First memories

My earliest memory is when we moved house. I was 30 months old. My grandmother and I were in the back of the furniture removals lorry when the furniture shifted and she was banging and screaming to let the driver know what was happening. I remember how dark it was.

Both DDs have early recall. DD2 built a snowman with her 16 year old brother when she was 19 months old. She remembers how sad she was when it had melted the following day.

I think I remember lying watching the sun through the leaves of the overhead trees as I was pushed down a country lane in my pram... but as my mum was such a fantastic story teller about our early years and we have so many childhood photos it's not easy to know if any of the memories are true

My first memory is the coronation in 1953 so I can date that exactly. I was 2 years 9 months 26 days old.

I remember when my sister was born; I was nearly 3 then. I was lifted out of my bed in the night and taken to the home of an old lady we called Auntie Grace. I slept the rest of the night on a chair that folded down flat to make a bed and I still have a picture in my head of that chair. I can also picture sitting in a little seat across the top of the pram and being excited because I was so high up I could see myself in the hallway mirror!

I remember being in my pram, tucked up and warm. I could see my mother pushing the pram. It was raining and I listened to the raindrops drumming on the pram hood. Behind my mother I could see a huge gas holder. From this I later realised it meant that we were going home after visiting my grandma. I was about 14 months old at the time as I went to live with grandma at 15 months for the next two years while mum did "war work" . I have lots of memories of living with grandma. Being bathed in front of the fire in a large enamel bowl, having bread and milk for breakfast (she called it "pobs".)

My first memory is from when I was 3 yrs old. I was sitting on the floor and my mother came in with a bottle of milk from the doorstep. "Look, she said, "the bottle's wearing a top hat". This was a tower of snow on top of the bottle. It was winter 1947 which became noted as one of the most severe on record.

My first memory was when I was no older than two, I was in my cot beside my parents' bed .I could not sit up in my cot and the covers were not covering me properly so I was crying.

I remember my brother throwing my dummy on the fire. I remember being cosy in my big pram, age around 2. I remember a lot of things and have photos.

I remember things but especially the feel of things.
I can remember the feel of my pram cover which was navy blue and kind of plasticised and I can remember the feel of some toy bricks I had aged about 2. They had pictures on each side that you had to match up. They felt smooth.

Yes, absolutely Unfortunately, I have had depression since I was a teen. Between 1988-90 I have almost no memory as I had post natal depression on top of the usual. Tough time, thank goodness for my OH x

My earliest dateable memory is crossing the tram tracks
at Bispham to get to the beach. I was 22 months at the time. All other early memories are undatable.

It’s very odd because friends say I’ve a good memory, but of my early years, I remember little to nothing. I have no memory of living in Harrogate until I was 5, then only stories of a couple of dangerous situations when I was 5 up here in Durham. I have a few memorable occasions, but
when I really start to remember is around sitting my 11+ and after that is clear as a bell.

My first memory is sitting on a swing in our garden and my older sister feeding me earth from a trowel. I remember thinking it was oddly crunchy. I was two, my sister three and a half.

I distinctly remember sitting on my mother's lap in the sidecar to my father's motorbike. When I mentioned it to mum, after dad had died, she blanched. The only time I was in the sidecar was when she was heavily pregnant (with me), and dad got rid of the bike before I was born.

Probably from when I was about 2/3. I have very clear memories at 4 years.

I have memories from the age of two, but only of extraordinary events. From four or thereabouts I can recall more, and remember ordinary things.

I believe it is quite common that neither children nor adults remember things from times when they were unhappy. We do all tend to forgot those, surely?

I think vivid memories are the strongest, possibly - for obvious evolutionary reasons - those involving sheer survival.

My own first coherent memory comes from a bombing in WW2. I could not have been more than two. I recall the moment the sound of the flying bomb stopped, being carried downstairs at speed, the night in the shelter wrapped in my mother's blue fake fur coat, the man sat opposite twinkling at me - and coming out into shocking brilliant sunlight in the morning because half the narrow, normally dark, street was gone.

It breaks my heart to imagine the first ineradicable memories of contemporary children in warzones everywhere that are far more personal and cruel than that.

I must have been quite young when I watched Andy Pandy for the first time - we were staying with my grandparents, we didn't have a tv. I remember being upset when it finished and Auntie Rose (my godmother) who was watching with me said Andy would be back next week. It must have been a Tuesday because Auntie Rose came every Tuesday afternoon to see my grandparents. It was always tea-cakes (probably Rington's) with a cup of tea when she came.

I remember standing up in my pram. I suppose I was about two, or even three. I was the youngest child, and my mother liked to have the pram to put shopping on the tray underneath, even though I was really too old for it.

I remember running up the front door because someone was knocking on it. The knob and lock were well above my head. Mam opened the door and a man was there with a big box.

I asked my mam about it when I was older. She said I was about 18 months old when that happened. She remembers it because there had been a massive argument between her and my dad about it. They were very poor and she'd been saving a bit each week for months because she knew she'd have to buy a bed for me. One day, without her knowledge, Dad had opened the door to a salesman who sold encyclopedias and has fallen (in her opinion) for the line. He used the money to pay for a set as (in his opinion) education was the most important thing for a poor child to have. So I spent the next couple of years continuing to share my sister's bed but, as we grew older, we really loved the encyclopedias so in a way both my parents were right. The daft thing is that even after mam got me a bed, me and my sister would still often sleep together especially in winter when the ice formed on the inside of the windows lol.

I actually have a memory from
When I was about 9 months old. I was sitting up in my large praam on my aunties 3rd floor balcony watching the children playing on the street below. I know I was 9 months as it was when I was staying there on holiday - other memories was when I was about 3 years and had chickenpox

My first memory I think I was about 3 and standing in my grandparents backyard. I’m holding a little child’s suitcase as every year they took me to see my grandmas sister who lived in the North East. This involved a long journey on a steam train. Very exciting times.
The other memory I have is of when my little brother was born.He was a home birth and I was nearly 4. I recall standing at the bottom of the stairs again with my grandma not realising what was happening really until we went up to see them both after he was delivered. Funnily enough I don’t remember where my dad was / probably gone to work!

I have a clear picture of a pair of hands which seem to come from a long way back. I kid myself it was the midwife who delivered me.

But I definitely have lots of memories from before 4 years old because they involve the house, the neighbours and neighbourhood we moved out of when I was 4. My sister was 2 and has no ,memories of that house at all, not even of the earlier das in the new house. Thank heavens for photos.

My first memories : I was in my pram, very uncomfortable as the reins were too tight when my sister came along and smacked my face ! Probably nearing 2 years. ! One Christmas at about 4 years poking Dads eye so much so he had to go to the eye hospital ! And a nicer one at about 4 years seeing Perry Como on tv singing Magic Moments (14 inch black and white tv). All in the early 1950s.

I was about 18 months old and I was woken up by my grandfather putting a toy dog onto my bed. Last time I saw that poor dog he was minus one ear and most of his fur was worn away. 75 years later I think he's still packed away in a box in the garage.

My next memory is when I was 2 or 3 and was chased by a bantam cockerel. It seem the size of an Andean Condor to me!