Your earliest memory

I was nearly three when we flew to Egypt to join my father who was stationed there with the RAF. The flight was turbulent and I was scared and air sick. When we got to our flat Dad made us tea with watered down evaporated milk. It would be two years before I tasted fresh milk again. I remember the pretty cups and saucers he served it in were decorated with purple violets.
Nearly all my memories that followed were of the French convent I went to. English was the second language but I got on alright until it was bombed at the start of the revolution and we were evacuated to Port Said.
Scary times for children but we trusted our parents to keep us safe.

I can remember my hands on the table trying to reach something I could just about see and wanted.. must of been 2 at a guess. mum was outside seeing off her sister who had bought the item, I thought it was a drink but it was a liquid polish of some sort.

I think I remember being on a ferry going to the Isle of Wight aged about 3, but I can't be sure whether that was a memory or whether I imagined it. I know we had a holiday there when I was very young. I also remember sitting in one of those big coach type prams which had some type of hatch/partition between the main body of it and the very bottom where a couple of squeaky toys lurked. My brother and I had a big 3 wheeler trike which I also have early memories of.

First birthday, I was in the bath and my paternal GM brought me a teddy.
I’ve still got him!
He did have to go to the Teddy Hospital a while ago, since our last dog chewed half his face off when she was a pup. But they did a great job.

I was sitting on my Nan’s doorstep aged about 4, with a pink nylon sun bonnet on. I nice lady passed by and said, “What a pretty girl in your hat!”. Yes, I said, It’s my birthday. ( a lie).
I went indoors and 30 mins later there was a knock at the door. “ I bought some sweets for the little girl whose birthday it is!”
My Mum explained it wasn’t, but the lady left the sweets for me anyway. I ran and hid upstairs!

I was 18 months old and we were living with my grandparents. I was in bed one night and Grandad came home and brought me a fluffy toy dog, which he put in the bed with me. I had that dog for many years.

I remember travelling to Ireland for my granddad’s funeral. It was 1943 and I was nearly 3. We were in a ship called Princess Maud. Back then there were no stabilisers and the crossing was very rough. I remember a wave sweeping onto the deck and making us wet. It was very crowded inside the boat, where lots of people were unwell, but because of the rough weather my mother took us inside. It was a horrible journey that I’ll never forget. Soon after that wartime episode the boats from Holyhead making that crossing all had stabilisers.

I recall my 3rd birthdayjj.j My uncle Jim had sent me a card. I remember opening it up nd seeing a picture of an elephant posting a letter in a post box. At that point I tore the card in half. No idea why I did that but I did get very upset.

My mum taking me to a bedroom in a house and being presented to an old man in bed. He held out a Fry's chocolate cream bar for me. I don't recall taking it, I felt frightened.
The old man was my mum's father and he was dying. I must have been about two years old.

Going next door to watch the Woodenttops on my elderly neighbours TV (we didnt have a TV) I was 3 years old

Not my earliest memory but one of my fondest was the day I first met my grandmother, aged 4. There was a family rift (which I wont go into) so I was taken to see her by an aunt in an attempt to heal the breach.

She had not believed my aunt when told I could read so my gran bought an easy reader book - one of those where the words and illustrations go across both pages. She promised me a cream cake if I could read it. I more or less read the entire story right off, only needing a bit of help with the longer words. My grandmother was amazed I could "do sentences". Of course I enjoyed the cream cake but only ate half of it as it was too much. I took the remainder home in a brown paper bag.

Later I became a librarian and the book called "Where the wild things are" was in the children's section of my library. Its about a little boy who has a nightmare of wandering into the woods and meeting all kinds of ferocious creatures. Its a classic and still available,

friendlygingercat in the 1970's I belonged to a group called Cheshire Books for Children. Your account of reading Where The Wild Things Are
brought back memories for me.
Cheshire Books used to invite the authors of children's books to speak to the group. One such author was Maurice Sendak who as you know wrote Where The Wild Things Are.
As a family we already had the book,which was loved by my two children.
I used to read to pre school children on Friday mornings at our local library.

My earliest memory, and I have a very clear picture although I must have been very young in a cot, a door opening to let light into the room, and a voice, obviously Mum, saying 'come out, you'll wake the baby'. I have a brother who is four years older and it must have been him.

