Memories From When You Were An Infant

[SkyChief]

Most people have no recollection of events during the time they were an infant. Those that do have some recollection, it is typically foggy and vague.

Do you have a vivid memory from when you were an infant? (some memory that does not involve mother's nipple/breast, please)

When I was 7 months old, I somehow managed to escape my crib. I don't remember the attempt, or the fall, but I definitely remember my mother's screams. My dad had to rush my MOM to the emergency room! I have another memory, but it's rather vague. It involves monkeys and giraffes. . . and zebras, I think.

 

[nota bene]

Yes, being tossed in the air by my father and that terrifying sensation. If I believed in reincarnation, I'd swear I was tossed from a cliff in a previous life.

 

[Helix]

Yes. My first memory is being stuck on my side in the crib while my mom was out of the room. I was six months old.

 

[Emily L]

I have a memory of floating about five feet above the floor and moving through a house. A large, fleshy glob came up to me, right up in my face, which scared me.

I've concluded that it must have been back when I was an infant and was being carried by someone. The large, fleshy glob was probably a person coming up close to me--back before I understood what a human was.

 

[Rexedgar]

I remember waking up in a crib and trying to make a vocal noise and was unable to make a sound. I remember being afraid…..

 

[LouC]

I would say infant to 3 years old I can't think back on anything I experienced and remember it.

From about 4 years, I believe, on up, memories are more prevalent and better as I age.

I can remember some stuff from before I went to kindergarten.

Now that I am as old as I am I get flashes of my youth that are so visceral when the come flooding in from some picture that I see that triggers a memory locker to open, or when I smell something that was present when I was a child and it too opens a memory locker.

Interesting topic.

 

[Grandpappy]

When I smell the aftermath of a house fire, it brings back memories. I was maybe one or two when that happened.

 

[LouC]

When I smell the aftermath of a house fire, it brings back memories. I was maybe one or two when that happened.

Luckily I never had more than a stovetop fire anywhere in my life.

But I worked for years for a fire and flood restoration company, I know the smell.

I've seen the anguish of the victims of house and apartment fires.

 

[MaryP]

Most people have no recollection of events during the time they were an infant. Those that do have some recollection, it is typically foggy and vague.

Do you have a vivid memory from when you were an infant? (some memory that does not involve mother's nipple/breast, please)

When I was 7 months old, I somehow managed to escape my crib. I don't remember the attempt, or the fall, but I definitely remember my mother's screams. My dad had to rush my MOM to the emergency room! I have another memory, but it's rather vague. It involves monkeys and giraffes. . . and zebras, I think.

I don't consciously remember this but I have always been claustrophobic and panic, especially if my head is restrained.

My mom tells me as a baby I somehow managed to crawl under the fitted crib sheet, nearly suffocated.

 

[LouC]

I don't consciously remember this but I have always been claustrophobic and panic, especially if my head is restrained.

My mom tells me as a baby I somehow managed to crawl under the fitted crib sheet, nearly suffocated.

 

[MaryP]

I have a memory of floating about five feet above the floor and moving through a house. A large, fleshy glob came up to me, right up in my face, which scared me.

I've concluded that it must have been back when I was an infant and was being carried by someone. The large, fleshy glob was probably a person coming up close to me--back before I understood what a human was.

I love floating dreams. Haven't had one in awhile.

 

[Emily L]

I love floating dreams. Haven't had one in awhile.

Sometimes, just before I wake up, I'll suddenly realize I'm in a dream and I'll try to fly. Sometimes I'll be able to do it and will get maybe twenty feet off the ground before waking up. Wish I could do it in real life.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Most people have no recollection of events during the time they were an infant. Those that do have some recollection, it is typically foggy and vague.

Do you have a vivid memory from when you were an infant? (some memory that does not involve mother's nipple/breast, please)

When I was 7 months old, I somehow managed to escape my crib. I don't remember the attempt, or the fall, but I definitely remember my mother's screams. My dad had to rush my MOM to the emergency room! I have another memory, but it's rather vague. It involves monkeys and giraffes. . . and zebras, I think.

