Sunday, September 7, 2014
The Importance of Early Childhood Memories
What are your earliest childhood memories? How many stories can you tell about events in your life that happened before you reached the age of four? New research shows that people who can recall these events from early childhood are generally more psychologically healthy as adults. So what factors determine an individual's ability to recall these early events in their life? Read this article to find out more on this research and then share your thoughts below. How well can you recall early memories from your childhood and to what do you attribute your ability to do so (or lack thereof)? What are these memories about and why do you think you can still recall them after all these years? Do the findings from this research hold true for you and your ability (or inability) to recall these early memories today?
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I remember very little from my early childhood. The things I do remember aren’t “traumatic” or “life changing” simply because I had a very consistent childhood. I always had somewhere to sleep at night, I’ve never broken a bone or been severely sick, I went to the same babysitter everyday for 10 years, and I’ve always had healthy relationships with my family members. My early memories are very happy and kind of insignificant. I didn’t go to daycare with other kids before pre-school, it was just my brother and I all day long. I think that plays a role in my lack of memories because I was never in distress or anything due to other children. The more I think, the more I realize that the memories I do have from my childhood are tied to being embarrassed or harassed. Two feelings I would never feel just hanging around with my baby brother all day. I have memories from preschool of having crushes on boys and playing in the rice or water tables, but thats about it. I don’t attribute my lack of remembrance in my early childhood to my parents not asking about my day, I truly believe it was just because I had a very easy, carefree childhood. After asking my mom if she asked me about my day, she said that she asked everyday, and everyday I responded with “fine”. I never wanted to share anything about my day, which is bizarre. Whenever I had a friend over after school, my mom told me that they would always share with her how their day went, but I never did. As I got older, I can recall more memories from 2nd or 3rd grade because I was really interacting with my classmates. Oddly enough, I remember a few of my doctor visits from when I was younger. I can’t remember if I was afraid at the doctors, or just very involved while I was there. I was very lucky to have such a safe and secure childhood, but it makes me wonder, if my childhood wasn’t so secure, who would I be today?
ReplyDeleteI can recall quite a few childhood memories. Unlike a majority, 90% of my memories I can recall are good and not very “traumatic.” When I was younger I always had a set schedule of which I followed routinely. If something was ever out of place or we were off by X amount of time I would panic. I also believe a lot of my memorization skills came from my grandma. When I was younger we had these huge stacks of flash cards with pictures, words, spelling, and math on them. We would review these all the time and it really helped improve my recollection. The memories that seem to stick in my head were either repetitive or, for some odd reason, I just remembered it. For instance, when I was younger I would play cards with my great grandma every day after I got to my grandma Ann’s house. While I played with her I would have a peanut butter sandwich cut in four with a handful of pretzels. The reason this memory is so prominent in my brain is because it was something I did daily. The repetition helped “burn” the memory into my brain. On the other hand, one memory of which I have no idea why I still remember it was when my dad dropped me off at pre-school. I had been going there for months, but that day he dropped me off I just started crying. I can see him walking out of the room in his dress shoes and khakis and a tie on his way to work. This memory has no significant value to it, but for some strange reason, it has stayed in my memory to today. As far as retaining my memory when I was younger, my parents didn’t do too much to really work specifically on those skills. They would ask me questions about my day or maybe something that happened earlier in that week, but for the most part they didn’t intentionally question me about past experiences just to improve my memory. Again, I think a lot of my memorization skills came from repetition, practice with daily activities, and pure ability to remember things well.
ReplyDeleteThere are some things I can remember when I was very young, but most of the memories I can remember are chopped up or not in very good detail. Most times something will trigger a memory, whether it be something I smell, touch, taste, see, or hear. Other times the memory will just pop up in my head if I think of something related to the memory. One memory I can remember is me walking through my living room when I was and another was me getting my diaper changed, the last memory is one of the chopped up ones that I’m not sure it actually happened or I dreamt it. The reason for me being able to remember these specific memories is still unknown to me, the only possible reason for me remembering them because of how random the memories are. The article to me is some what right. Most of the memories I can remember that happened years ago involved one of my parents or something bad that happened to me. One memory I definitely remember because it was a frightening experience is when I fell through a rotted tree house and had a nail cut the side of my body. A way I remember is when I look at the scar from the cut. But other than a traumatic experience, most of the memories I can vividly remember are memories when I was with my mom or dad. Some of the memories I can remember with my parents is them taking me to the fair or birthdays I had or went to. In a way, the article is right on parents being aids for remembering things or being the reason why I can’t remember this one memory they can remember.