My earliest memory is being chased across the orchard by granny’s gander, I was about 4 and being eyeball to eyeball to an agressive gander was terrifying.

When I was 3, mum, dad and I went to view a house. As we started up the stairs, the lady owner told me to stay downstairs.
I remember my parents disappearing up the stairs and it seemed so long until they came back down.

Children didn’t question or create a fuss in those days. Just did as I was told.

I was two and my nine year old sister, who was very jealous of me, told me to show her friend how I could jump down the stairs, so I did - 12 steps! Mum said my siren suit, made out of an old Blanket, saved me.

I was about 2 and a half, and had to go to big school with my mum who was a teacher. I remember being given nice new plasticine on a board at the start of the school year. The older children made clever animals, mine just all ended up in a big brown ball looking like poo. I cried so much and probably threw a fit.

My earliest memory is coming downstairs and seeing a beautiful white “bouncy” coach built dolls pram with a pink pillow and eiderdown and a dolly asleep. I was so excited. I can then remember pushing this pram, my pride and joy to my new house sometime after the first memory. I would have been 3 years old

Moving home, from a flat to a proper house, when I was about two and a half. I was worried that my mother would forget my lovely red coat in all the fuss, and was so relieved when she put it on me and buttoned it up. I remember the removal men coming in through the front door of our new house with the sofa, and my mother calling me to sit on the stairs out of the way.

I'm 60 now and vividly remember being 5, lying on the living room floor, playing with my huge German She[pherd, Rex.

''Two sweets for you, one for me.'' Snuggled into his beautiful, thick fur and warm body. Kissing his gorgeous face.

I absolutely worshipped him, and he knew it!

I was 2 years and 9 months when I became a big sister. I'd been sleeping at Granny's house, round the corner, when my aunt came into the room and told me I had a new little sister. Off we went and I was able (with help) to hold this beautiful little baby with a mass of brown curly hair. I gave her my teddy bear though this came back to me when she was given her own.
Next memory isn't so lovely: I was three when, climbing on granny's sofa, I fell and broke my arm. I vividly remember, as we were on the way back from the infirmary, there was a beautiful sunset over the mountains of the Island of Arran.

I have some oddments of memory which I discussed with my parents some years ago to put them in context. When I was 2 years old my appendix ruptured resulting in a stay in hospital, so these memories relate to that time. I remember being tied to my father’s tummy ( in a shawl or blanket) to go on his motorbike. Apparently this was to get me to hospital quickly, and was the GPs idea.. Another memory was being in a large cot and hearing my twin sister crying, but not being with me. Children were not allowed in the ward so she must have been in the waiting room. I also remember being given a toy - a small orange dog. I have no memory of being ill - only memories of the puzzling things. The memories are in vague pictures, perhaps retained due to the oddness of being away from my sister and in a strange place.

I remember taking a ‘five bob’note out of the insurance jug age three, running to the sweetie shop on the corner. Apparently I placed in on the counter top, & said, ‘sweets’!
I would not have known how much that was worth back in the day, or that I was stealing.

I remember standing in a field with cows all around. I had wandered out of our garden. I was about 3. No fear. Dad and two other people came to my rescue. I can still picture it.

I have a lot of memories of my early childhood,but I can't put them in order .
I think that my Grandna and I travelled by steam train to the Welsh Borders . I don't know how we travelled into Wales .
Then I recall staying in a cottage on a hill side without running water nor electricity .
They seemed to be cold even in the summer unless you were in the kitchen by the fire .
There were dozens of old farming magazines and piles of tack .
Our bed seemed to fill up the entire room and there was a potty under the bed.
Grandma said that it was only to pee into .
Going to the loo meant going down the nettle fringed garden path to a privy .
My cousins were fond of ghost stories and scared me when I was a few years older ..
We spent a lot of time in the kitchen .It had old leather horse hair stuffed sofas , but they were always covered in things .
Grandma clucked about the untidiness ,but felt sorry for her sister in law-a painfully thin woman bronzed by the sun and completely worn out by her hard life .
There was a parlour with an upright piano that no one seemed to play and the room smelt musty .