My very first memory is just an image of the night light in my bedroom.
It was a light blue metal box with an etched glass image of Bambi on it.
I talked about it around age four or so, or rather, I remember mentioning it.
My folks swore that "it was taken down before I could remember it" but I found it in the attic some fifteen years later.
Sure enough, it was from when I was maybe eighteen or twenty months old.
But that's only an image stuck in my head.

My first memory of any significance however was the flood on our street.
My mother held me up to look at the water rushing by. (1959)
I was two, because we moved the soon after, 1960.

My father would read me bedtime stories, like "Chester the Horse" (A Little Golden Book)
and one day I ran upstairs (age four) to read to my mother, who damn near "plotzed" because I apparently had taught myself to read.
When they tested me to see if I'd just memorized it, I proved them wrong by reading from "Der Wizard in Ozzenland" which I'd never noticed before.


I had difficulty with some of the words (because half of them weren't even real English!) 🤣 but I did prove that I could read.
At the time I didn't understand what all the fuss was about, it just seemed natural to put sounds to the letters.
Stinkers thought they could trip me up with "fractured German".

Everything from age four on is pretty much continuous, I guess.

These days I have difficulty remembering what I ate for dinner last night, go figure....age 65 plus COVID brain fog, I imagine.

 

[Emily L]

My very first memory is just an image of the night light in my bedroom.
It was a light blue metal box with an etched glass image of Bambi on it.
I talked about it around age four or so, or rather, I remember mentioning it.
My folks swore that "it was taken down before I could remember it" but I found it in the attic some fifteen years later.
Sure enough, it was from when I was maybe eighteen or twenty months old.
But that's only an image stuck in my head.

My first memory of any significance however was the flood on our street.
My mother held me up to look at the water rushing by. (1959)
I was two, because we moved the soon after, 1960.

My father would read me bedtime stories, like "Chester the Horse" (A Little Golden Book)
and one day I ran upstairs (age four) to read to my mother, who damn near "plotzed" because I apparently had taught myself to read.
When they tested me to see if I'd just memorized it, I proved them wrong by reading from "Der Wizard in Ozzenland" which I'd never noticed before.

View attachment 67386161
I had difficulty with some of the words (because half of them weren't even real English!) 🤣 but I did prove that I could read.
At the time I didn't understand what all the fuss was about, it just seemed natural to put sounds to the letters.
Stinkers thought they could trip me up with "fractured German".

Everything from age four on is pretty much continuous, I guess.

These days I have difficulty remembering what I ate for dinner last night, go figure....age 65 plus COVID brain fog, I imagine.

Fascinating post, Checker!

We should all be careful what we say and do in front of children of all ages, because they grasp, understand and will remember a lot more than we, as adults, realize.

 

[beefheart]

I have faint memory of being in hospital getting adenoids out, very young.

 

[Manc Skipper]

I remember nothing before my fourth birthday. My friend's mother took us to the cinema, and I was given a red "Merryweather" fire engine. toy.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Fascinating post, Checker!

We should all be careful what we say and do in front of children of all ages, because they grasp, understand and will remember a lot more than we, as adults, realize.

I should clarify that by "continuous" I only mean that from age four on, I'd say I had a normal memory stream.
I am not a male Marilu Henner by any stretch....that lady is FRIGHTENING and if you haven't seen her feats of derring do, watch a couple of minutes of this:



That is who we need to be careful around!!

But I did HAVE a pretty good memory as a kid because I could recite every line on a typical cartoon or sitcom, or even a commercial, complete with the character voices
and I used to be a damn good mimic. My older brothers referred to me as "The Walking Television Commercial" whereupon I'd spring into action with...oh say...
"Mama Mia that's a spicy meat-a ball!" or whatever had just appeared on the set.


I even did all the mistakes perfectly, and the FACIAL expressions.

 

[Emily L]

I should clarify that by "continuous" I only mean that from age four on, I'd say I had a normal memory stream.
I am not a male Marilu Henner by any stretch....that lady is FRIGHTENING and if you haven't seen her feats of derring do, watch a couple of minutes of this:



That is who we need to be careful around!! View attachment 67386178

But I did HAVE a pretty good memory as a kid because I could recite every line on a typical cartoon or sitcom, or even a commercial, complete with the character voices
and I used to be a damn good mimic. My older brothers referred to me as "The Walking Television Commercial" whereupon I'd spring into action with...oh say...
"Mama Mia that's a spicy meat-a ball!" or whatever had just appeared on the set.