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ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory is from when I was actually 18 months old. I thought I was older when this happened, but I guess I was that young. I was walking down the stairs and I slipped on a sock and fell down the stairs and sliced my head on the corner of the window sill and I can remember laying on the floor and having the medics come and ask me questions as the glue my head back together. I remember I asked them if I could back to watching my movie because I did not want to miss it and they asked me what I was watching and I answered charlotte's web with the spider named Charlotte A. Cabatica and the medic were shocked that my memory had not been messed with. I think I remember this time because it was so shocking, But I also remember times from 4 or five.I feel like I am able to remember may events from when I was younger because my mom always asked us to talk about it. The article said that one way to help your child's memories form is by having them talk about it after. My mom always asked us what we like and did not like about what we saw or did. She also took pictures of everything. We have over 10 scrapbooks filled with pictures from when I was born to know of everything. Being able to constantly look back and talk about the events helped the memory stay strong in my mind. I think that my memories have definitely made me who I am like the little girl in the article afraid of dogs, still to this day I am so afraid of falling. Even if I know I can't fall I have a really hard time telling my self it is o.k. and to not be afraid. I feel this is because I feel down the stairs and really hurt myself.
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ReplyDeleteI have a lot of trouble recalling things. My memory isn't the best unless its something that I really repeated a lot of times if it was my own memory. I have 2 memories that happened within days of each other that I remember when I was 3, but they are my only memories that I believe are truly “mine” and not told to me by family members or friends. One was the last day of being at my daycare in Lyme, NH. The two people that owned it took us outside to make something they called “fairy houses”. They had each of us make one either by ourselves or with friends. I remember working really really hard on mine. Then they told us that we had to wait until the next day to see if the fairies brought us anything to thank us or if any signs of them being there showed up. Thats where my disappointment set in. Today was my last day and by the time everyone else got back to daycare that monday, I wouldn't be in the same state as the fairy house I had worked so hard on. This memory stuck with me for a few reasons. One was because of the disappointment I had felt. The other was because once we had moved to the new house in Vermont I made many many different types of the fairy houses they taught me to make up for the one I never got to see a result in. This is how I repeated that memory. The second was actually moving a few days later. I remember driving up through a back road to the house that I moved to in Benson. I remember all the sights I saw when driving. The colors and the numbers of different lawn ornaments have stuck with me because the first time when we drove I counted and pointed out random eye popping things. This stuck with me because for a few months after I repeated this routine of counting and pointing out things. The excited and new feeling that I experienced the first time stuck with me through that everyday routine. Repetition has proved to be the only way I can remember things. I never repeated many things to other people at an early age and I don't blame anyone else for that. That was my personal choice and I do not regret it. The article was very accurate in my opinion with all of its components. I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteAll of my childhood memories I have because my mom told them to me several times. I just forgot that she’s told me before. The only memory that is mine and mine alone was when my dad was in the hospital with melanoma. That memory isn’t perfect but it’s my first real memory. He was in the hospital for quite a few months. My sister and I would go and see him everyday after school. My mom told me that because Linnea and I went to the hospital so often we would come in saying, “I’m home.” My dad was paralyzed from the hips down. My mom would spend so many nights in a row sleeping in the hospital by my dad’s side. My grandma had to come over from Wisconsin to watch Linnea and I at our apartment. Because my dad was paralized he was not alowed to leave the hospital, but they did make and exception. My 5th birthday. I want to VAC, a daycare program in Rutland. My clase threw a birthday party for me, and my dad was alowed to leave the hospital to be there. No one ever told me why he was alowed to leave but i had an idea. I feel like they only let him leave because they knew it would be the last time he would be able to atentend my birthday. They were right. My dad’s birthday was four day’s after mine, July 15th. My mom was alowed to take him out to selebrate his 42nd birthday and to see all of his friends and family. After his birthday I don’t remember much. Everything’s a blur until September 13th, 2002. At 3:00pm my mom told me that my dad died. I remember how sad I was and that I didn’t eat much, I even started to push people away. These are the memories that I know are mine and I will always remember them.