How far back can you remember things?

I remember a huge Jaws poster in a mall..that is why I am afraid of sharks now. I was born in 1975...

I remember my trip to Germany as a 3y/o...it snowed, and was very cold...there were a lot of Libby's commercials on TV (I remember the jingle too)...and a nice pony we saw there.

I was abused as a child and I remember that as well, tho I have dealt with it and moved on.

I remember...quite a lot from when I was remarkably small. Something I have always kept in mind when raising my kiddos.

Wow, Gina, I didn't realize you are that young!  Heck, I have stuffed animals older than you!  LOL

rwbeagles

...I remember my trip to Germany as a 3y/o...it snowed, and was very cold...there were a lot of Libby's commercials on TV (I remember the jingle too)...

"When it says Libby, Libby, Libby on the lable, lable, lable, you will like it, like it, like it on your table, table, table"  LOL

OK, back to the question at hand.  I remember my parents going to my grand aunt's wedding.  I was about 4 at the time.

I was around 2 I think because I remember being in a crib.

 I'm not sure if what I remember are real memories, or just things my mind created from my mom's stories and pictures of when I was little.

I don't really know how far back my memory goes. I think I remember some things from when I was 4 or so, but then there are years that I have almost entirely forgotten. Most of middle school, and early high school I don't remember.

The first thing I remember is going with my preschool class to get a new snail, and our blue fish Swimmy. The first thing I "remember" without actually remembering is getting a penny removed from my throat. I had dreams about the procedure until just a few years ago.

I was 18 months old when we took a family vacation "down South".  I clearly remember the little "apt" we stayed in on the back of some folks house AND I remember going to Look Out Mountain and Dad held me, but set me on the observation ledge.

When I was 2ish, my oldest sister shut me in an old steamer trunk in the hay loft of my grandparents barn and left me there.  My closest sister rescued me.

And those two incidents, my friends, account for my fear of heights and claustrophobia. 

marty_ga

Callie, I'm borrowing from your post where you say.... I was all of about 3 and being the shy, quiet, child I was....

Wow, you remember something at 3? 

That shy quiet child?  The aliens abducted her when she was TWO.  That solves THAT riddle!! rotfl

marty_ga

Other than that, I remember getting a really cool cowgirl bicycle at 5.  It had fringes, a rifle, etc.  I loved it, but how uncool in today's world. 

Mostly I remember snippets of events -- I don't remember everything from that day only that my mother was embarassed to tears (but she DID drop her towel!!! I PROMISE!!!  My 3 year old self was traumatized LOL - kidding folks, just kidding)

I also hasten to say that remembering back to when I was 3 -- well, it's a "right far piece" folks.  Remember, I started counting backwards when I hit 40 and I'll be 25 this July -- so YOU do the math. 

Much of my memory is tied to TV and westerns.  Davey Crocket was my first hero.  And then I wanted to be Annie Oakley when I grew up.  I remember my mother made me a whole outfit.  I had a red skirt with black leather fringe, a red and black cowgirl shirt with REAL piping on it (why do I remember "real piping'???) and I had a cap rifle.  I had a whole series of the horses on springs on a frame?  I would "Ride-em Cowgirl" so much that my mother would have to come in to the living room every 5 minutes and pull me back because I'd jump that thing all the way across the floor -- but me and "Tony" (the plastic horse) were best buddies. 

The REASON I remember that SO clearly was because my Dad's folks came to visit for my birthday, and here I was all spiffed up as Annie Oakley.  Gram got out of the car and I ran up to them "BANG BANG".  My Grandmother grabbed that rifle out of my hands barrel first, bent over and looked me in the eye (it was probably the first time she had EVER addressed me directly) and said in a voice I will remember until the day I die:

"DON'T YOU ****EVER***** POINT A GUN AT ANYONE.  Not in play, not as a joke, not EVER unless you intend for them to die."

Overreacting?  A bit -- but these were farm folks and the rifle cabinet was in the living room so as far as SHE was concerned I oughta know better than to EVER point a gun even in play.  Because that's how sad accidents happen.

And then, if I don't miss my guess, my **father** got reamed for not having educated me better!! 

One of those childhood "memories" -- and not a bad one either.  She didn't hit me or pop me or anything.  She was just STERN .. and this wasn't a grandmother I was close to.  But she got MY attention, and I've never played idly with a gun ever since. 

Most of my memories were either times of temper or times of extreme fun. 

Then there was that goat that ate the buttons off my NEW sweater when I was up at The North Pole (it passed as an amusement park 50 years ago up near Lake George, NY).  Darn goat anyway -- gave him a piece of MY mind!!!  I started to shake my finger at him and my mother grabbed me and hustled me away MUCH to my displeasure -- he needed told off, and and and ... (she thot I'd get bit ... and I was MAD!!)... haven't liked goats since tho LOL (that was probably the same year, in fact -- yep, the kid those aliens left my mother wasn't quite so shy, and unable to speak her mind LOL)

I remember things from being 3! 

