COMMENTS

30 responses to “Open Thread Update: Your Earliest Memories!”

1. I remember my make believe friend was my first consistent memory and I called her” make believe Mary”. I also had a dinosaur as a friend. Interestingly I remember that whenever something unexplained happened in our home, we all said it was our ghost, Ellsworth, who did it!!! The power of imagination was honored by my mother.

   Reply to Linda

2. It was a bright sunny day. The curtains were gently blowing in the wind. Mamma had just finished shelling a big bowl of peas and was going to put them in the refrigerator. Unbeknownst to her, the cat had slipped into the refrigerator when she last opened it. When she opened the door, the cat leapt out with a loud howl. Mamma dropped the bowl and peas went everywhere. I laughed as hard as I could and said, “Do it again mamma, do it again!” She did NOT do it again and I got to help pick up

   Reply to Nancy Sapp

3. My earliest memory was a birthday party where I received a blue and silver tricycle. A late summer picnic in a relative’s backyard in Michigan. I tried on my new trike and liked it very much. The next thing the adults knew, I was pedaling down the sidewalk at a fierce pace for a four year old. I was going somewhere; my intent was clear, even though destination was still unknown. My parents ran to the sidewalk and had to chase after me. I was moving!

   Reply to dr jeanne powell

4. I know this is far-fetched and impossible to corroborate, but for my earliest memory I’m getting a vision of standing in line and waiting to be born. I vaguely remember peering down at the world below and being given a choice to come down and live life again with the hope that I could prove myself worthy of heaven making another attempt to live a righteous life. That’s when I took a leap of faith and jumped down a dark chute and that’s when my dream world became a reality.

   Reply to Milt Haynes

   1. BRAVO!!!!!!

      Reply to Susan

5. I remember sitting on the couch in the living room with my little sister, watching my mom come into the house with my newborn baby brother and wanting her attention. But she had to go to bed because she had come home from the hospital with a kidney infection. I was 3.

   Reply to Laurie F.

6. I was about 5 when an aunt gave me a teddy bear she had just made.
   I called it Bimbo after a popular song of the time was always playing
   on the radio. I still have Bimbo, although a bit moth eaten and bedraggled
   these days.

   Reply to Keith Nolan

7. The first memory of my existence is me standing in a crib babbling, reaching towards the sunlight on a flowered linoleum floor. I saw a little boy and dog running around outside an open door. My noise alerted a woman to come to the crib and lift me out. I pointed to the boy outside. My mom carried me to the (back) door and sat on the top step with me on her lap. Later I found out I was at our house in Savannah, Georgia. The boy was my brother with dog Rowdy in 1941. I was 6 or 7 months old.

   Reply to Idella Goodman

8. My earliest memory is being hungry and hot. My parents, two brothers and sister immigrated to the US in 1956. I was two years old. We lived in a barn where they kept corn grain for the cattle. My Dad found work however we usually went hungry at night. My Dad finally found a house for us and he made enough to feed us. When I hear my stomach grumble I get scared.

   Reply to Janie Alonso

9. My earliest memory is of being sick, stuck in a baby cot , holding to the rails of the bed and crying like hell. I think I was not yet 3 years old!
   My mother told me,( later of course!), that I was very sick with dyphtheria, and she was scared I might harm my throat even more with all that crying. I remember pain and being alone, may be because I had other siblings who had to be kept far from the sick child.
   Not a very pleasant memory.

   Reply to Conceição Brito

10. In 1956 , I remember flying to Miami with my parents.

    Reply to Lou Garfinkle

11. I was born in the Philippines. One of my earliest memories was that I was a bedwetter. So I had to sleep on a mat on the wood floor, The mat was handwoven dried pandanus leaves. I remember I had to be given a bath or take one in the early mornings before going to school. We did not have kindergarten at all. So I went to first grade at age six. The test for acceptance into first grade was being able stretch my right arm above my head and bend that arm to see if I could touch my left ear.

    Reply to Zenaida Estrada

12. Broken arm, age 3. Self explanatory.

    Reply to Lynn Kleopfer

13. My earliest memory was the winter of 1950, when I was three. We had an horrendous snow. Dad helped the neighbors dig out. But, of course, I wanted to play in the snow to make a snowman. I would have been buried as we got 3 feet of snow. So dad made me a snowman and I watched from the dining room window. That is my earliest memory.