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of child hood memories, I could tell you at least three that are kinda traumatic in a way. But the one that sticks with me most is when I was two, the earliest out of all three. I had just woken up from my nap, and I remember waking up and was instantly going for the kitchen. I could smell the chicken soup as I walked further and further down the stairs. My mother had reminded me that it had just came off the stove, but I remember for some reason I really wanted pretzels. So when I saw the pretzels, they were behind the bowl of soup, and surely enough I went for them. I climbed up the chair, and reached for the pretzels, and somehow my elbow knocked the bowl and it spilled all down my right arm. And then I remember screaming so loud, for so long, and then its pretty much a blur after that. My mother has told me countless times that I was screaming the whole time all the way to the hospital until I got checked by the doctor. For some reason, I don't even remember getting into the car or even going to the hospital. I feel part of it was because of my screaming and that's just how my brain had blocked that part out. The main reason why I remember it for the most part is because I still have the scar. I truly do feel that memories stick with you for a reason. Whether it's because you were told countless times, or just experience itself. Memories are stuck in your head for a certain reason.
ReplyDeleteI remember few things from my childhood. Why, I'm not quite sure? Maybe it's because everyday seemed the same? Wake up, play with my lambs as mom did the chores, and then go to the babysitters. Everything was pretty simple back in those days, however there is one night that stands out in my mind. I was three years old and Mom and I had just gotten home for the day. After dropping my little backpack in the kitchen, I ran upstairs to play with my toys, or something of that nature. The later it got the hungrier I became. It seemed like every three minutes I would yell to mom who was trying to make dinner in peace, "Is dinner ready mommy?" My consistent nagging probably went on for a good half an hour before my "accident." Finally after waiting and waiting for what felt like hours to three year old me, I went to the top of the stairs and tried to peak down. I use the word "try" because my plan didn't exactly work out the way I had imagined. I was perched on the second from the top stair right where I could see what was cooking on the stove and hoped mom couldn't see me. There were peas boiling on one burner. As I opened my mouth to comment on the smell of the peas and ask yet again when dinner would be ready, I slipped. All that came out was "Mmm that smel..." and a large thud as I toppled down a flight of stairs. My slippery socks were no match for the sleek wooden stairs and the hard tile waiting for me at the bottom. I remember mommy's ear wrenching scream and some blood but that's about it. Needless to say, my head caught my fall and I managed to crack it open, or so my parents tell me. Dad blames this night for my lack of common sense at times, however I believe it's the reason I hate peas and to this day haven't eaten a single one since that night. Sometimes I look back and wonder if I hadn't been so inpatient or if it wasn't for the stinking peas, if this would have happened. As I have grown up, I have to come to realize that there is a purpose for everything in life both good and bad. The good tend to come with a smile, and the bad occasionally a few tears but always a lesson. Maybe I remember that night for the trauma involved, or maybe it's because each lesson in life has shaped who I am today and I sure learned my lesson about socks, slippery stairs, and patients.
ReplyDeleteMy first memory was when I was three years old. My brother and I were chasing each other around the living room. I was pretending to be a bull, so I had my head in a sort of downward motion. I was running and I tripped and hit my head off of the corner of the coffee table. I cracked my head open and there was blood everywhere. I remember my mom making me lay down and there was blood all over my tweety bird pillow case. She took me to the hospital and I got staples in my head. I think it was a week or two later that I had to go back and get them removed. I remember that getting the staples taken out hurt more than getting them put in. I have a funny memory between me and my brother that I never actually remembered. I was two years old. MY brothers juice box was across the room and we both wanted it. I took the laundry basket and stuck it on top of my brother so he couldn’t get out and then i went and got the juice box. I sat in front of him and started to drink it. My mom would tell me about it all the time. We even have it caught on video so I have seen it before. If my mom never told me about it then I would never have remembered it. I think parents definitely do help you remember things from when you were little. You don’t always remember everything. It is a lot easier to remember painful memories because they basically have scarred you for life.
