What is your earliest memory?

[Gough]

I was watching all this WWI commemoration on television and I remember talking to my Gran one day and she said that she could just remember the end of the War (should would have just turned 4) and that it was one of her earliest memories. This got me thinking, I can remember my Grandparents visiting us from Rhodesia before they moved out here which would have been sometime in 1977 making me about four at the time, and I also have vague recollections of been on a plane, but I couldn't put a date on it.
So now, in the immortal words of SB, over to you Big Footy.

 

[Floor Pie]

Bright light, cold. And someone slapped my arse...

 

[PP34]

Throwing up in my dad's work car.

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

My mum's car breaking down, and my Uncle coming to pick us up in his flashy looking XR8.

I was 2 when that happened. Don't remember much of anything for about another 3 years after that.

 

[ElitePunter]

I have a memory of laying in my cot - I guess I would have been 2 years old or something?

 

[ElitePunter]

And I have a memory of my uncle touching me up when I was kid but when I asked him about it recently, he just laughed at me and told me not to be silly.

 

[HirdyLannister]

Bribing my parents for a toy (g1 optimus prime) to potty train me, I got my toy and I was able to use the big boy toilet straight away like a champ

 

[kfc1]

I don't know, to be honest. And I find it difficult to differentiate between what might be an early memory and what is a vision generated by my brain looking at childhood photos. I may be an android.

 

[pantskyle]

Stoning Jesus.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Licking Pepsi up off the floor before being caught by dad... must have been about 3

 

[Plugger35]

One of my first memories was going on a flight to NZ with my parents to meet some of our relatives when I was 3 years old.

I have memories of being on the plane and losing one of my favourite toys that I was playing with, I think some guy sitting in front of us kept it after I was probably being an annoying little shit throwing it around, I can remember being pretty upset about losing it. I can also remember bits and pieces of being in NZ and meeting our relatives.

I can't remember much else from around that age but I guess going on a plane to another country and meeting relatives you hadn't seen before was something pretty memorable even at that age.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Coming out of kinder and seeing mum driving a new car

 

[Igloo]

Getting hit in the head with a basketball and falling off a slide.

 

[Roobs321]

Once you separate family memory which reinforces a childhood event that is otherwise ultimately largely forgotten as a lived-in memory, I think most people are left with an earliest memory of about 3 or 4 (unless an earlier event was particularly impactful).

I have very vague recollections of living in Warnambool, which I moved away from when I was 2, maybe as old as 3. My first recognisable memory is looking in a mirror at the egg on my head, from falling over at the Stawell Gift in the early 90s. Also recall first arriving at a first house in Stawell, and my little brother (who was a toddler) smiling back at me (new house excitement).

Most of my early childhood has certainly left me by now (25), other than in sensual traces of imagery, but from 4+ it was still fairly vivid for my first 12 or 15 years. The unmemorable moments are naturally the first to go, unless it has a certain reason to be remembered or was a recurring habit it vanishes. Hopefully when I get old it comes back to me as you often hear from the elderly (probably part legend though I guess). I find the earlier memories I have are those that I consciously remembered in the intervening years, making it somewhat of a memory within a memory. Maybe if you don't think about something for a decade or two, or find a new feeling in a memory, it becomes almost completely erased.

I actually have a great memory, my conversational and statistical recall is practically eidetic. If someone in our family was trusted to do a family biography, it would be me. However, I've noticed my childhood becoming a lot foggier in recent years. Given I was a transgender child, there might be some element of conscious forgetting in there, but gender role typically has a minimal impact on one's early years.

Basically, I don't remember the 80s, and I struggle to remember the early 90s.

 

[LukasTheGreat]

Getting hit in the head with a basketball and falling off a slide.

same incident?

 

[Igloo]

same incident?

Yes

 

[Gough]

One of my first memories was going on a flight to NZ with my parents to meet some of our relatives when I was 3 years old.

I have memories of being on the plane and losing one of my favourite toys that I was playing with, I think some guy sitting in front of us kept it after I was probably being an annoying little shit throwing it around, I can remember being pretty upset about losing it. I can also remember bits and pieces of being in NZ and meeting our relatives.

I can't remember much else from around that age but I guess going on a plane to another country and meeting relatives you hadn't seen before was something pretty memorable even at that age.

I remember being on a plane when I was very young, but considering we lived in Brisbane/Melbourne/Brisbane/Melbourne/Perth/Adelaide all before I was eight it's a bit hard to put a finger on exactly when that was.

 

[Good Bloke]

I don't remember being born! Is this normal?

 

[LukasTheGreat]

Yes

I wish i could have seen this.

 

[kanye_best]

burning my hand on a cigarette and healing it by dipping it into a glass of water. I was also 4.

 

[MCE]

I don't remember being born! Is this normal?

No. The most likely explanation for this is that you were never born at all.

 

[Good Bloke]

No. The most likely explanation for this is that you were never born at all.

Hhhmmmm something for me to ponder.

 

[Good Bloke]

burning my hand on a cigarette and healing it by dipping it into a glass of water. I was also 4.

You were smoking at 4

 

[Macca19]

My folks doing some outdoor renovations which happened when I was 3.

 

[James_Blues]

Playing in the sandpit at kindergarten with 3 other kids (one of whom is one of my best mates now). Not really a specific day I remember doing it, but just being in there every day playing with it.