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| Question: |
What was your earliest memory? Reply with an elaboration on what you remember.
| I have several memories from around my birth |
| I have one or two memories from my first year |
| I started having memories when I was two or three |
| 4, 5, or 6 years |
| I don't remember anymore |
| Memories? The farthest back I can remember was last week |
| I have option one or two, but I don't put any weight on them/don't tell others in fear off disbelief |
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Topic: Earliest Memory (Read 3274 times)
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Valos Cor
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What was your earliest memory? Very few people seem to remember events from when they started their existence on this planet or, according to wackos *(partial) sarcasm* like the Pkunk, the current incarnation they live in. However, this topic is not about incarnation, so let's not start spend half an hour discussing who our past incarnations were.  Anyway....
In fact, very few people seem to remember anything from before their second or third year. Many even go as far as to say memory formation and long term storage is impossible until the brain has developed outside of the womb for 24 months. Yet there still exists a small but relatively vocal portion of the population that insist that they themselves have memories of their birth or being a baby. Some memories are vague, like most early memories, others are very vivid and detailed. Still other memories may be detailed or vague, but they stand alone as the sole memory they remember for a period of two or three years. Of course, they may be corrupted memories, or memories accidentally stolen from parents, or they may just be plain lying. There has been evidence that indicates that, although some infants from 17 months of age may be able to differentiate objects based on where they go, (white slippery stuff goes in *bathroom* *silvery thing with *four* prongs* *go in* *kitchen*) and remember certain events they have experiences two or three times for a period of up to three months, they forget it by adulthood. Obviously, I am not polling on whether you remembered something from you infancy for three months...
I hope sincerely that this topic won't heat up into hotly debated topic - it probably won't - but let's stay nice guys  Everyone's different, I guess, and just because scientists can't seem to dissect enough baby brains or lack knowledge or personal experience about it, that doesn't mean it's impossible to remember your birth. Conversely, just because you saw a red glow and floated around in it, that doesn't positively mean it's a real birthtime memory.
Now, I don't really know much about this topic, only Google and personal experience, so what do you have to say?
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I'm the kind of person that uses Linux and seems to be a very literate adult but has no idea how to do anything code-wise beyond basic stuff.(such as su -<password> yum install uqm) Except I didn't install UQM that way...I used Add/Remove Software...
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onpon4
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I didn't have a particularly eventful childhood except around 2-3 and around 5-6 years old. I'd say this is probably because these were the only time periods where I had any real friends; most of the rest of the time I was a loner. We also didn't have an Internet connection until maybe 2000-2002, and I hated reading. (Funny, but sad, story: in 4th grade, to get around having to read a book for 30 minutes, I actually took a children's picture book and read it incredibly slowly so that I wouldn't have to do any real reading.)
Anyway, though my mom recalls me imitating Barney the Dinosaur around that time (2-3), I don't remember that. What I do remember is that I was obsessed with Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (which I still very much like) and, to a lesser extent, a silly old "game" (more like a toy) called "Ready for Letters" (a DOS game, I think). I played Lode Runner with a friend called Timmy, who lived in an apartment right across the hallway, a fair amount (I don't think it was the most frequent thing we did, but it's the only thing I really remember doing with him at all well).
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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I distinctly remember some sandblasting done on my home. It was quite awesome. I was nearly 1 at that time.
I also have several memories that could be before or after that point. They aren't as easily localized in time, though. I suspect that's the issue for a lot of people - you can't prove you weren't 2 or 3.
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Kwayne
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I remember staring out of a hospital room, where my mother and some nurses were waving at me. It happened when I was operated, I may have been 3 years old. I still have a small mark of the cut on my neck.
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Valos Cor
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Onpon4, that sounds like a pretty unhappy childhood! Yeah, when I started liking to read, I don't know, it was a weird climb to literacy, I guess. Most of it was osmosis though. It took me a while to switch from Chinese osmosis to English osmosis so that's probably why I remember English in kindergarten and stuff. I used to be addicted to Lode Runner. It was fun. I think we're talking about the same thing anywayI rememebr sitting in a puddle with my best friend. He pooped in it and I screamed. I was threeish.
That's the strongest memory. I have some others, but I'm unsure how much are actual memories and how much is from being told about them or seeing some of them on video. The brain is pretty good at constructing after the fact.
Yeah, memories love to do that. Perhaps the brain does a good job about it though.
Sandblasting? Deathh999, you're right. I find it hard to even chronologically organize my earliest recollections.
Wow, it's cool hearing other people's memories.
Obviously, I must've started the poll if I have something to say right? Hehehe...
