I was probably 3, i remember walking up to my great grandpa, who was seated, and putting my hands on his knees. My mom asking me if I knew who he was and i was like “yup, that’s grandpa Jim”.
My earliest really solid memory was getting our first dog when I was about 3-4 years old. I remember odd bits and pieces from before then, but that’s probably the earliest thing I can conjur up in any significant detail. Things before that are just kind of brief flashes and glimpses with no real context, glimpses of preschool, Christmas, playing with different toys, etc. but I remember the days leading up to bringing her home very well, my mom finding a classified ad in the newspaper, she was advertised as a chocolate lab (she was white and gold, and maybe there was lab in her mix somewhere but that wouldn’t have been my first guess, didn’t matter once we met her, she meshed right into our family like she’d always been part of it)
Interestingly it’s also my sister’s earliest memory, she would have been about 2, so definitely a very important moment in both of our lives.
I remember being in the bathroom with my aunt when I was a little shy of turning 4.
She had been staying with us to help my mom with the kids, but had to leave the country as her temporary visa was expiring. I had grown quite attached to her, and the morning she left, she took pity on me and let me follow her around everywhere. Even into the bathroom. I also remember being at the airport and watching her plane take off. But my mom said it took weeks for me to accept that she was really gone and I kept looking for her around the apartment. I don’t remember that part.
Today, she lives a few hours away from me at nursing home. I plan to visit her around the new year.
I remember my mom sitting at the piano, feeling awe, and telling her she must be a zillion years old
It might be a false memory because how tf would I know the word “zillion” at that age
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I can remember learning to see in three dimensions - that what I was seeing was objects in space rather than simply different colored patches on a flat background. I think it was a big mistake because my vision has always been shit. Something clicked before it should have.
I was in my crib, holding the spindles and looking between them at the room around me.
I was 2.5 years old.
Can recall with precise detail where I was, with who, on which situation and even what clothing everyone, including me, was wearing.
An added note:
Memory development is tied with the development of language capabilities. This means the earlier one becomes capable of speech, the earlier conscious memories start to set.
I have a few memories that could be it, but they have no timestamps. I don’t know how early they are. Could be me sitting on potty in living room in the doorway, looking at TV where my dad was reading something on Telext of channel 1 (recognizable by the orange bar on top).
It’s the same for me. I have relatively early memories, I even know I was very little, but I don’t know which was when exactly, so I cannot pinpoint my earliest.
Laying in a crib crying while there was a full moon. I legit can’t tell if it was a lucid dream.
A friend of mine has what we are pretty sure is a legitimate cradle memory. When he was born his skull was asymmetrical. Enough that he wore some kind of a head brace in the cradle (it must have worked because he was a model for a number of years lol). I was there when he told his mother about it (assuming it was a dream or something) and she basically confirmed the memory and that they had never told him about it assuming he wouldn’t remember.
Eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by a window when I was 2 years old. I have a few memories from when I was two.
I have handful of memories when I was probably 4 years old. Not sure which one was the earliest but my favorite one is my grandpa and I walking to the beach and passing by a wall of little white flowers that smelled really nice. I wish I knew what those flowers were.
Earliest I can date is reading a newspaper about a significant event when I was not quite 4. I remember having to ask my mother for help with some of the words. I think I have earlier memories than that - like my mother teaching me to read, but I can’t tie them to a specific time.
I remember walking around in the backyard during a party my parents were having. I couldn’t have been more than 3, since I had no siblings yet. It’s a super vague, and weird memory of basically nothing but one that has stuck with me since as long as I can remember.
Earliest one I can actually put a date on is my first day of kindergarten. I remember the other kids doing some sort of crafting project outside. Other memories may or may not be earlier, hard to tell.
My first conscious memory is of me gaining consciousness at age 3 or so. Everything before that are visual or tactile memories that are difficult to describe.
Anyway, when I had children myself, I suddenly remembered a lot more of those. Things that I never knew that I remembered somehow got recalled by watching my own child do the same things. So at age 40 I vividly and weirdly remembered what it’s like to be standing in a crib, holding and twisting the bannisters.
Tactile memories are weird. I’ve always enjoyed coming to my grandparents house later in life, because of the way the handles on the cupboards feel just the way they’re supposed to.
