BS: Earliest Childhood Memories

Subject: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 01:27 PM

On a different thread there was reference to regression by hypnosis to early childhood memories.

That made me wonder what Mudcatters would report. What are your early memories? What is your earliest memory?

It is my contention that we all remember farther back than we think we do. Sometimes we think of one incident as having taken place later in our lives- and then a little totting up makes that assumption absurd. For instance, my grandfather, tall, lean, quiet, a little scary to the older kids in my family liked me and I liked him. I remember repeatedly running past him where he was lying on the sofa, evading his grabbing at me. It was a lot of fun. However, I thought it had happened in this one house. When I finally examined the memory I knew that was silly - in that house I was 13 and 14 years old! No way was I running around like that. I still don't know how old I was or in which house I played with him but I know it was earlier than my memory had said.

In my own case, the earliest memory that I am sure of was when I was 8 months old. The reason I know my age is because it was the month and year that my family left North Dakota and migrated to Oregon.

I have two memories of the trip: One was of being passed back and forth over the back of the front seat. I remember the boniness of the kids' legs in the back seat and I remember how tired I was. I don't remember crying but I have no doubt but that I did.

The other memory of the trip that I have was of one night when the family slept on the ground (It was August) instead of the usual tourist cabin. I remember that one kid- I don't remember if I knew her name but I expect I did - was left asleep in the car and when she woke all alone she cried. I also remember the car was pointed to my right.

The next early memory I have is of an incident when I was 11 months old. Possibly younger- we moved from there when I was 11 months old.

Does anyone want to share early memories?

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: gnu
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 01:58 PM

I recall walking to a street corner with my brother who was on his way to school. I had to return to Mum and I was very upset. I was just over a year old.

Now, this one is truely hard to believe, even for me at this stage of my life.

Dad was RCAF and stationed in Germany. In France, there was a faction of what would now be called terrorists. Their flag was a white flag. In Paris, one diaper was left and I peed. Mum was holding it out the car window to dry it and the French secret service (or military, or whatever... not police because there was a machine gun involved) pulled us over.

Mum tried to talk with these guys and explain... but drapeau is the Acadian word for diaper (and for flag, of course). They became rather agitated. I expect the following memory was induced by the fact that Mum was agitated and scared. I clearly remember seeing a guy look thru the rear window with his machine gun leading the way.

According to Mum, at that point, he began to laugh... and so did all the others who came to have a look. That was when Mum and Dad were able to show them Canuck passports, military ID... problem solved.

I only remember that guy with the machine gun. Like a snapshot... but it has faded over time. I was about 5 months old.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 02:14 PM

There you go, gnu. Thanks. Embedded memories seem to stem from discomfort of some kind, whether fear or frustration or other extreme emotion.

I find the subject fascinating.

What is your next memory?

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 02:35 PM

Because we moved continuously throughout my childhood, I have very few reference points to hang memories on.

I have 'snapshots' that my mother told me were when I about 2½ or 3, but no memories before 2+ that I can identify. I remember going to San Diego by train in summer 1942 when I was barely 3 and going to the zoo there with my grandfather. And I remember a train trip to Kansas City which must have been the Fall/Winter before where a soldier (1941-42, remember) did a trick of smoking a cigarette down a ways, then holding the lit cigarette with the tip of his tongue and folding it back inside his mouth! That is the earliest documented time I can identify. I have photos of many of the places I remember from travels...both before & after my memories. Planning to scan and organize a bunch of then this year......if I don't forget....

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 05:50 PM

Ah, Bill, I credit the fact that my family moved fairly frequently with helping me place where a certain incident took place and how old I was at that time.

One thing I have never brought into my conscious mind was when my youngest brother was born. I was almost two years old and since I remember a good many things from before then I know that somewhere in there is that memory. But so far, nothing.

I do remember when my mother was pregnant with him. It was at church and I couldn't sit on her lap- there was no room for me, and I had to sit beside her in the pew. This would have been in the summertime (He was born in August) before I turned two in November.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Acorn4
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 05:59 PM

Throwing up in an old "sit up and beg" Ford Popular.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:05 PM

The taste of my old baby scooter. Probably lead-based paint, which would explain a lot. Also a fake Christmas tree put up to celebrate my first Christmas (I would have been 8 to 10 months old for these things).

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:12 PM

I was about 18 months old -- I might have to check with my mother again. She doesn't believe I remember it, but can't explain it any other way.

My grandfather was building their new house (so it can be dated) -- there was only a foundation at that point, but there were open backed stairs without any handrails. I went down to retrieve a ball, but had trouble getting back up the stairs -- because of the open backs on the stairs.

Took me many years to overcome my fear of open backed stairs -- and I still (at age 60) have a fear of heights. (Can't get past the third rung of a ladder.) Probably all dates back to this experience.