    Reply to Pam Jackson

14. When I was about one years old, my family lived in the downstairs apartment in my grandmother’s house. Since we were all family, the apartment doors were left open. My mother was making lunch and told me to call grandma to come eat. I toddled to the bottom of the stairs and called. Then, I thought, “I can crawl up the stairs and get grandma!” So I started crawling up the stairs. My grandmother then rushed down the stairs, scooped me up, and said I should never climb the stairs alone.

    Reply to Carol P.

15. My earliest memory, at about age 3, is seeing the Ohio River flood into Parkersburg, West Virginia. I remember seeing a small boat being rowed out from a garage into the street.

    Reply to Sam Bunge

16. My earliest memory was being placed in a car seat by my Father very early in the morning and being driven to a local bakery where he purchased fresh baked pastries for breakfast that morning. He drove a green 1953 Mercury Station Wagon. I remember the dark green color and faux wood paneling .

    Reply to Donato Nieman

17. Sitting on a park bench, my mother is holding me to her chest. I nuzzle in her soft corduroy jacket. I clasp something round and hard that years later, I discover is a wooden cherry on her lapel pin.

    Reply to Elena Brunn

18. This isn’t a complete memory, and I have been told it isn’t possible, but I remember my father carrying me as an infant to the babysitter through an alley which connected our houses. I remember his grey uniform which he wore to work.

    A more formed memory was insisting my parents hold my imaginary friend’s hand too when we crossed the street. I still see her clearly and remember her name.

    Reply to Cleta Bradwell

    1. Love this story! what was your imaginary friend’s name?

       Reply to Virge

       1. Hi Virge. Just logged in again and have thoroughly enjoyed reading such wonderful memories. My “friend’s” name was Wardia. I am guessing at the spelling here. Wow, I guess she was my Ward, huh? (insert smiley face here)

       2. thank you !!

    2. I am fascinated by the stories of imaginary friends. There are so many and nobody pays enough attention to them. Are they real? what did your imaginary friend look like? did he/she talk back to you or just listened? Amazing!

       Reply to Conceição Brito - Portugal

       1. Hi There. I remember “Wardia” being in a double breasted dress coat, I cannot remember what kind of shoes, but turned down anklet socks with a ruffled trim. I do not recall her talking. I often wonder now if childhood imaginary friends were guardian angels.

19. My earliest memory was when I was 3 and my mother came home from a 5 day hospital stay with a baby boy. I was so happy to see her.

    Reply to Jean

20. The current medical situation in Gaza brought back a memory , pushed back,perhaps, of the polio epidemic of the mid 50’s. We were 9, 7 & 5 and had earlier that spring received the 1st polio shots. We returned late summer from a week’s vacation in New Hampshire to find that two children in our veterans housing units had contacted polio with one child passing. I remember the fear and my thoughts go to Gaza and the families there.

    Reply to Carol Swanson

21. As a young child, I was on a lower level of an apartment building. I was trying to find my way by stairs to our apartment, but I realized as I climbed, that every floor had the same layout. How would I know which floor our apartment was on? This may have been at 514 Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn, New York, in the early 1940s. Somehow I must have found the right floor because here I am, at Leisure World of Md, at age 86!

    Reply to Ruth Gutstein

22. My very first day in kindegarten. I arrived early w/my mother. I was wearing a fav blue checked dress. When arrived, the teacher met us at the door. She introduced herself and invited me in. She was telling my mother that I should go in and find my name and have a seat. Before she could finish the sentence, I had already found my seat asnd sat down with my hands folded on the desk. I then waved bye to mom.

    Reply to VivianL Presley

23. I have a misty memory of being in a baby carriage, being pushed down our Brooklyn street by my mother, and feeling gentle rain dotting my face. I must have been about 2 years old, and I remember seeing the gray sky, enjoying the rain, and trying to catch a few drops on my tongue. To me it was a beautiful, enjoyable moment. This was back in 1952.

    Reply to Rose Marie Wilson

24. While I do have a sweetly fuzzy memory of being carried as a baby – maybe 9 months old – the first complete memory I was about 2. I had wakened in my crib just about dawn. I already knew better than to call my mom to get me out, so I stood in the crib and carefully folded my blanket and hung it over the railing, as she always did. Then I looked out the window at the brightening day and watched the birds. Yeah, I was a really early bloomer! ;-)

    Reply to Sylvia W