Well, I remember my mom telling some random people that if they put their hand somewhere, I would start kicking. So I kick extra hard just to tick them off (don't really know why I did that). Is that actual memory, or is it just pure fabrication of my brain? I'm thinking the latter. I also have this vague idea that when I was born, I didn't WANT to be born, because it was nice and warm inside and it was cold outside (as if I'd know, keep thinking I was starting to come out and feeling the cold, but unlikely). Then I remember the doctor holding me up and asking for scissors, then cutting my umbilical cord. I didn't want to lose it. I was placed in a scratchy initially uncomfortable thingie I might add and set down next to my mother. She was soaking wet but might've been smiling, or too tired and whatnot to do something as straining as grinning. I felt a wonderful sensation as the whole thing started moving and I felt the cool something and fell asleep. Don't remember crying. I don't know if I watched a messed up movie (any clues as to what the movie is?) or I had wacko dreams, or this might be real. I don't know why I know what most of the objects that I remember, and that is only in a very small field of vision, and why I knew what the doctor said. Maybe I did. But there's SOMETHING about this event that is distinctly undreamlike - it was the feeling of sleepiness and the weird FEELING of the environment. Perhaps, at the core, I do remember my birth, but barely, and my brain filled in the parts about getting my cord cut off, though I don't remember what it actually looked like. Proceed to where I seem to be in a cardboard box. All of these comparisons I'm obviously making after the fact, and I picked up these comparisons after the memory and don't really remember how they got there, but continuing: After a while, the box opened up from the side and might have formed a ramp. This dude wearing white - might have had a white cap and mask - pulls me out. I remember enjoying the cool sensation of his hand as he felt me all over. I think he stuck something in me because my mom recalled a few years ago that he had trouble finding a vein and was injecting me or taking my blood or something. My mom was there I think. The stuff in my background vision were... hard to explain. I don't know whether my recollection came first or hers. Actually, I remember for sure that that one is genuine, or I at least fabricated it independently. One last interesting note on this era is, despite being five weeks early, I was quite large. In fact, that was part of the reason for the accidental induced labor. The point is, I apparently broke my left collarbone/shoulder coming out. Err...don't remember any pain.
I remember being in what I think must be the incubator, since I was five weeks early in being born. (er... doesn't that make it MORE unlikely that I had a good enough brain for storing this?) I remember seeing redness...ugh. My "memory" is quite corrupt here. Moving on to being in a place where there's tons of babies and I remember that everyone else was being taken away except me. Sad. Now, sometimes I'm 100% sure I got this specific part from some dumb movie I watched when I was seven or eight, but other days... I remember being taken into the car. I don't remember the front seat or the back seat, but everything seemed so large, and the door opening was a weird perspective. It was night time. The moon might've been out or I might've seen the cross on that hospital, if it even had one. Drifting off while in a moving car is so fun, was what I remembered. Here ends the wacky, part that most everyone will say is just false memory, even me.
Here comes the slightly surer part. I remember my mom holding me and talking with my brother. There was bright light on the ceiling (where else?) and when she handed me over, they talked about if one drops a baby, they get a dent in their head. They were speaking Chinese obviously, but I didn't know any language so how the heck did I understand? I remember being held by my dad while I was grabbing after something I think were CD cases. We were by the entrance to my mom's shop, and it had the standard store doors that you pull open and it goes ding. I think. My mom was talking to a bunch of people.
Next one is one of my favorite. Starts out me being in a purple basket, plastic one. Changing diapers in there took forever and was quite uncomfortable. On one day, my mother took me out on a stroller. That felt heavenly, just going down the sidewalk. Well, I assume I was in a sidewalk, all I saw was bright light shining through the blue cover and my mom's friend and her talking about me and calling me "Big Head." One of the dreams that I remember having was slipping out of my bed and sliding across the floor. I remember dreaming/fantasizing that and thinking about how fun it'd be. Also remember when I started walking. This obviously must sound like a stock story: Wobble up, walk sideways in kitchen, barely make it to Mom while she's praising me. Backing up, I remember being at what I thought was an airport. As soon as my mom wasn't looking, I made a run crawl for it. I think that she saw the tail (diaper??) end of me as I made my escape. I met a whole bunch of giants, a couple (as in man and woman) might have been American, at least European. I looked through the glass into a store (low glass) that had something to do with cafe or food I think. My mom remembers this too, and I don't remember, but I think I mentioned it first, and when she told me her memory, it overpowered some of mine. Like, it was a hotel not an airport terminal. We were in Hong Kong I think she said. Here ends my part that has slightly more credibility but I believe me. There are more memories of my early infanthood, but I'll spare you.
