' to people - a couple of them were classmates of mine in elementary school

[Sainters7]

Had to be around 2 or 3; young enough to be eating in a high chair. Sitting at the dinner table, holding up a piece of broccoli and calling it "tree".

I remember everyone (must've been a family get-together; lots of people there) turning to look at me like it was cute. Ohh how I miss the days where everything I did was considered cute..

[Jiri Hrdina]

My parents had a neighbour dress up as Santa and come by our house for lunch. I was 2 at the time, but I remember it very well.
I also have a vague memory of being terrified of the wallpaper in my room but I don't know how old I was.

[DoubleF]

Picking vegetables from a garden or chasing a dog around some farm equipment. Not sure which of those was actually first, but I would have been around 2.5-3 years old ish.

These two are kinda like those movie fuzzy dreams though. Like video clips with no context.

Memories around 5-6 and later a quite a bit more clear. I think I remember more about my thoughts and what I felt during the memory.

[troutman]

Apollo astronauts walking on the moon.

Google AI:

The average age of an individual's earliest conscious memory is typically around 3 to 3.5 years old. However, some studies suggest that people may recall memories from as early as 2.5 years of age, according to a new study by Memorial University of Newfoundland. This phenomenon is known as childhood amnesia, and it's a well-researched area of psychology

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

Don't know how old I was, maybe 3 years old. I remembered going to the doctor, and he had a giant aquarium (probably the size of a 60" TV) full of exotic fishes behind his desk.

What's funny is if you saw that same aquarium today it would probably only be 20-inches

[KTrain]

I might have a vague earlier one, but the most vivid was being taken to pre-school, getting out of the car and having my mother accidentally close the car door on my fingers.

[Geraldsh]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

The strap in catholic schools! I gotten it once in grade 8. Is that still a thing?

You’re a bit slow, I got my first strap in grade 5.

My earliest memory is my sisters and I standing on the road crying because our parents had left us. Dad was haying for the neighbour and Mom wanted to take some lunch to him - gone for less than an hour. I was 3, my sisters were 4 and 5.

[Sylvanfan]

Somewhere around a year and a half taking a crap in my crib, taking off the diaper crawling out of the crib and going into the garage where my Dad was doing some work on his 67 Mercury truck and sitting bare arsed in his truck seat with my unwiped arse.

Good thing he had a seat cover. After that life was downhill.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by KTrain

I might have a vague earlier one, but the most vivid was being taken to pre-school, getting out of the car and having my mother accidentally close the car door on my fingers.

Hmm.. I guess the earliest vivid memory, I must have been around 3.5-4 years old involves pain as well. The earlier garden and dog chasing memory is kinda lacking in sound as part of the memory.

I'm watching my dad attacking a bee nest with a shop vac (I recall it was in a gap between the siding close to the corner of the house) and someone beside him with a black plastic bag. There's vacuum noise and shouting. Then I see this dark dot coming from the direction of my dad's back get bigger, until I fall backward facing the sky and everything is sorta muffled. It then cuts to a scene where, I'm in a house eating a freezie.

My mom tells me this story: I was watching my dad remove a bee nest at a friend's house at the screen door. Somehow I went outside to the edge of the porch and was watching from like 30-40+ feet away. According to her two dummies removing bees in the most ridiculous way possible and yet I, the most innocent and furthest person away from the chaos, was the only person who got stung. I apparently cried, and ran back into the neighbor's house. I was apparently running up from behind my mom while she was talking with the neighbor's wife because she said the neighbor wife noticed the swelling first. A baking soda mixture was put on the sting to deal with the swelling and pain. My dad apparently peeked in with a ping pong ball sized piece of bee nest with honey in it and put honey on the sting. Then when I calmed down, a freezie used sorta as an ice pack on the sting to address swelling was given to me to eat. My dad and his buddy didn't know I got stung. Couldn't hear my cries over the shop vac or adrenaline or whatever.

There's an obvious gap in between what I remember in the memory vs the story I was told by my mom though.

[the-rasta-masta]

Flying a kite with my Dad behind my grandmothers house by the railway tracks in Coleman, AB. I was crying and upset because I thought the kite was flying away for good.

