'Going back in time' *What's your oldest memory and how old were you?

We had a discussion at the dinner table tonight about early memories. My oldest has vivid recollections of several situations from the period when he was between 2 and 3 y/o. E.g. About the house where we lived in back then. He mentioned details we never discussed after we'd moved (like the position of a Velux roof window above the stairs). My wife and youngest don't have those memories from an early age. At least that's what they say.

I have early recollections as well. In fact, one I actually can trace back! I remember that I was sitting with my mom in the dining room (south facing). My mom made me wear special sunglasses and told me not to take them off because we were watching an eclipse! That was on Oct 10th, 1959 shortly before noon. I was 17 months old at that time. Shortly after that, we moved to another house. I am certain that we moved shortly after that: I bought the apartment as an investment a few years back and papers show the names and dates of the tenants and owners.

So, how far does your memory go back?

Menno

2.5 years old is my earliest memory probably because it was accompanied by pain. My brother towed me behind his bike in my pedal car, I lost control and crashed in to a 5 barred gate. Tooth came through my gum, remember lots of blood and that's about it.

I fell into the bath with all of my clothes on at my dad’s aunt’s house in Scarborough when I was 2

When I was 3 I fell down the stone steps at the rear of the cottage where I lived - I can still recall this vividly.

Whether this is a totally accurate memory is another matter as I suspect that all of our memories change in subtle and not so subtle ways over the years.

The past doesn't exist so can be changed - either inadvertently or deliberately..............

I can remember quite a few details of our house from when I was 2, playing in the garden and outside the house, as well as falling downstairs quite vividly.

I’m sure I have some vague memories of being born, weird as that sounds. Not sure that is even possible.

My first memory was when I saw the Queen in 1977. I was 4 and she did her Jubilee tour ( I don't think she's been to Stockport since ). I remember exactly where I was stood and waving my plastic flag as she waved from her car.

For me it was chasing chickens around our garden of the house we lived in in Nicosia, Cyprus. this would have been 1960-61, I would have been 2 or 3 at the time.

Oldest I could have been is month or two above 3 due to the house it happened in. As we moved just after my third birthday. Mum says it was well before we moved.

It was sticking a metal comb down the back of a plug socket and being thrown backwards on to my mums Bed. I was playing fixer man.

I can vividly remember the bang and the sparks. Even tho it was the middle of summer I had insisted I wear my rubber wellington boots that day. Mum puts me having them on to me still being here.

My Grandmother was 105 a month or so ago. She is generally in good health and quite lucid. Her theory is that the older you get the longer back you can remember. Her short term memory is not so good now, but she can remember incidents from her early childhood in Egypt in great detail. I think that there is some neurological rationale for this, given that your frontal cortex deteriorates before other parts of your brain (?). I'm probably on thin ice here and I'm no expert but I wonder if anyone else has thought along these lines?

I have trouble remembering what I went upstairs for,never mind childhood memories!

I vividly remember being in hospital and having my tonsils out when I was 5. Going back a bit further I can distinctly remember walking with my Dad to meet mum from her job as a Coop cashier and talking about the big 'lollies' driving along the road. I would've been about 2 and half to 3. I'm not sure I can clearly recollect anything earlier....vague impressions and whatnot but nothing concrete.

There's another psychological theory about memory and how it links to language development. The bones of it are that your ability to recall things is linked to your ability to tell someone else about it. So, for most of us, the theory goes, we can remember things from around the ages of 2 - 3 which corresponds to our ability to talk to others and tell stories about what we have done. This makes some sense to me as I can see parallels between language development and musical development in youngsters (which is my area of expertise).

Can't recall anything from the toddler years, earliest memories are probably from pre-school playgroup age 4.

I have very vague memories of bouncing up and down in a baby bouncer suspended in a door frame. This was in Harrogate and we moved from there when I was just less than two. And to add something quite spooky; about 15 years ago I went back and was able to walk from the centre of Harrogate to where we used to live. I was so amazed I phoned my father in what was quite an emotional call.

I have The memory of pulling a boiling kettle over myself at about 18 months / 2 years old. I do not remember the pain thank god but I do remember my mother panicking and dumping me in a cold bath.
Not the best memory. I also remember visiting my great grand mother, she died in 1982 so I would have been 18 months old.

28th March when I was 2 and 9 months old.

I remember visiting my brother in hospital when he was born.

The memory is just a single image of me looking up at both the bed my mum was in and my brother in what looked like a fish tank on a stand.

I can remember a man working on the floor in my bedroom. Floorboards up, toolbox by his side, me helping passing tools.

I had this memory for many years.

Only when I mentioned it to my mother she cried. She explained the man was my father, I was three years old. It’s the only memory I have of him. He died before I reached four.

on a motor boat on albert park lake, middlesbrough, i was about 4, im 55 now.

Clearly remember cutting my finger on a broken window in the garage and telling my mum it was done on my little yellow plastic spade so I wouldn’t get into trouble. Uh huh! And touching the cooker rings and burning my fingertips. Elf & Safety! Both aged between three and four.

