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Your earliest memory

(92 Posts)
Caleo Tue 09-Sept-25 15:06:17

Please let me explain. How old were you when whatever it was happened?

Some people remember events as pictures but not everyone. Do you remember your first memory as a picture in your
mind?

I remember being in my cot and nobody there to cover me up so I was crying. I was two or three years old.

TakeThat7 Tue 09-Sept-25 15:22:48

I remember being four trying to run away turning back. and seeing my Father looming down on me his face so angry I was outside and had gone quite far

Caleo Tue 09-Sept-25 15:26:14

Sorry about the duplicate thread. I wonder if the moderator can delete one of them.

Aldom Tue 09-Sept-25 15:33:46

I was two years old when one summer's evening in 1945 my father came into my bedroom. I remember that I was standing up in my cot.
My father put his officer's cap on my head. He was home from serving in the Royal Navy during WW2.
That was the first time we had seen one another.
A special memory. smile

srn63 Tue 09-Sept-25 15:34:25

Not sure how old I was, I remember sitting on the floor in front of the fire eating a custard cream and my first loose tooth came out!

Oreo Tue 09-Sept-25 15:35:25

I was about 2-3 years old and was delighted with myself for managing to lock my Mum out of the house.😈

Grannybags Tue 09-Sept-25 15:37:26

Oh my fourth birthday four helicopters flew over our garden.

My Dad said it was just for me as it was my birthday and I believed him!

Grannybags Tue 09-Sept-25 15:37:58

On not oh! 🙄

pably15 Tue 09-Sept-25 15:38:11

my earliest memory is playing in our neighbour's garden, I think I was about 3 years old, I was by myself and wearing a pair of trousers with elastic which went under my feet, like ski pants.

midgey Tue 09-Sept-25 15:40:46

My brother and I used to argue about our memories, he won when he said with great certainty he could remember being born!

Grandmabatty Tue 09-Sept-25 15:44:47

I remember being in my cot and crying because there was a face at the window which scared me. However I was too young to communicate that because I hadn't learned to speak. So under two years old

Casdon Tue 09-Sept-25 15:46:01

I remember standing by my younger sister’s pram outside our house, and helping my friend who was a few months older than me climbing on to the wheels and lifting her out, she passed her to me. We didn’t drop her, we just wanted to play with her, but it could have ended very badly. I would have been two, my sister about 8 months.

Eloethan Tue 09-Sept-25 16:09:19

We were living in Clapham, London. I must have been about two and a half. My bedroom was a curtained off section of my parents' room. I remember looking out of the back window and seeing what I thought was a tiger stalking along the back wall. Of course, it must have been a cat.

Clawdy Tue 09-Sept-25 16:13:40

I remember sitting at the table eating a bowl of baked beans with a spoon, and my cousin running in and saying excitedly "It's Christmas Eve!!"

Elusivebutterfly Tue 09-Sept-25 16:21:52

I was two when my brother was born at home. I had to go to the neighbours for breakfast which I thought was odd - you normally visited people later in the day! My father collected me later and a baby had appeared at home.

crazyH Tue 09-Sept-25 16:28:52

Holding my Dad’s hand, while walking to ‘kindergarten’ with a ‘d’ 😂

crazyH Tue 09-Sept-25 16:32:24

Also remember having to hold the door-frame while stepping over the kitchen door ……. 70+ years later, I have to do the same now, with my front door …..

crazyH Tue 09-Sept-25 16:42:38

I think there are 2 similar threads running. Caleo, you could ask GNHQ to remove one.

Babs03 Tue 09-Sept-25 17:27:29

I remember making mud pies in the back garden but nothing more.

MargaretinNorthant Tue 09-Sept-25 17:54:16

I remember being carried from my pram and being put into my highchair. Then mum went to get the shopping or the pram in, and I sat in the half dark and watched the flames reflected in the brass railing of the fire guard, coming from the coal range we had in the kitchen. I was probably about two, as the pram was given to my aunt who had my cousin who was born in the August two years after me, and I was born in the October. The high chair had a set of large coloured beads on a wire across the tray.

Granmarderby10 Tue 09-Sept-25 18:10:42

crazyH what is a ‘d’ ?

Aely Tue 09-Sept-25 18:11:07

I remember lying in my pram, the smell and feel of the shawl wrapped around me and the rocking motion. It is a very brief sensory memory and must have been in my first year.
The first "active" memory I have is having a paddy because my mum wouldn't let me get out of the pram and show the workmen making the pavement at the bottom of our road (a new build council estate) that I could walk. I was sitting in the pram and was strapped in. As an adult I told my parents about it and they reckoned I was just over a year old when that path was finally done.

Moonwatcher1904 Tue 09-Sept-25 18:24:40

When we lived in Stockport I remember going to Picadilly Square in Manchester with my sisters and mum. I recall being in my pram and seeing all the big statues around the square. If I ever go to Manchester it always reminds me of then when I see the statues.

JackyB Tue 09-Sept-25 18:29:03

I've thought about this a lot, listening to the "Rosebud" podcast.

We moved from our home in North London when I was 4 and I have lots of memories from there. I don't know what order they were in. I had always been a good sleeper but my sister, when a baby, cried all night. I remember waking up just the once to see one of my parents (it was dark) lift her out of bed cot.

I do clearly remember sitting in the neighbour's garden when she and our mother were having a cup of tea. Her son Graham who was sitting with us wore a checked shirt - he was a little older than me. My mother was holding my baby sister and I was sitting on the neighbour's lap. I had just learned to undo buttons and was practising on her blouse - I had managed to undo them all before she looked down and saw what I'd been up to! Of course, in those days (1958-9) this was quite scandalous and caused much embarrassment, even though she had a vest and slip on underneath! I like to think the two ladies had a giggle about it too though.

AskAlice Tue 09-Sept-25 18:31:30

I remember waking up one morning in my cot. Looking through the bars of the cot at my parents sleeping in their bed. I was moved to my own room and a "big girl's bed" when I around two and a half, once I was out of nappies (I asked my mum when I was a teenager as it was always a very clear memory and I wanted to know how old I might have been.)