What is your earliest memory?

I don't remember. THere are 'scenes' that I think I remember, or maybe someone just told me about them. I don't know.

I can remember all kinds of things but the order of event is very confused. My earliest precise memory is of being woken up this morning at 8-10am by my wife saying "I've poured you a mug of tea". I promptly turned over and went back to sleep

I remember JFK's asassination, I was 13 months old. I remember my preschool, but not the people. I have this memory of me, about 4 or 5, walking past an A/C unit at the corner of my home, outdoors, on a sunny day. I remember being chased to elementary school by a not so angry nanny holding a willow switch.

I remember times from when I was 4 fighting the old neighbor kids and my mother and aunts doing the ironing. Also remember being out in a boat fishing.

My earliest distinct memory is from approximately the age of two. I managed to climb out of my baby crib by myself. I was so excited at this momentous occasion, I foolishly rushed to my parents to tell them the good news, only to find myself quickly re-incarcerated. It didn't occur to me that my parents wouldn't be happy with my escape.

I recall nursery school (I was 3) - it had a black and pink checkerboard linoleum floor, and there were cubbies for your stuff. I also recall the floor was uneven. I was a shy kid so of course I'd be looking at the floor a lot.

I also remember the carpeting in the New Jersey house - it was short, very scratchy and light green. The house was a split-level and I remember the railings to the stairs being black and what I'd now call filigree. We moved out of that house when I was just about 5.

The earliest that I know of was my parents bringing my youngest sister home from the hospital after she was born. I would have just turned 3 years old at that point.

most profound earliest memory
My most profound earliest memory, that wiped out any earlier ones, was being raped by two men at age 4.

BumbleBeeBoogie

I recall quite a few incidents with clarity. One of the earliest - perhaps THE earliest: My Mom and I were on a bed, with her step sister present. She told the step sister, "I'm going to let him do it one last time." She proceeded to nurse me. I had at least a few teeth, and I accidentally bit her. As Mom recoiled, saying, "Ow. He bit me!" I began laughing at this comedy of errors. She responded by smacking me around with her hand. I felt very misunderstood, crying. The scene fades.

at age 2 1/2 i stood on the beach of the gulf of arabia watching my 3 1/2 yr old brother drown.

Most of my early memories revolve around my mother, who died when I was 4.

My dad is bringing her home from the hospital, carries her into the house in his arms. Also remember her being in bed, only. My dad gets angry with me once and she said, "Please don't spank her."

My sister and I are ushered into her bedroom at some point after she came home from hosp last time. She resembles a skeleton.

Remember the funeral, the green awning, the singing.

None of this made any sense to me for the longest time.

I think many of people's earliest "memories" are pictures in their heads of places, people or events of which they've so often been told, that they take them for memories.

I have "memories" of the front stoop of an apartment building in the Bronx, and of walking to my grandfather's outstretched arms. However, i'd been told so many times of how i first walked by standing up and toddling to my grandfather who was sitting in his chair in the living room. As for a front stoop in the Bronx, i've seen hundreds of those since i was a child, so i can't be certain that this is a "true" memory. I'm always comfortable in New York, and never was a "rube" to be taken by a city-slicker--but i was raised by my grandparents in a very small town, and i'm basically a country boy.

I have many vague memories of the early morning light in the grape arbors, the hummingbirds, a field of clover--but none are very sharp. I do remember with great clarity however, the morning of my fourth birthday. I arose, and went down stairs to the bathroom, where my grandfather was standing in his pants and undershirt, with his braces hanging down, while he shaved before going to work. I recall with great vividness the razor strop at the side of the sink, and even the sound of the straight razor across his cheek. I sat down on my "potty chair" and he looked down and smiled at me. Later that day, i got a fire truck, wood, painted with brightly colored enamels, and little smiling firemen who fit into round or square or hexagonal holes in the truck.

In hindsight, i know that that memory is of an event which took place between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m., on the morning of November 2nd. My grandfather's birthday was November 2nd, and, as my birthday was only a week later, we always celebrated our birthdays on the day of his. He worked as a station master and telegrapher, and his shift was 4:00 a.m. to noon--hence i can deduce the time of day. Memory is a tricky thing, and it is easily "invented." I will claim nothing earlier, because that is the first memory which i have recalled continuously since it occured.

Like Setanta, my earliest memories are confounded by the possibility that they are not memories of mine at all, but constructions from what I have been told, or seen pictures of.

But I do "recall" our balcony off the apartment in Bronxville, and going down to the stream below to feed the ducks.

Wearing pink corduroy coveralls, trying to push a piece of strawberry-filled candy through the tiny holes in a window screen while watching my brothers play outside. I was probably not quite two years old.

Some of my earliest memories are in small flashes, with the only context being added much later in life. I recall being extremely young and being inside a house that had a concrete floor. I recall one incident of me running on that floor and falling down. Surprised to be unhurt, I picked myself up and continued to run. Another flash memory from the same local, probably during the same week: I saw my brother running from the room, his face looking back at me as he went out of site. I ran for a short burst and words poured from my mouth. I was surprised and proud, yet had no idea what I just said. Real words or babbling? I don't know.

some lovely memories and some really horrific ones. BBB I am so sorry you had such a terrible experience and remember it.

Im soo sorry BBB and Dys must be very hard
I can remember my dad picking me up from my crib. Its in small clips.

Me too, BBB, and Dys' memory is a hard one too.

My first sure memory is food. I was sitting in my high chair eating a cracker, sort of a cookielike cracker. I can picture the cracker, various indentations in it. Kind of like an Oneida biscuit, but not exactly. I think the high chair was hard, but I wouldn't have known that word, I just remember a little how it felt to be in it. I suppose I was eighteen months or so. I can also remember being in my playpen, which I think had some padding on the bottom tied to the four corners with strings made into bows. Padding, corners, strings, bows, words I didn't know.

And I remember an oilcloth "book" with pictures and a few words. Am not sure how much I remember my mother and father exactly then. I think I remember my father's uniform, how sort of hard and scratchy it was when he held me up to his shoulders.

yes osso, the earliest memories are visual aren't they? no remembrance of sentences but flashes of sunlight under the trees and the grass and feeling happy and scrambling about, or of looking up at the hissing air vent and the shuffling of seats and my mothers disapproval of 'making a scene' though i didn't know the phrase at that time!

I wonder if visual thinkers have the earliest memories?