Hard to say, lots of bits and pieces.... probably burying my snoopy soft toy in the garden so I could watch him go round in the washing machine (apparently a process I repeated very frequently)... family christmases... my grandfathers second marriage whilst wearing a one piece with apple motif (me not him)... I am guessing 2 / 3 years of age

Seeing my son grow up brings all this back...spent the day watching star wars... I was probably his age when I first watched at the cinema (Return of the Jedi at least!)

My earliest memory is of starting and driving my dad's new VW Beetle and crashing into my brother, knocking him out of his pram. The whole commotion of my Mum fussing about my baby brother and Dad fussing about the car is seared in my memory. My brother is 3 years younger than me, so I was only 3 and a few months max.

In my pram. A pigeon flew into the raised hood section and flapped around my head, I was around 18 months old....

It was being at home before my first day at nursery. I was playing with some metal cars that were kept in a blue box. I'd guess that would make me about 2? Odd though, really vivid then nothing until I started school a year or so later.

Just over two, remember my brother coming home after hospital delivery.

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Originally Posted by gettinon

Just over two, remember my brother coming home after hospital delivery.

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Similarly, exactly a day short of my third birthday my brother turned up completely out of the blue. I wasn't too keen at the time but I'm slowly getting used to him.

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Originally Posted by Essexman

I can remember a man working on the floor in my bedroom. Floorboards up, toolbox by his side, me helping passing tools.

I had this memory for many years.

Only when I mentioned it to my mother she cried. She explained the man was my father, I was three years old. It’s the only memory I have of him. He died before I reached four.

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That's post of the day for me. Very moving.

Sat in my pedal car in the back garden one hot summer when a huuuuuge snake (well it looked pigging huge to me) slithered underneath. I can't remember what I did but I can tell you the pedal car was red steel tube frame, yellow metal sheet "bonnet", black plastic seat and a lever brake onto the rear right wheel. I was about 3. Strangely I have very few memories, I don't know if I have some sort of inbuilt "sell-by" date thing going on with them and I just stop remembering them after a certain period of time

One of my earliest vivid memories was watching Churchills funeral on TV, I'd only have been three and a half years old at the time. Possibly the reason I remember is because it was the first time I'd been sat in front of a TV and told to watch it, we were invited to a neighbours house as we didn't have a TV of our own.

Playing with the big kids and fell on broken glass at Wimpole Park, Arrington, Cambs. I remember sitting on a rubber sheet on a bench in Royston hospital having my hand stitched up. I was 2 or 3 at the time.

Here's a history lesson if anyone is interested. http://www.armingford.net/arrington/...park_index.htm

Mum & Dad were billeted there after WWII after the US Army Hospital closed. They were later allocated a council house in nearby Croydon Village and were employed at Wimpole Park USAF Hospital until it closed.


Terry

2 or 3 years old

i remember Being run-nover by a Raleigh Chopper bike on the way to the lido - (there were two people on a bloke and his girlfriend - 70s hippie look to them) I remember my mum benig very cross with them

I remember going on holiday to see my cousins - remember their toys but not the plane journey nor the zoo trip

I remember moving house - (just turned 3 years old must have been) and remember the old house well and my old bedroom, the kitchen, living room and some of the furniture. I remember still wearing nappies and taking a huge dump in the morning in one and my dad having to sort it out because my mum wasnt awake yet - (reusable nappies not the disposable ones)

I Remember going to Nursery school and doing 'grand old duke of york' in the playground @ 3 years old- Remember my first day at school 4 years old ...

I reckon at our age now - we will only remember the thoughts that stood out and we 'replayed' to ourselves over the years

1982. I was 2 years old and my Mum crying. I later found out that it was because her sister had passed away from multiple malignant brain tumours. A few other family members on her side have also passed away from cancer. I myself had a malignant brain tumour removed back in 2016 so clearly something that runs in the family.

Same year (1982) early August. I remember being in a hospital. My Dad and I visiting my Mum after my Sister was born. Apparently I was a real nuisance running up and down the hospital corridors haha!

Very interesting to read about the sorts of things people have remembered.

Kapish

My 3rd birthday cake and my brothers wedding (my eldest brother is 18 years my senior) both in 72, I was born in 1969.

I think I was aged two, apparently it was the first night we had moved into our new house after moving to Cambridge and I just remember peering out of the window at the street lights pointing at them and (trying to) talk to my mother about them. My second oldest memory is quite a few months after that.

Aged 3, the snow outside our house in Uddevalla (Norway), playing in it and the pain afterwards from the cold when I was back inside.

R

I was born in Collyhurst flats in Manchester, I remember being bathed in a tin bath in front of the fire, everything in our flat was dark wood very old even for the 60’s, I had very few old toys cast offs Nobody had anything back then, I remember going to my first day at nursery looking at the toys and thinking wow look at all that stuff & the colour.

It was like going from black and white TV to colour for the first time.

I can still see them now castles, trucks play cars all lined up and a flipping sand pit. I’d be about 3.