Next is when I'm three I guess. I remember asking my dad my age and he saying zero. Him turning over the food table in fit of rage. Someone had cut the line and the phone wasn't working and I was home alone wondering how the heck I was supposed to use the stupid thing. I think I just expected to have it ring or pick it up and it automatically would work. Finding out that there was no sound, and either traced the cord and found it cut and not knowing what that meant or FINALLY came home and inspected the phone and going "Oh no!" or something. After this point, my memories flood. Going to daycare. Finding rubber bands so Mom could tie hair (just a little thing we did). The delicious food nearby. Having to sleep outside in the glaring light next to window instead of in naproom because I tossed and turned too much. Went as far as eating my snacks in the bathroom because afraid to flush it. Going to preschool, and girl saying that don't rub eyes or else blindness. Travelling in an airplane and getting this cool action figure that I wish I knew the name of from a stranger lady, and going to school and some jerk claims its his. I point out that he has his in his hand, but he says he has both, but the teacher decides to avoid stress and conflict resolution on her part and throws them both away. First character we learned was a two stroke thing for "man." I was the second to finish. From that day on, I was the last to finish my meals or my handwriting. Tons more flood in. The unfairness of having to ride the late bus because I can't fit onto the little kiddie bus but the older kids were nice to me. They would chant my name when the bus driver asked who next to send home. Dozens and dozens of memories, and if I wrote them all down, not only would half of you be dead by now, you'd've tracked me down and killed me too in order to stop me from typing... Plus, that is probably the point where most people start getting the flood of memories so it is pointless for me to start reciting my life story.
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« Last Edit: March 28, 2012, 12:09:06 am by Valos Cor »
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I'm the kind of person that uses Linux and seems to be a very literate adult but has no idea how to do anything code-wise beyond basic stuff.(such as su -<password> yum install uqm) Except I didn't install UQM that way...I used Add/Remove Software...
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onpon4
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Onpon4, that sounds like a pretty unhappy childhood!
Nah, not an unhappy childhood, but one I really wish I hadn't lived looking back, because it was very much completely worthless. I did normal kid's stuff when I was with other kids, but alone (i.e. most of the time), all I ever did was watch TV (PBS Kids) or fool around doing simple things to amuse myself (e.g. making 150 "levels" in Lode Runner that just involved the character falling into an endlevel portal). There was only one thing somewhat worthwhile I ever did by myself, starting toward the end of elementary school (maybe 4th grade), and that was reading books about dinosaurs. Mostly because I liked to read about dinosaurs fighting.
There was one unhappy part of my childhood, and that's around 8th grade. Unfortunately, this part of my childhood gets really complicated. I'm not sure what made me sad, but I clearly remember the reason. It went something like, "I'm a terrible person. That must be why I don't have any friends. No one likes me." Sometime during 8th grade, I started actively trying to change my personality from a silly one into a more serious one (I swear I'm not lying: I was trying to be like Shadow the hedgehog). I even remember feeling achievement one day when one of my classmates commented that I looked more mature than before. This was around the time the whole SCDB fiasco happened as well, and the rest is history (well, not quite; I maintained this absurdly serious mask until mid-11th grade, when I finally started lightening up again, but the point is, I wasn't unhappy at this point).
What a tangent... maybe I'm talking too much.  Point is, I hate my childhood (everything up until the second semester of 11th grade), but I wasn't unhappy through most of it.
Oh, I almost forgot to nitpick! It's "onpon4" or "Onpon", not "Onpon4".  A quote from my page on the MFGG wiki which I wrote:
Except on wikis, "onpon4" is always spelled in all lowercase. onpon4 is picky about this. It is acceptable (and even preferred) to write "onpon" capitalized in most cases (indeed, his website is titled "Onpon's Games and Apps"). However, if capitalization causes "onpon" to stand out when it isn't the primary focus, it is preferred to spell it in all lowercase, "onpon". In situations where it is impossible to not capitalize "onpon4", "onpon" should be used instead unless it's a username, in which case "Onpon4" is preferred.
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Valos Cor
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I didn't have many friends either for a long time, mostly because we kept moving around and I was interested in a lot of different things. Initially, it was the language thing, but I picked up English in K-2 grade like I said, osmosis. I spent third and fourth grade homeschooled. Fifth grade being a fourth grader in Taiwan again because 4th grade still had the Chewing pronunciation system that I could pick up. I went back to America the next year and jumped to 6th. That's when I started learning all the little things other kids knew. I took about a year or two of learning "the ways" and got used to solitude (like it a lot actually). Then I started getting friends but still was a bit reclusive. Then, after I'd gotten nice and comfortable, I moved twice in a row. Instead of shrinking back into a stupid little shell, I expanded and everyone knew my name. When my biology teacher commented that I should stay in school (had something to do with being homeschooled for emergency purposes) because I was way too social for that. Then I knew things had changed, so I guess the same thing kind of happened to you.