I remember going through to my mum and dads room when I was about 3 and a half, to get in their bed, but there was no one there.  Well, it wasn't strange for Dad not to be there, because he often had to leave for work ridiculously early in the morning, but Mum not being there was very unusual and a bit scary.  I did cry and I remember saying "Mummy mummy where are you" and kind of searching all over the bed, as if she might be hiding under the covers.  I went back to my own bed and went back to sleep.  When I got up and went downstairs I asked my brother where mum was he said "she's gone away and she's not coming back" and I laughed.  I remember REMEMBERING how he always said things like that - I have an earlier memory of him saying "She's gone to London to see the Queen" and then laughing and saying "nah, she's just gone shopping".  He used to tease like that.

This time though, she really had gone - run off with another bloke!

I have another earlier memory too - completely unrelated, to prove that its not only big or traumatic events that stick in the memory.  It's just of me walking from the lounge to the kitchen and my mum was sitting by the Aga and she turned and smiled at me.  Her hair was very curly - this was the 80s, so I think it was a bad perm.

I remember Dad sitting me down and trying to explain to me that mum had gone away and couldn't come back.  I think he thought I didn't really understand, but I understood fine, I just didn't care much.  I was Dad's girl anyway.

I remember Mum coming back too - I watched her take down her brass ornaments off the Welsh dresser and thinking "I thought she was NEVER coming back?" but then someone mentioned that she was coming back to fetch her things and it made a sort of sense.  I don't remember if I just watched or if I tried to run up to her, but I know she was a bit frosty.  There was definitely no big hug, no "I missed you so much!" or anything like that.  She didn't say much to anybody.  At the time I didn't think it strange, I guess I was at an age where I just accepted things, but looking back on my memory I think she did act oddly, and I think it was because she was ashamed. 

I also remember tipping hot tea down myself - this was not long after mum had gone.  I might have only just four, but definitely no older.  I was wearing blue dungarees and a white t-shirt with a flying bluebird print on it.  I watched my sister pour water from the kettle into a mug (it was a brown mug with speckles on).  I remember wanting to see what happened to the water in the mug to make it brown, because I had watched it come out of the kettle and it was clear, and I knew tea was brown. 

The earliest memory I have was back when we lived in Detroit, in the city.  I must have been about 2.  My dad, brother, and sisters left to go somewhere and I couldn't go and was screaming/crying.  I remember looking out the side door as they drove off.  I can see the orange and yellow wallpaper (this was '75/'76) and my mom with her blonde hair and her apron.  I also remember lots of stuff from 4 years on up, like:  walking my brother and sisters to the bus stop with my mom when we moved out of the city, meeting my BF Patty when we were three, first day of school, etc.

Liesje

I'm not sure if what I remember are real memories, or just things my mind created from my mom's stories and pictures of when I was little.

This is how I feel about many of my very early "memories".  Are they real or are they Memorex?  Remember that commercial?

My early childhood memories are spotty at best.  I absolutely have no real recollection of anything prior to starting kindergarten -- and even then I can't say if I actually remember it or if I just know these things because I was told them at a later date.  A lot of my early "memories" are just what I know from looking at photos.  I don't remember the days or the emotions that were felt at the time.

I have a seriously horrid memory.  I have a hard time remembering things that happened in my teens and early 20's.  lol

I can remember bits from age 3, but by age 4, definitely.  Sometimes it's a curse...

I can remember lots of things before age five.  But it's funny the ones I don't remember, like being scrached head to toe by a stray cat in our backyard when I was about four.

What I do remember - taking a shower with my dad when I was still very little, under two probably.

The inside of our neighbors' houses and how creeped out I was by Bobbie's dad's van.  (I think he stocked cheap toys and junk at convenience stores and the like which to most kids would have been awesome but maybe HE just creeped me out so the van was creepy too???)  From time to time, I have dreams about a monster that lives at Bobbie's.

The fight my parents had that sent out the cops who hauled dad away for the night.  It was so very out of character for him and the only time I ever saw him lose it.  While the police were talking to my parents, my grandma had come over and was driving my sister and I around the neighborhood.  I remember her wanting us to "get down" when we drove by the house to check out the progress.

I remember - in great detail - my mom almost slicing off her pinky finger.  She was trying to get a huge pickle jar out of the top cabinet in our kitchen and it slipped a little, hit the counter, and shattered in her hands.  She leaned over the sink and ran water over it (she said the juice stung something awful) but ended up on the floor because she fainted.  I don't remember her telling my sister to go next door and get Cal, but I do remember her being back home, with it all wrapped up.  We had to help her bathe for a while after that.  The day it happened, she had on cut off jean shorts with red and yellow stripes on the butt, a yellow t-shirt with some kind of logo on the front, and a red bandana around her head.

I remember one night when a tornado warning was in our area.  Mom, dad, Lana and I were all out to eat a few blocks from our house.  As we were leaving, the lights had started to flicker at the restaurant.  Dad pulled the car around, we piled in and then headed home.  Dad had to leave for some reason, and mom was an absolute mess.  We still had power because I know she was watching the weather reports on the tv.  The closer the threat came, the more prepared she was getting Lana and I to take cover in the bathtub with a mattress over us.  In the end, nothing happened but she was certainly ready.

I could keep going but I need to get some work done