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Love this thread as it actually made me sit down and have a really good think about what I could truly remember. I realised that often photographs make you think you remember but you dont actually if that makes sense

I have a vivid memory of lying on a bed or cot under a large mosquito net draped from the ceiling in a blue bedroom. My parents tell me this was my bedroom in their house in Bahrain where I was born. They left when I was 11 months old so it can only be from my time as a baby! We discussed whether I’d maybe seen a photo and was remembering that but they don’t have any photos of that house except the pool and roof terrace and the memory is pretty clear in my mind.

I can remember quite a lot from before I was walking, which was at about 1. What my nursery curtains looked like, my cot, the layout of my room, a planter outside the front door where we planted cress seeds, my Mum singing me to sleep, wall sockets and an electric heater, and the associated smell of the latter. My mum was shocked a few years ago when I told her about a memory I had of a man who came to kill cockroaches. It was not long after we moved to that flat and I was 10 months old. He was an extraordinary man - like Count Olaf, if you know that character from film or TV adaptations.

I was an early talker and my memory generally appears to be unusually good, so far...



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The question kept coming up in our house the last few days and I managed to talk to a Harvard psychologist about this (with the risk that I would feel stupid after two sentences...). Let me try to write down what I've heard so far.

The human brain is physically developed in a child's head around 40 - 45 months; let's say 3.5 yrs old. That's why most don't have any problem remembering things from that age on. However, the brain is 'under development' from a certain moment in the womb. Generally is accepted that situations that made a big impression on the person before 3.5 yrs are considered to be stored as memories as well. It's not as if you can't remember things before you're 3.5 y/old. Every parent knows that small children can memorize things, that they learn to speak, that they can remember that the oven door can be hot - a sign that the brain is developing.

Interesting are the situations where we don't put a 'big impression' label on. Currently, the scientists are searching for clues. It looks as if grown people who have no problems associating various situations ('Oh, that reminds me of something that happened to me years ago...") have more early memories of situations we wouldn't label as a big impression. It looks as if there's an associative component as well. The idea is that a memory of seeing a Velux skylight happened closely to something like falling off the stairs. Impressive situations are not always negative off course.

I can ask more if you want to know more.

When re-reading the posting

I can remember crying on the stairs and being comforted by my Nan because my Mum had gone to work.

We moved out of her house when I was two years old so I was obviously younger than that.

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Originally Posted by thieuster

I can ask more if you want to know more.

When re-reading the posting

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Did you forget something at the end here...? Lolz!

Seriously - thanks for your post, which I found really interesting and I’d be interested in hearing more.


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Four years old when the man picked up my dead three year old brother from his bed. I remember it like it was yesterday.

about 3 I suppose, remember the guys laying a tarmac road in our cul-de-sac the smell of the hot bitumen and the dusty chippings.
my mother removing the inevitable tar off my fingers with butter, as I remember.

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Originally Posted by khumzi

Did you forget something at the end here...? Lolz!

Seriously - thanks for your post, which I found really interesting and I’d be interested in hearing more.


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Yes, my memory isn't what it used to be...

What I wanted to write is the fact that when we re-read the postings, a lot of our early memories have to to with something emotional/something that made a big impression on us.
Follow-up on my previous posting about my conversation with a psychologist: she stated that the mind works like wikipedia: we write the original text and we can alter what we've written (our thoughts and the way we look at things / what we remember can change over time). On the other hand, other people are also able to 'write in you Wiki'. Thus leaving the 'title' of the thought/memory complete, but the content can change. This is exactly why it is difficult to use witnesses in court - especially when things happened long ago. Think about convicting war criminals after so many years! How useful is a testimony from a witness?

2 years 1 month, I remember asking where my mother was and be told she had gone to hospital to collect my new sister.

Living in a cottage at Marske by Sea, North Yorks. I can remember my cot in the same room as my elder sisters bed and the floral wallpaper. Probably 1yr old.

Oh and I don't remember mum leaving me outside Charlie Mclain's chemist shop in my pram... he had to ring her to say I'd been there for hours and would she get me!! I must have been asleep.

I can remember my mum asking me to meet her on the beach 'near the steps' on the promenade after infants school. That was a good 3/4 mile walk through the Valley Gardens to the beach. I remember the smells of wild garlic and flowers. Happy days then, with what seemed like endless summers.

I have a memory from being under 1 year old.

It was when my parents were looking to move house and I remember being carried around the house we later bought and moved into. There was a Disney lamp shade with Pluto the dog on it in the room which later became my bedroom which I was fascinated with. The house was empty at the time of the viewing so the lamp shade was still there when we moved in and I still had it 10 years later.

This is the earliest thing I remember and has often freaked me out because I can picture going round the house with it being empty even now. I would have to be under 1 because that is when we moved into that house... Is it possible?

Once older my parents were always uncovering highly bodged aspects to the property - the man who showed us around the house was a builder who'd 'done it up', so of course it was nothing but a rat's nest of problems. My mum still lives there now, 40 years later, and everything has mostly been fixed over the years. I do not have the lampshade anymore :(

Until recently I believed that I could remember being in my pram outside the French windows at our home.
Not long ago I came across a photo of me exactly as above. Now I am not sure if I remember the actual event or seeing the photo at a later date.
The joys of growing old...........