ReplyDeleteThinking back on my childhood I can only remember a few things that happened to me. None of these were “traumatic” to me but they certainly stand out. The lack of crazy memories I think is because nothing really ever changed until these memories occurred to me. I remember a few things that have scared me and a few that I can look back on to make me laugh. Although I don’t remember them clearly I can remember the details. I believe the scary ones stick out because in some way they taught me to be cautious and also think before I act. I believe the funny ones stick out because them show me to make the best out of everything and always find a reason to laugh. When my dad came home from the hospital on crutches I was in a disarray of what had happened. After learning a tree fell on his leg I remember feeling relieved he would be okay. I think I remember this because I was so scared he wouldn’t be okay. A funny thing I remember is when I piled all my toys including my rocking horse in front of my bedroom door when my mom was chasing me with the vacuum. I believe I remember this because it was so silly and being so little something like being sucked up by the vacuum scared me. After learning about the research I do remember how my mom telling me my dad would be okay over and over and assuring me that there was no way the vacuum could suck me up is also part of me remembering these things. Having these memories with me everyday makes me who I have become in the way act and behave.
ReplyDeleteI tend to have an easy time remembering things, but memories of my youth are scarce except for a series of memories dealing with my family. Although I have a relatively small immediate family, my long distance family is very large. My grandmother is the oldest of seven siblings who all have their separate families in New York making seeing all of them very rare but oddly enough, this makes August a memorable month. For starters, my great-grandmothers birthday is the 22 of August, my parent’s anniversary is the 26th, my birthday is the 26th, and my aunt and uncle’s anniversary is the 26th, what a coincidence! All these dates seem to bring together my family and also seem to re-occur in my earliest memories. My absolute first memory was my second birthday party. Although it was not the exact date, because that was when my aunt and uncle were getting married, most of the family had traveled up north early for my birthday and I remember playing with my dad’s cousins (they are the same age as me due to the fact my grandmother is the oldest) and I specifically remember a blow up kiddy pool. This was no ordinary kiddy pool though because it was at least three feet deep, but what I remember most was nearly drowning, I was just two after all, and it wasn’t bad parental supervisory, I just wanted to hold my breath the longest! Days later, I remember the wedding and I was miserable because it was my real birthday and I had to sit quietly in a stiff tuxedo and I had missed my nap! As I’m told though, I got a nice pseudo-toast and an extra serving of cake, but I can’t remember that part. As for the rest of my early memories, they seem to be bland with nothing exiting or painful, but I remember them none the less.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time determining my early childhood memories from stories my parents tell and many home videos, but I do have one memory that is still vivid even now. It was my first playdate with a friend from my school. We were building a new house in Bomoseen and I was four, so I was starting EEE at Castleton. My best friend was Charlie, and our parents had set up for us to have play dates every week on Tuesdays because my mom needed somebody to watch me while she was at work. Charlie and I would play after we got back to his house from school. Mrs. C would always make us macaroni and cheese too, that was probably my favorite part. We would be so hungry from playing all afternoon and macaroni and cheese was always my favorite thing to eat too. I also remember everytime my mom would come to pick me up Charlie and I would hide because we were having so much fun! It was usually under the table though so we were easily found out. I think that I remember so much of my early childhood because it was documented so well, and if I forget anything I can just go back and watch it again! My mom was very involved in my life though and I used to tell her every little detail about my day so I guess that would make sense that I remember a lot of it. So between my mother being very interactive, being able to watch eighteen CDs full of video footage of my childhood, and my parents liking to tell the stories of things my brother and I would do it all adds up to me remembering a large majority of my early life.
