how far back do you remember as a little kid?

[billybek]

Some of my first memories are from when I was between two and three years like lots of others here.
I remember camping at the edge of a farmers field on the way to my grandmas house in Northern Saskatchewan.

[GH85Carrera]

I can remember flying to Hawaii in an unpressurized military transport airplane. We were facing the back of the plane. I would have been 3.5.

I clearly remember the big celebrations when Hawaii became a state. How many of you were living somewhere when it became a state?

[drcoastline]

I am 47. I can remember back to 2 years old. I was born in Long Beach, CA. My parents divorced when I was 2. My mother came back to Wildwood, NJ where her side of my family is from. I do not remember my parents divorcing or the trip to NJ form CA. I recall my mother moving things into the apartment we moved into when we arrived in Wildwood, the yard and the tree in the yard. I also recall meeting the apartment owners son and daughter and playing in the yard as their father helped my uncle carry in some furniture. The kids are my age, they lived in the front apartment. Ben (the son) and I went all through school together and are still friends to this day. There are other memories from that time but I think that is the first because we had just moved to NJ. All other memories are from NJ also but I would guess they came after that day since that would have been one of the first things my mother would have done. I don't remember anything of CA from that time.

[jshape]

Probably about three and half – I have two very distinct memories from that time – one very pleasant and one not:

--Being in our basement rec room while my dad and grandpa paneled it in knotty pine. I was playing with my blocks in the center of the room.

--Our dog having a fit of distemper in our living room and having to be captured in a blanket and taken away. This was obviously very traumatic for everybody in the family. That’s my only memory of that dog.

My dad tells me that both events were in 1949 and that makes me three at the time.

[tabs]

Originally Posted by RPKESQ

I can remeber the bedroom of the house we moved from when I was 2. I can still tell you the wall colors, layout, the details of my crib and the color of my blanket.

Thats because you still live in that room...and nothing has changed.

[tabs]

How old are you when you learn to walk...I can remember holding on to my Mom's hand and putting one foot in front of the other (white baby shoes) and being amazed that I was able to do that..Putting that into the time line that puts it before I was 16 months old, because at that age we moved to CA.

Yeah yeah..it shouldn't be that hard to remember as it was just last week.

[carr914]

3 or 4

I can pretty much remember everything since

[Evans, Marv]

I have several memories from the time I was less than 2, but couldn't say exactly when. One was when I was at a local fair being held by my mother. I can remember the lights, and kids on little cars going around on a track, and my mother saying for me to wave to my cousin on one of the cars. Another was when my father was throwing me up in the air & catching me as fathers do. I can remember seeing his face get farther away and come back as I went up & came back down. I also remember my feelings about it and not knowing whether to be scared or not.

[ben parrish]

Early memories...remember the layout of the house we moved from when I was 2...amazes my parents. I remember the step down for the living room...the color of the kitchen appliances.

[tabs]

I have one earlier memory that is not cognitive..but more of a sensation and I don't know if it is a manufactured memory..but that of a big dog coming and licking my face...that dog was a Pekingese...

[speeder]

Interesting subject, memory. As you get older, more and more of your life exists in the past.

I have a generally excellent early childhood memory including events that occurred @ 2 years old. We moved from a duplex in St. Paul to Minneapolis, (across the Mississippi river), in 1962 when I was 3 and I remember days from the old place. I remember once in the bitter cold of winter when my Dad's Morris Minor would not start and my uncle Tom had to come over and give it a jump start. Tom, my Mom's brother and another car guy in the family, had a gorgeous red '57 Ford 2-door wagon. The cars were nose-to-nose at the curb with the Ford facing the wrong way and the hoods were up. I was 2 years old and standing on the couch looking out the window wondering WTF they were doing. I remember this. My Dad was wearing a hero jacket, (like a HS letter jacket), and he was shaking cold. He would have been 29 years old, (winter of '61/'62). He is 79 now.

I also remember that the family across the street was a big Irish Catholic family w/ a lot of kids, the Rooneys. They had sons that seemed like giant monsters to me at the time, they were probably barely teeneagers. I was 2-3 y.o. Future Hall-of-Famer Paul Molitor lived on the corner a few houses down but this is not a memory. (Someone had to tell me later).

It's funny but I was crazy about cars almost from infancy. A lot of my early childhood memories involve cars. One of my Dad's law school buddies, Joe Schumacher, had a 356 cab that he gave me a ride in once when I was tiny and could not see over the dash. There were no child seat laws in those days. He loves to tell the story of my Mom imploring him to be careful and then him sort of peeling-out or at least taking off quickly.

One thing that has bothered me all of my life is that I have no recollection of the day that JFK was shot. I was 4, not yet in nursery school and somehow sheltered completely that day from all of the adults crying, etc... I have a crystal-clear memory of the day in May of 1963 when my parents brought my baby sister Annie home from the hospital. It was a perfect warm spring day, I was playing hide-and-seek with my older sister and Cathy Friewald when my Dad came driving down the street in the Morris Minor w/ my Mom in the passenger seat holding the baby, he was tapping the horn when he saw us running around in the neighborhood playing. We were just happy because the baby sitter was a biotch and we were happy that Mom was back. (2 or 3 days was an eternity at that age). My Mom let the sitter hold the baby in the front yard and she said something along the lines of, "I want to keep her". How could I have completely missed the day JFK was shot?

The thing about memory and memories is that at some point you have to wonder if you are really remembering the event or just remembering the memory of it. IOW, if something happened in 1962 and I've thought about it dozens of times for the last ~50 years, am I remembering the thing in 1962 or the memory I had of it in 1975? The mind is a strange and wonderful thing. It can be a prison or a great vacation destination.

[Burnin' oil]

I can remember what I had for breakfast this morning. It was oatmeal. No, wait, that was yesterday, or was it? Never mind.


I have memories from childhood but I am never sure if they are independent recollections or memories of photographs I've seen.

[osidak]

very clear memories from when I was 4 with some of the more major things before I was 4 - earliest of memories though a bit foggy was how I got this scar right above my left eye when I was 2

[Noah930]

I've also asked this question of a lot of people over the years. Most people give answers of around 4 years of age. Some can remember bits and pieces down to maybe 2.

[wdfifteen]

I "remember" things that the family has talked about from the time I was 3 or 4, but I can't honestly say whether they are purely my memories or a combination of memory and family lore. I clearly recall when I was about 8, driving the tractor raking hay and the smell of the cooked bugs on the lower radiator hose. I remember the squish in the mud as the tires rolled along our lane, and I remember running over a mouse with the back tire, but he must have gotten between the lugs because instead of being squashed he was just brain damaged and ran around and around in a circle about 8" across. I know for sure these are my memories because there was no one else there.

[RPKESQ]

Originally Posted by tabs

I have one memory that is not cognitive.....

Edited for accuracy.

No thanks required.

[NY65912]

I remember my father leaving for Italy to visit his parents in 1957, I was 2 years oldish. I also remember my sister going to school in 1958 when I was 3 yo. Also, my 4th birthday.

Noew I can't remember what happened yesterday!

[Tim Hancock]

I have memories from my childhood that were definitely from age 5 and earlier, but I cannot really determine exactly how old I was when the events occured..... I doubt any were from when I was 2 years old.

[12own911]

Fuzzy snapshots from 2 to now...

[Zeke]

I thought I used to be able to go back to 3 or so. I don't think 2 is possible in most cases. Anymore....


what was the ??