I have some other very clear memories at age 3 and 4, dated by school (at age 3, a crafts class at Pershing School; 4-year-old kindergarten the next year) and where I was living (47th St. in West Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Wait a minute, I remember a bit about the previous place we lived, too, so that would be somewhere in between the 18 months and 3 years old.

Linn

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Paul Burke
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:34 PM

Standing at a window, wondering why she wasn't here.

She was giving birth to my younger brother, 18 months younger than me.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: danensis
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:36 PM

I was six months old and being bathed in the stone sink at my grandparent's place up on the north york moors. I reached out and grabbed the soap, and stuck it in my mouth. Yecch!

John

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:38 PM

That's been my experience too, Linn. Each memory triggers another.

Rap, the taste of a scooter? What does it taste like? :)

Reminds me of when I saw two men putting up the sound system cords for their gig that night. They were just out of my sight when I heard the one guy say, in wonderment: I can feel the sound coming through the wire.

And the other disembodied voice says, throatily: How's it feel?

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: gnu
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:38 PM

Ebbie... as per your question... we left Germany when I was three. Prior to that...

I remember that a bird fell from a wire between the apartments. A lass picked it up and I said we should take it back to Mrs. Shultz because it was her wire it fell from. A prosession of small children solemnly did so up a number of narrow staircases. She praised us and fed us chocolate cake.

It seems these memories were instilled in my brain because of their `trauma`... each had to deal with some anxiety.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: kendall
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 06:54 PM

Did we not have a similar thread some time ago on this?
I remember going to a party with my Father and coming home with my mother. No one got it.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: maeve
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 07:04 PM

Getting it and commenting are not always intertwined, Kendall.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: kendall
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 07:05 PM

You speak for the modest, not Spaw or others of his ilk!

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 07:08 PM

I didn't find a previous thread on the subject; I probably didn't use the correct keyword(s).

Kendall, I'm dense - I still don't get it. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: maeve
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 07:08 PM

Can I help it if they missed the joke?

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 07:12 PM

Good one Kendall !!

I remember being in Sick Children's Hospital Toronto when I was 2 .... actually can feel the extreme pain to this day ... I had major surgery to correct a club foot.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: kendall
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 07:34 PM

I also remember my Mother bathing me in a washtub by the stove. I held up my foot to be toweled dry, then she said, "Now the other foot" and I put the first one back in the water. She was not amused.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 08:25 PM

That's funny, Kendall. Always an obedient child, eh?

Reminds me of when I and my sister in law were checking our little girls' eyes. I had my niece hold her hand over her eye and pronounced her vision perfect. Then I said, Now, the other one.

And she clapped her second hand over the other eye.


OK, I get the joke- after I got a PM! Good one.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 08:48 PM

When I was 2 (in 1940), we lived in Florida for a while. (That was where my brother was born.) There was a grapefruit tree in our yard, and grapefruits fell out of it on the ground. My father would throw them up into the tree, and sometimes they didn't come down again. That delighted me.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Rowan
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 09:47 PM

There is at least one earlier thread but I'm sure there is also another, because I recall posting to it, but can't now find it easily.

I may have had earlier ones but they coincide with experiences I had over the first few years of my life; this is the earliest I can date relatively securely.

I was on my grandparents' dairy farm at Arawata, in South Gippsland (Oz), with a family group out rabbiting one afternoon. While we were standing on a bit of a hill, someone asked what the time was; the reply was "Nine o'clock." I can distinctly recall that the sun was about a handspan (5-10 degrees) above the horizon, at that time.

Later, when I had had some schooling, this memory bothered me, because I knew that the sun at our latitude never (but never!) set any later than 7.30pm, and I wondered how in blazes this memory had come about.

In 1964 I was doing plant ecology and we were all out on an excursion to the mangrove swamps at the top end of Westernport Bay and the topic of daylight saving came into the discussion; its introduction to Victoria was being considered at that time, and it had already been introduced in Tassie. Our lecturer commented "During the war (WWII), we had two hour daylight saving." Instantly, (in less than the time taken to read this paragraph), the memory from the farm went through my head with this as an explanation.

I would have just turned 3, at the very oldest, but could have been younger, although I might not have been out rabbiting at younger than 2.

No trauma was associated, but I obviously had "language" (which I think is an important, if not essential, component of memory) and have often wondered what it was that drove the scene and words into my memory, as I was then far too young to realise the significance of astronomical timing and geometry.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 10:17 PM

As far as having language is concerned, I believe that babies 'have' language long before they can articulate it.

Not only language but *color*. My memory at 11 months involves my standing in a bedroom doorway - to my right is a bed and beyond it a window. In front of me on the floor is a pile of bedcovers; the top cover is green.

Subject: RE: BS: Earliest Childhood Memories
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 10 - 10:48 PM

BTW, I just read that other thread- what fun!