Comments on: Open Thread: Your Earliest Memory

By: Conceição Brito - Portugal

Conceição Brito - Portugal — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:25:53 +0000

In reply to Cleta Bradwell. 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!

By: Conceição Brito

Conceição Brito — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:20:03 +0000

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.

By: Lou Garfinkle

Lou Garfinkle — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 01:38:16 +0000

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

By: Zenaida Estrada

Zenaida Estrada — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 19:37:26 +0000

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.

By: Lynn Kleopfer

Lynn Kleopfer — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 19:15:17 +0000

Broken arm, age 3. Self explanatory.

By: Pam Jackson

Pam Jackson — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:55:48 +0000

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.

By: Carol P.

Carol P. — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:54:59 +0000

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.

By: Sam Bunge

Sam Bunge — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:11:05 +0000

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.

By: Donato Nieman

Donato Nieman — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:16:53 +0000

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 .

By: Elena Brunn

Elena Brunn — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 14:23:27 +0000

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.

By: Virge

Virge — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:48:24 +0000

In reply to Cleta Bradwell. Love this story! what was your imaginary friend's name?

By: Cleta Bradwell

Cleta Bradwell — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 13:25:31 +0000

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.

By: Jean

Jean — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:29:37 +0000

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.

By: Carol Swanson

Carol Swanson — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 04:55:23 +0000

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.

By: Ruth Gutstein

Ruth Gutstein — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 02:47:42 +0000

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!

By: VivianL Presley

VivianL Presley — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 02:20:35 +0000

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.

By: Rose Marie Wilson

Rose Marie Wilson — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 23:51:33 +0000

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.

By: Sylvia W

Sylvia W — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 23:29:29 +0000

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! ;-)