re: What is the earliest memory you can recall?

Mine is from when I was 5 years old and me and a buddy were throwing rocks over a batting cage. He picked up a pretty large rock, relatively speaking, and attempted to throw it over. It bounced off the batting cage and hit me in the head. It made a large gash and I had blood running down my arms. I went to my mom and she thought I spilled a strawberry snowball on myself.

When I was three, I had to have a ruptured eardrum surgically repaired. I remember lying in the recovery room and my mom's friend Paula brought me one of these:


I remember thinking how strange it was that I got a present for being in the hospital.

It seems to be the earliest memory that is vivid. Everything else is flashes of moments with my family and whatnot.

When I was around 2 and living in Pasadena, TX my parents would take me to the San Jacinto Battleground and they would grill the usual burgers and hotdogs. What really stands out is going to the top of the San Jacinto Monument (over 500 ft.) and I was able to stick my head out of the window of the monument and see the people walking around below looking like ants, and also going aboard the USS Texas.

When I was four, we went to an Indian reservation and I recall an old Indian grabbing a rattlesnake then stretching it out so that we could pass our hand on it. And while posing for photos with some Indians, an Indian boy, may have been a teen, held my hand and when my aunt said "Smile" before taking the picture, the Indian squeezed my hand so hard I started to cry. I tried jerking my hand away but that fricker held it firmly. I have the picture of me crying somewhere packed away.

quote:

---

I was thinking about this the other day. I have a very specific memory of when I was 3 rocking backwards on an old wood rocking chair in my new house at the time in carmel acres in Central peeking through the holes in the stitching pattern on the back laughing with my father who was joking around with me. Most people I would think remember preschool or kindergarten because of the thought processes of learning and repetition. I remember my pre-k class at Brownsfield Baptist in Baker writing my name (I also won a bible for reciting 26 bible verses for each letter of the alphabet at the end of the year) and vividly a bunch of Kindergarten memories at Tanglewood in central. My first kiss was a blonde girl named Lacey in the roots of a huge tree in the playground. I'm curious to see what you all have as your very first memory you can recall and the first real impact memories you had. At what age do most people start being able to recall memories from? I also have this memory of sleeping in my bedroom with a humidifier but I don't know how old I was. I think it's before the 3 year old memory I have. ETA: This doesn't mean if you remeber specific pictures or video of you because those can be mistaken as actual memories

---

the moment I was born

Hurricane Betsy. I remember watching my tri-cycle get blown down the road.

I was around 4 when the first moon landing happened and remember that pretty well.

Hurricane Camille was a month later and I have very clear memories of being stuck in a Kroger store with my mom when it hit . Back in those days you just didn't get the advanced warnings that you do today. It made an impression on me because it was the first time that I can remember being truly in fear of my life .

The thing I remember most was opening the front door at my house and seeing a guy in a military uniform and my mother hugging and kissing on him...

Turns out it was my uncle, mom's brother, returning from Vietnam... They knew he was coming home, but didn't know when... I was 4 at the time...

Grandparents had a house on the beach in Waveland before Camille, I distinctly remember a lot about it before it was destroyed...I was 4 at the time as well..

The smell off creosote pilings, to this day,, reminds me of that house...

It is a very, very early memory, but I can remember riding to the drive in with my dad and leaving with my mom. It was all a blur...

My earliest memory is from when I was about 3. I guess it was the first time I became "aware".

I was walking in the middle of the gravel road in front of our house in Mamou.

Lucky for me there wasn't much traffic, I guess.

LC