Memories

[Pah]

What is the earliest memory you have?

-pah-

 

[Feathers in Hair]

Petting a woman's fur coat. I dunno if it phased the lady, but I can remember when my parents and I were waiting outside of a mall, and these two women walked toward us, waiting for the bus. One was wearing a coat of either mink or fox, I don't remember. I've always been a very tactile person, so I was hypnotized by this garmet and stood beside her. I began to pet the coat as if it were an animal. I didn't realize that this coat had once been several different animals, I only knew that my fingers were finding the same joy that they found in petting a dog. I think this was when I was about two.

I also remember the day my sister was born, on the same year. My mom and the neighbors were baking bread when 'the time' arrove. So now the delicious smell of bread is bittersweetly intwined in my brain with having to share my room for the next 10 years.

 

[meogi]

I must have been 4-4.5 years old... was living with my grandmother (she was housing my mom and uncle, mom just got divorced)... uh, I ruined my uncles 'zelda' save somehow, by making it freeze or something... I didn't want to get in trouble, but I don't remember what happened, or what I did about it... I was 4.

Gah, trying to remember back this far hurts my brain... it also seems like an alternate reality kinda.

 

[Bastet]

Not sure if this is the earliest, but it certainly stands out. A dried flower arrangement (incl. heavy vase), fell on my head from a great height, when I was around 2 or 3 (lady_lazarus, help me out on the time frame here!). We were at my Nan's house, and I remember leaning over the bath with blood everywhere. I remember being at the hospital and getting stitches...the memory has a kind of surreal quality...maybe they gave me pain killers or something lol.

 

[Quoth The Raven]

Not sure if this is the earliest, but it certainly stands out. A dried flower arrangement (incl. heavy vase), fell on my head from a great height, when I was around 2 or 3 (lady_lazarus, help me out on the time frame here!). We were at my Nan's house, and I remember leaning over the bath with blood everywhere. I remember being at the hospital and getting stitches...the memory has a kind of surreal quality...maybe they gave me pain killers or something lol.

They stuck a big needle in your scone...then they dosed you up with drugs.You felt no pain. Do you remember the Christmas day we spent at the hospital because you stuck something up your nose?

 

[Jaymes]

Not sure if this is the earliest.. but I think it is. I remember falling and hitting my head on a coffee table, and I must have been fairly young because I started squalling. Mom started trying to cheer me up, and "spanked the table" for "hitting me."

Then everything was good.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

I remember lying in the back seat of our car as my mom drove my sister to school early in the morning, with a blanket....the pillow and blanket had blood all over them, and I could taste and smell blood as well because I had a mouth bleed. This went on for several days.

My parents have told me that I had fallen and hit my mouth on the coffee table, and my mouth bled for many days. I finally got stitches, but the dang thing bled through the stitches. It was then that they did some tests and my parents found out I was a hemophiliac.

The weird thing is, I was six months old at the time. I have a hard time myself believing that I have the capacity to remember something when I was that young, but the memory is distinct. I don't remember my parents ever telling me about the 'bloody' car rides to my sister's school each morning...but perhaps they did and we don't remember, and then I had a dream about it. Who knows.

 

[Runt]

I remember when I was 6 or so I used to have memories of when I was younger than a year old, but as I grew older those memories faded until now all I can remember is the remembering. The earliest memory I have now was when I was a year and six days old. It was my first Halloween ever, and my mom dressed me up in a little tiger costume and carried me around as she took my older sister, who was then 8 years old, trick-or-treating. I remember before we left the house I accidentally pulled off the tail--which was attached by a little hook--and was incredibly upset because I was sure I'd broken my new costume. I kept trying to reattach it, but I couldn't see behind me to actually be successful, so I basically cried until my mom came and fixed it for me.

 

[standing_on_one_foot]

Earliest memory? Well, back when I was about 2, I dislocated my shoulder and I still remember the doctor's office...it had a picture of a cactus on the wall...that's about the only thing I remember now, sitting on the examing table thingy and looking at the cactus.

 

[Jaymes]

Am I the only one noticing that there seems to be a pattern of pain associated with the earliest memories? I wonder if the pain imprints them better.

 

[Feathers in Hair]

Am I the only one noticing that there seems to be a pattern of pain associated with the earliest memories? I wonder if the pain imprints them better.

Heehee, I was wondering about that, too. I know smell is the sense that's normally associated with memory, but I'm begining to think being in a doctor's office is more powerful!

Loved your story about your mom 'spanking' the table! My parents used to do that whenever I bumped into things!

 

[Bastet]

They stuck a big needle in your scone...then they dosed you up with drugs.You felt no pain. Do you remember the Christmas day we spent at the hospital because you stuck something up your nose?

That might explain why, when I was younger, I could have sworn all the doctors and nurses were dwarves...yay for drugs lol. :retarded: Don't remember that Christmas day...I stuck so many things up my nose, it's hard to differentiate.

 

[Pah]

My first was from the age of 2 or 3. I was in a crib in an alcove of the apartment and supposed to be asleep but I was watching the clouds on a moonlite night. They were moving and I made my first scientific observation. My Aunt Mimi came in, checking up on me I suppose, and I told her about it. I got the distinct impression she didn't understand

Another memory from the same time period was of my father carrying a kitten on his back (gotten from the grocery store we used) going up the back stairs.

The last from that time was being awakened in my crib with my mother and father sitting on a daycouch in the room (yeah, I graduated from the alcove). I remember asking why they were there. I don't remember the answer but I grew to understand that it was a night of "black out" in World War II (we were a few miles from the eastern coast).

-pah-

 

[QTpi]

Am I the only one noticing that there seems to be a pattern of pain associated with the earliest memories? I wonder if the pain imprints them better.

I think it's the emotional or traumatic experiences that provide the strongest memories. When I was 2 I broke my arm. I can recall all the details as if it had happened yesterday. The funny thing is that I don't remember the pain. I had been standing on a kitchen chair pulling a big red bath towel through the wringer on my grandmother's washing machine. I was leaning back as I pulled. My mother told me to stop, but I told her that I knew when it would be done. With that I went flying and my arm slammed against the metal table leg breaking both bones in my forearm. The really traumatic part was at the hospital. I was absolutely positive that they were going to drown me. The doctor was putting a metal mask with a screen in it over my nose and mouth. Then he started pouring a liquid into the mask and I was certain I would be drowning any second. I was terrified. I can still "feel" that terror when I think about it. Of course the liquid was ether. They had to sedate me long enough to set my arm.