ReplyDeleteI had a pretty normal childhood growing up. I went to preschool, played with friends or the daycare kids and just had fun. No particular memories really stand out to me except one trip down to Alabama to visit family. It was a very eventful trip. I was around the age 2-2 1/2 years old. I have a few memories from this trip. The first was on the way down we stopped at a gas station. My mom and aunt really had to go to the bathroom so they left my brother in charge of getting me out of my car seat and locking the doors. I remember them telling him to not forget the keys. When we got out we started walking to the door and I asked him if he had the keys. His answer? "Nope I left them in the car." I remember waiting for the cops to come help us and being scared that we wouldn't be able to ever leave the gas station. My second memory was when we had a huge water fight with my family. We were all at Grandmothers running around spraying each with water. She lived near a river. Someone sprayed one of my cousins then picked her up and acted like they were going to through her in the river, she started crying her eyes out. I remember everyone stopping and looking. Once she was inside we started again. My last memory from this trip was when we went mudding and got my uncle's truck stuck. I remember freaking out thinking we'd be stuck for a long time. My mom ended up bringing me to my aunts house for the night so I didn't freak out more. I think one reason why I remember this trip so much is because it was a lot fun. It had it scary moments, well at least for a young child, but we still had fun. It is also a very talked about trip in the family so we are always talking about it. My family always talks about stories and I love listening to them. I believe most of my memories come from repetition and hearing the story a lot. Would I remember some of the stuff if my family wasn't like this or would I remember just as much?
ReplyDeleteI can recall many childhood memories, however from what I can remember they were all happy. Growing up, I didn’t have very many “traumatic” experiences. I lived a pretty quiet life. I remember moving around a lot, but I wasn’t at the age when it affected me. I remember always having a fairly good relationship with my parents. I don’t know for certain if they asked me everyday how school was, or how I was feeling, but I don’t think that whether they did or didn’t has very much to do with what I remember from my early years. All that I remember are happy moments. Playing with my brother in the leaves, watching TV with my family, playing outside by the trees, making up dances with cousins and friends. I don’t have very many bad memories from when I was a child. What somewhat “traumatic” memories I do have I wouldn’t even consider to be memories. These are all stories that my parents have told me countless times. I had scarlet fever and was very sick, I fell off a table and put my teeth through my lip, my brother pulled my arm out of socket, I hit my head on a slate driveway. Did I choose not to remember these things as a child? I wouldn’t have known any of these events took place if it weren’t for my parents telling me as I got older. Could it be that those memories aren’t particularly very personal because my parents didn’t talk to me about bad experiences? Or could it just be in my own nature, could it just be the way I deal with bad happenings? Even today I tend to not talk about my issues and to keep them to myself. Could the unlikelihood of me remembering memories at such a young age combined with me choosing to not reminisce on those experiences have to do with me not remembering those times today, and have an effect on the person I have become? Or does the blame fall on my parents, who may not have sat me down each and every day to discuss my “feelings”? I wouldn’t blame my parents. I believe that as a kid, I spent a lot of time on my own. I had a brother in school, and two parents that worked. Although I went to preschool, at home I spent my time in my room alone. From the time I was young I always distanced myself and while being a bubbly personality, when it came to myself and my feelings, I liked to be more reserved. I wouldn’t put that on my parents. I’m sure they tried to talk to me about my days and my issues, but knowing myself better than anyone else, I bet I either avoided the question or responded with a simple “it was fine.” I think me spending a lot of time by myself in my room when I was younger and not talking about bad dreams or bad experiences contributed to the things I remember today and the type of person I became. It does make me wonder what would happen if I had been more open, and had talked more about my feelings and experiences with my parents. It sparks the question, who would I be today if I had?
