What is your earliest memory?

[Reilly]

Just curious.

[roywhite]

Just curious.

Age 3 -- an ice cream truck came regularly to our neighborhood, and my brother and I would split a popsicle. Moved away from there and not been back, but I can remember the street and the ice cream truck.

[awhom111]

The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

[-jk]

3 1/2. When my little brother came home. Otherwise I can't pin any down.

-jk

[Jarhead]

When I was 3 or 4, and my grandmother took me to my first visit to a movie theater. When the lights went out, and the MGM lion roared on the screen I ran out of the theater screaming. It took me a couple of years to get over that.

[camion]

My first memory: slapping the doctor back.


Actually, I remember being too warm and rolling over from a spot in my mother's bed into my small bed (crib?) which was positioned next to hers. There was a slight drop. I don't know how old I was at the time.

[wilson]

I celebrated my 4th birthday at Disney World, and a boatload of Jungle Cruise patrons sang Happy Birthday to me.

[Reisen]

Around my first birthday when I took my first steps. I remember the color of the washing machine I was staring at, being proud, and wanting someone to see me do it.

Kind of neat, because my 11 month old has just started walking in the past few weeks... You can tell on his face how proud he is every time he does it.

[sagegrouse]

When I was two, my parents and I lived on a farm in Oklahoma while Dad was stationed at Fort Sill (this was a long, long time ago). I remember it vividly because it was the only time in my life I lived on a farm: windmill, cistern, pig pen, guinea hens (not chickens), and Calfie, who nearly perished on the highway when I left the gate open.

[BD80]

My earliest memory is Julius Caesar's quadruple triumph. My parents used to tell stories that I was the first human burned by fire, but I really don't remember that far back.

[moonpie23]

2 or 3...we had been in an automoble accident and i remember the nurse at the hospital told me to sit in a chair while they attended to my injured brother. She turned to me and said, "now, your name is richard, right?"

[aimo]

2 1/2. I had surgery to clear blocked tear ducts. Art Chandler was my doctor! I remember my mom handing me over to him, I was crying and she was crying. I remember them putting the mask over my face with the black balloon attached and telling me to try and blow it up. I remember being really irritated b/c I kept sucking the air back out of the balloon and wanted to tell them that it was impossible as long as they kept the mask on my face, but I fell asleep before I could tell them. I remember waking up later and crying b/c the bandaid on my finger had fallen off.

[devildeac]

I celebrated my 4th birthday at Disney World, and a boatload of Jungle Cruise patrons sang Happy Birthday to me.

You must have been a wonderful child as they sang to you instead of throwing you overboard to the 'gators.

[Tom B.]

Age 2. I have distinct memories of my mother putting me down for my afternoon nap, and of waking up, standing up in the crib, and calling for my mother. The slats and rails on my crib were that wondeful shade of olive green that existed in home decor only in the early/mid 1970s.

[luburch]

Age 3, I believe. "Fighting" with my older sister over a pull-string Bugs Bunny doll on a retaining wall alongside our driveway. I managed to slip off the wall and landed on my head in the driveway. Woke up to a few EMTs surrounding me and a quite nervous mother. You know, if it wasn't for this head injury I would likely be a multi-millionaire genuis. Or so I like to think.

[Bostondevil]

When I was 2 my father went on sabbatical from Duke to the University of Wisconsin. This fact is key in my being able to date my memories. I remember the polar bears at the Milwaukee Zoo and I remember the huge pile of snow left by the plows in the tiny front yard of the townhouse my parents rented in Madison. My older brother, 5 at the time, was able to climb up to the top. My two year old self could not and I remember the frustration of being at the bottom of that snow pile unable to climb higher. I also remember the exact shade of green of my handknit mittens.

[devildeac]

When I was 2 my father went on sabbatical from Duke to the University of Wisconsin. This fact is key in my being able to date my memories. I remember the polar bears at the Milwaukee Zoo and I remember the huge pile of snow left by the plows in the tiny front yard of the townhouse my parents rented in Madison. My older brother, 5 at the time, was able to climb up to the top. My two year old self could not and I remember the frustration of being at the bottom of that snow pile unable to climb higher. I also remember the exact shade of green of my handknit mittens.

I'll bet even back then that Bo didn't do rent-a-player.

[fuse]

I'll bet even back then that Bo didn't do rent-a-player.

Sorely disappointed. I thought for sure devildeac's post here would contain a sparkling memory, or at the very least a beer review from last week. ;-p

[devildeac]

Sorely disappointed. I thought for sure devildeac's post here would contain a sparkling memory, or at the very least a beer review from last week. ;-p

Hey, hey, my beer memories go back much farther than last week.

[Faustus]

Remember my 3rd birthday. Hot summer night birthday dinner in the screened in back porch (on Pinecrest Rd. in Durham). I had the mumps. Couldn't eat any of my chocolate cake (was rather pi$$ed off about it, too). Remember I did have a cold glass of iced tea.

Most of these first childhood memories recorded above, understandably, seem to be significant moments in our early lives (or in a few cases quite traumatic moments). I suspect we all have other, maybe earlier flashes of memory too, but are just too mundane or indistinguishable from other childhood days to stand out with any clarity. For me the comforting thought is my childhood memories are almost all pleasant ones. But I DO remember waiting to get picked up from my first day of kindergarten, and clearly thinking to myself "I'm going to be doing this school thing for a very long time..."