Earliest Memory

[porty]

going with my mum to get some boiled ham from the butchers, our house at the time was built over shops and we had to go down a set of steps to get to them.

i must have been about 18 months to two years, as we moved not long after my second birthday..

[Foxbark]

Strangely enough my earliest memory was of a train journey, starting at Victoria station, for a holiday in Italy.
I must have been younger than two years old.I recall very, very little of the journey or the holiday in fact - but one memory has abided with me ever since, though it's in the haziest, dream-like way possible.
All I remember are the big, glass windows of the train before it pulled away - the image of red triangles stuck on the train windows (no smoking signs apparently), has stuck with me for all those years.
Why, I do not know.

[Xexemedes]

Originally Posted by blondifan

I don't know how old I was but it was before I learnt to walk.
My parents had an old upright piano in one of the spare bedrooms in the old farmhouse where we used to live.
I mananged to get a single solitary note out of it, before my mother rushed in and scooped me up.
I never saw it again.

My grandmother took pity on me and bought me a guitar when I was five.

It is amazing how parents block children from instruments-how many more Coltranes, Beethovens and Van Halens would there be? I bet no one in the house played the thing and yet they were all concerned you would break it-have you ever tried to break up a piano? I did, what a freeking job that was; it took the better part of two weekends with a pry bar and a sledge hammer. My young children have a guitar, an adimittedly beat up drum set, access to my keyboard and, with my supervision, use of my Tascam 4 track porta studio-I say let 'em play!!!

Sorry for going off topic but your memory dredged up a few of mine...Cheers to your grandmother though

[knobby109]

I have a vestigial memory of being in my pram but it's so fleeting it might be imagination.I can remember playing on the kitchen floor (yellowish lino), someone knocked on the door and my Mum said "That's Daddy's stuff back from the war" , a camp bed wrapped in a pair of rubber groundsheets among other things.I must have been around 2 at the time,perhaps a little under.

[anklebiter]

I know I was still in diapers, so what? 1 1/2-2? My sister who is 10 years older would change my diapers, and hang her long hair in my face.I used to love swatting at it, and playing in it.

[blondifan]

Originally Posted by knobby109

I have a vestigial memory of being in my pram...

Strangely I do too, and it has nothing to do with a snapshot, other than a mental picture.
I remember being in my pram where the bitumen used to end, beside a small cemetary.
This would be around 3 miles from where we used to live, in hilly terrain.
I still drive past there every other day. I've no recollection of anyone stopping to pick us up.
Hopefully somebody did.
Just a second or so as we set off on this journey and some vague recollection of someone who lived in the house opposite, which is still there, talking to my mother.

Originally Posted by Xexemedes

It is amazing how parents block children from instruments... Sorry for going off topic but your memory dredged up a few of mine...

I'm fairly certain I knew the piano was in this room, as I know my mother played.
Maybe I was drawn to a sense of community around a keyboard?

I seem to remember an instant when I began crawling 'forward'. [A retro-fitted memory?]
To this point I'd been crawling in reverse (no comments please ) I'm pretty sure I remember overhearing her telling someone about my sense of direction, which may have instilled this particular memory?
Either way I'd wager this was where I was going - one way or the other.
As for being 'scooped up' I've little doubt that my mother was concerned about my safety and wanted to keep an eye on me.

I asked about the piano at a later stage and was told it was either traded or sold in order to buy a chainsaw.
This may have served to keep the memory alive, along with my grandmothers tales.

I did have a red and white plastic "Beatles" ukulele at one point.
Probably worth a small fortune now.

[MaxJoker]

Believe it was of my parents arguing while we were on holiday in Italy , the tosser had gambled away his holiday money and wanted my mother to give him another "Loan".

Can`t remember how old i was then though , although i remember the last time he hit me up for a loan.

It was in 2006 , and sadly rejected due to his lack of collateral or personal pride .

Also remember my older brother pushing my thumb down on a bee so it stung me , think i was three ?

Fun times

[otokonomidori]

My father selling me for medical experiments so he could buy 20 Capstan.

[haldane4]

In the hospital, when I was about four. I had hepatitis and was in the isolation ward. My mum came to visit me and had to sit on a chair about 10 feet away from the bed - when the nurse's back was turned she tried to sneak over to me and I can remember the nurse catching her and shouting all over the ward - stay away from him.

Story of my life.

[Ace1965]

In our first house, my dad had enclosed the garage and made it a den several years before I was born. The rest of the house was a little higher than the den so there was a window in the den that went into the living room.

I can remember that my parents used to keep a little calendar like the kind insurance agents would send out. I can remember climbing up on the back of the couch and looking at that calendar and seeing 1968 on it. That would make me about 3 years old.