I even did all the mistakes perfectly, and the FACIAL expressions.

Checker, that first video is amazing--and that second is hilarious!

Checker, when I was no older than three or four, I was at a family reunion when somebody was given a surprise gift. Throughout my childhood, I remembered exactly how the gift was given, the opening of the gift and the recipient's reaction, plus things other people said immediately afterward.

Many years later, I saw for the first time a video somebody had taken of the event. It was exactly like I remembered it. But here's the thing. During the gift-giving, I can be seen far in the background, sitting on the floor and playing with my young cousins, looking as if I weren't paying attention, at all. Yet, I was taking it all in.

That's why I'm always careful about what I say or do when children are in the room, even though it looks like they aren't paying a bit of attention. You just never know.

 

[LouC]

I remember nothing before my fourth birthday. My friend's mother took us to the cinema, and I was given a red "Merryweather" fire engine. toy.

Do you remember what was playing at the cinema when you went?

 

[LouC]

I am certain my mother dragged me and my two year older sister to the local drive in theater when I was probably still just 2 or 3 but the first movie I can remember sitting in the car and actually seeing with my mother was Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds! I was 6 years old then. I remember it was scary. But before that I remember going to the drive in and going up under the big screen to the playground there where parents could keep an eye on their kiddies.

The first walk in movie cinema event for me that I can remember was when my mother dropped off me and my sister at the cinema when James Bond Thurnderball came out in 1965, I was 8 years old and felt all "growed up!" It was a mesmerizing experience and I will never forget that movie but what really took me along with the action scenes was the musical soundtrack!

 

[Manc Skipper]

Do you remember what was playing at the cinema when you went?

Not a clue! I'm not even sure which cinema. It wasn't the local one, so we were in town somewhere.

 

[HK.227]

Being drunk at age two.
Lunch during harvest. My aunt foolishly left her beer bottle unattended, so I emptied it. I was taken home where my grandmother yelled a lot at everyone. I then remember seeing three balls where there was only one, falling off the toilet, and not being able to drive my go-cart straight. Youngest drunk driver in the family to this very day.

Age three. The smell of old-school disinfectant in the emergency room.
A kid reacted violently after an argument and hit me from behind with a shovel (he had recently seen his father drown and was alone in the boat for several hours before found, so he was somewhat excused). Got a few sticthes.

Learning to read at age four (hat tip: Strangler).
My mom refused to read me any more comic books, so I asked her to read me one last Donald Duck comic, and I learned from that. When older, I was pretty impressed with myself until mom told me she had taught herself at the same age, but without the benefit of pictures. Read my first Star Wars comic the next year when the first movie came out, and had long debates with other children whether Darth Vader was a robot or not.

 

[DiAnna]

The only real memory I have before the age of one was crawling across the living room carpet to watch my father open a window in the dining room. The window broke, cutting my father's forearm. He casually clasped his hand over the wound and walked quickly into the bathroom. I did not like the red liquid dripping from his arm, and started to cry. After my mother finished bandaging dad's arm, she picked up and said that daddy was "all better."

I stopped crying, but remember being upset enough that I recalled that incident throughout most of my childhood. Weird, what we remember from back in the day, lol.

 

[Logician Man]

Around the age of 18 months, a small carnival came to our little Okie town where I grew up. I don't remember attending the carnival, but I do remember all 4 of us kids got a nice, colorful helium balloon on a string, which thrilled me to no end. As I was exiting the car, the string slipped through my fingers. I made a desperate leap, and got my little hand on the string, only to watch the balloon float oh so slowly off into the late evening sky. Evidently, I said some choice potty words as the treasured balloon went bye-bye. So Dad went back to the carnival, and got me another balloon, and all was right with world again.

 

[DiAnna]

@Logician Man Reading your carnival/balloon experience reminded me of my "first time"; my mother tied the balloon string around my wrist, but I complained that I wanted to hold it like a big kid. So she untied the string and handed it to me. (I'm sure we all know what happened next, lol) Mommy let me cry and throw myself on the ground. When I got tired of having a tantrum, we went inside a tent and watched the clown show... but I sulked for the rest of the day.

And no, my parents didn't buy me another balloon.