Edit: Must have been around 2 years old as my grandmother sold the house before my sister was born.

[TSXCman]

probably 1.5ish: crawling around boots at the front door and see the light coming down through a window. Also, crawling through the small space under a bed between the legs and the drawers.

[Knut]

I think i was around 2 years old. My dad was watching hockey on TV. I remember the hideous Canucks V jersey and the White jersey with Red on it (Flames).

Even then V=NG

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by troutman

Apollo astronauts walking on the moon.

Google AI:

The average age of an individual's earliest conscious memory is typically around 3 to 3.5 years old. However, some studies suggest that people may recall memories from as early as 2.5 years of age, according to a new study by Memorial University of Newfoundland. This phenomenon is known as childhood amnesia, and it's a well-researched area of psychology

I was about 8 when that went down, I can recall the whole school called in for assembly to watch a grainy black and white picture of them already on the moon (the actual landing was about 2am UK time) on what must have been an enormous (for the time) 25 inch TV!! couldn't see a thing from the back of the gym, it does occur to me our first TV was a black and white 13 inch console

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Hmm.. I guess the earliest vivid memory, I must have been around 3.5-4 years old involves pain as well. The earlier garden and dog chasing memory is kinda lacking in sound as part of the memory.

I'm watching my dad attacking a bee nest with a shop vac (I recall it was in a gap between the siding close to the corner of the house) and someone beside him with a black plastic bag. There's vacuum noise and shouting. Then I see this dark dot coming from the direction of my dad's back get bigger, until I fall backward facing the sky and everything is sorta muffled. It then cuts to a scene where, I'm in a house eating a freezie.

My mom tells me this story: I was watching my dad remove a bee nest at a friend's house at the screen door. Somehow I went outside to the edge of the porch and was watching from like 30-40+ feet away. According to her two dummies removing bees in the most ridiculous way possible and yet I, the most innocent and furthest person away from the chaos, was the only person who got stung. I apparently cried, and ran back into the neighbor's house. I was apparently running up from behind my mom while she was talking with the neighbor's wife because she said the neighbor wife noticed the swelling first. A baking soda mixture was put on the sting to deal with the swelling and pain. My dad apparently peeked in with a ping pong ball sized piece of bee nest with honey in it and put honey on the sting. Then when I calmed down, a freezie used sorta as an ice pack on the sting to address swelling was given to me to eat. My dad and his buddy didn't know I got stung. Couldn't hear my cries over the shop vac or adrenaline or whatever.

There's an obvious gap in between what I remember in the memory vs the story I was told by my mom though.

My favorite 'dad being a dumbass' memory was waking up in the middle of the night and walking into the kitchen to see my dad and his mate drunk on stools trying to 'fix' the florescent light, 'fixing it' consisted of hitting it with a hammer, it exploded they both fell off the stools and much swearing and shouting in the dark followed, eventually my mum lit a candle and there was a fair amount of blood and two drunk men on the floor!!

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Geraldsh

You’re a bit slow, I got my first strap in grade 5.

My earliest memory is my sisters and I standing on the road crying because our parents had left us. Dad was haying for the neighbour and Mom wanted to take some lunch to him - gone for less than an hour. I was 3, my sisters were 4 and 5.

In my elementary, kids talked about the dreaded strap, and how the principal can use it for disciplining kids, but I have no idea if it was actually a thing or just some myth. I've never actually seen it used or know of a kid that got the strap (it was always a friend of a friend type thing in the stories).

[bluejays]

Getting my first stitches at 2. I don't remember that part but I remember the events leading up to it - wrestling my dad in bed, my dad dozing off to sleep while I continued being hyper, then rolling off the bed and hitting my head on the side table. I vividly remember rolling around and wrestling by dad to the point it happened. Though I can't remember anything after that, I've hated needles ever since. I have to lay down to draw blood or I break out into cold sweats when my pressure drops. All because of that 2 year old experience.

[D as in David]

I have several memories of visiting my grandparents' place when I was 2. Later in that year, I remember watching JFK's funeral train on TV.

[Locke]

Well...there was that time I had to referee Noah boxing against a Velociraptor...getting the gloves on was a real pain in the ass.