SCDB fiasco? Um... don't remember it, though maybe vaguely, but not important.
Well, I only capitalized onpon4 since it was at the start of the sentence and I like capitalizing the first word so much I even do it on chatting in games, unless it's on a first person shooter, but I'll be sure to use Onpon or onpon4 from now on. Well, the only game that my internet has the bandwidth for is Ace of Spades, which is a really cool first person shooter but has poor graphics, but I don't care about that. In that game it's so fast paced I do like everyone else and go "wtf get h thath aobedude!" or "dude stop buildng as stui\pid inner wall and atually halp us beuild tht tower!@!@" The only thing is there's no leadership on the servers I'd played. If a lot of people play this game on this forums, maybe we could assemble a team and show everyone just how powerful leadership and teamwork can be.
That's what school should've been like: For World Geography, we reenact the battles of the major wars using videogames. For Human Geography, again, we reenact the battles and demonstrate the effect of war on population. For Economics, again, demonstrate the economy of war by having missions where you destroy trade routes. For US government? Well...have a campaign where the whole point is revolution. Science? Halo. Math? Logistics for games again. Professional Communications? Practice having the leaders give stirring speeches over the the mike to other players to get them to anhililhihlate the other team.
I suddenly want to play Lode Runner ,hehe. I did spend some time making levels myself, but I think I ran into a dead end and was bored, then wondered why the heck I was wasting my time on that.
I remember being in first grade and passing through a stage where all the science books that had pictures in it were fascinating. I read tons about history with dinosaurs and whatnot. Granted they were all picture books but I read every caption and then went and got more. That was when we had to go to the library and at least check something out. When the library become simply a functional thing and not mandatory, I never checked a book out again, not that I don't like books, but they didn't have the stuff I read. I'd rather read David Brin's books but the only thing they had was "The Postman" and I had a copy. Man, the category of "book worm" is just way too large. If you lived in a town with only book reading fanatics, you'd probably find that at least a third of them and you have no read books in common at all besides classics or that latest.
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I'm the kind of person that uses Linux and seems to be a very literate adult but has no idea how to do anything code-wise beyond basic stuff.(such as su -<password> yum install uqm) Except I didn't install UQM that way...I used Add/Remove Software...
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Draxas
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My first real memory was of very nearly dying, which is unsurprising because trauma will do that. Being quite young (2? Maybe 3?) and unable to swim, the a-hole neighbor kid decided it would be terribly amusing to push me into the deep end of his pool without anything to help me float. This was at his pool party, but my parents were distracted at the time, so I quite likely would have drowned if not for an older neighbor girl (I think she was a teenager at the time) seeing this happen and jumping in to save me. I quite vividly remember flailing around underwater and seeing her come at me to grab me, but everything fades around that point. From what my parents say about the aftermath, I had already started turning blue, so I may have actually passed out underwater.
I suppose I'm lucky it happened so young, because I don't really have any lingering fears of drowning or swimming or water in general. At last check, the neighbor kid was still an a-hole, though (and was a quite nasty tormentor and bully throughout my childhood, but I digress).
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onpon4
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My first real memory was of very nearly dying, which is unsurprising because trauma will do that. Being quite young (2? Maybe 3?) and unable to swim, the a-hole neighbor kid decided it would be terribly amusing to push me into the deep end of his pool without anything to help me float. This was at his pool party, but my parents were distracted at the time, so I quite likely would have drowned if not for an older neighbor girl (I think she was a teenager at the time) seeing this happen and jumping in to save me. I quite vividly remember flailing around underwater and seeing her come at me to grab me, but everything fades around that point. From what my parents say about the aftermath, I had already started turning blue, so I may have actually passed out underwater.
I suppose I'm lucky it happened so young, because I don't really have any lingering fears of drowning or swimming or water in general. At last check, the neighbor kid was still an a-hole, though (and was a quite nasty tormentor and bully throughout my childhood, but I digress).
The one thing about water that's scary to me is the instinctive response to drowning. It's terrifying to think that, in a drowning situation, not only would you be completely helpless, not even able to scream or flail, but lots (likely all, save for lifeguards) of the people around you would be completely clueless.
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RTyp06
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One of my earliest memories is breast feeding. I've never asked my mother how old I was before she stopped but I suspect around teething time like all mammal species.
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