ReplyDeleteThe most childhood memories that people remember are more “traumatic” than the good memories. For me, I can mostly remember good memories from my early childhood. The first memories I can remember were from the family reunions we had every other year. The first few, are very vacant because I was so young. Those were memories I learned from stories or photo albums. When I turned three, my daily routine changed. I started preschool and began to learn a lot of things that three year olds learn. I learned to swim, read, write, etc. I can remember all those memories perfectly. One of my memories from preschool was meeting one of my best friends, Julia. We went to preschool together and went to the same elementary school. The hardest thing I had to do was to say goodbye to her. I was going to move to Vermont, and of course, move with my family. Even though I lived in New York for 8 years with my family, I knew that moving would be a good change. I know this will sound childish, but I can still remember where every room was in my old house, and all the secret hiding places. Where my dad parked his work cars, where my grandma hid her “secret” Christmas gifts, and where my best friend Emily and I had our sleepovers. To this day, I have visited my old town in Orange County, New York about 5 times. A lot has changed, but I can remember all the good memories that I made while living there. I recently made a memory with my best friend Emily from New York. We both love the UCONN Huskies women’s basketball team, and we decided to go to game together back in February. It had been 3 years since I last saw her, but we had a great time together. So all my memories are good, but there have be some “traumatic” ones.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory was of the first night my sister and I were ever baby-sat. I don’t exactly know why this was the first memory to pop into mind when thinking back, but I can recall every detail of that night. I remember exactly what my mom was wearing and who she and my dad were going out with. I can clearly picture my sister, Katie (the babysitter) and I laying in the bed that used to be in our spare room and watching a cartoon movie about Jesus followed by The Wild Thornberrys Movie. I was only four years old. I can also remember how we ate Schwan's strawberry sundae crunch bars. I can still reminisce about the smell and taste of those bars. From that night on, I must admit I have a tough time putting my memories into chronological order. But I have come to realize one thing in common from each memory. I can remember all of the senses that came along with that memory. To go along the lines of another idea, I also believe repetitiveness has a big part to do with my memorization. For example, every year thereafter (watching the cartoon Jesus movie) when I heard the story of Mary finding Jesus risen from the tomb in church, I could picture in my head the exact scene from that movie. One other factor that helps me remember my childhood is the ability to be able to recall my memories with my sister and verify what happened. I can dare to say that I believe this helped even more than the various methods of parenting that were mentioned in the article.
ReplyDeleteI can remember quite a few of my childhood memories but not nearly all of them, but none of them have been necessary “traumatic” I grew up in a stable, happy household, my parents were, and are still together and until the age of five I was an only child getting lots of attention. Most of the experiences I remember from my childhood are happy. I remember when I was about three years old that every night before I went to bed i would have my mom, or dad read me the same book that was titled “A Kiss Goodnight” I still remember the first line of that story book, it said; “it was a dark and stormy night on Plum street” I don't remember why I loved this book so much, or why i remember the first line of this fifteen page story book, but i do, even now at sixteen years old. I think I may of remembered this book because of the repeated reading of it to me every night before bed, or maybe because I just really liked it? Another memory that I can recall quite well was when I was about four years old and I caught phenomena, I remember being prescribed this thick, white, sandy textured, sour grape tasting medicine that I had to take every night. I remember my mom chasing me around the house with a teaspoon of that in her hand because I just was repulsed by that medicine. I remember being hid behind a chair when she finally got me to take the medicine. Maybe I can recall this memory better because it has to do with taste? I don’t really know. But I would agree that my parents have helped me with my memory of my childhood because everything we did was the same routine everyday and i just got used to it, so when something was out of routine I would notice and it would stick with me to remember later in life, but the memories remember now are in bits and pieces, so maybe if my parents would've talked to me more, and explained what had happened to me that day or week, I would have more vivid detail of these memories.
ReplyDeleteI don’t remember many things from being so young because I did the same things everyday. My mom had her daycare at home so I would just stay home and my friends always came to my house so I got a chance to be with them everyday. I didn't really have that crazy or traumatic a childhood as some people may have had. My earliest memory is from a time when I was much younger than I realized. I remember when I was two and a half, my family took a trip to Florida to visit my aunt. While we were down there we went to a zoo near her house and that was when I first fell in love with giraffes. I remember I had crackers that they had near the exhibit so my parents had given me some. My oldest brother picked me up and we walked right over to the gate. The giraffes walked over to us in their long lazy strides. When they got to the gate they reached their long necks over the top of the fence, so I got the chance to feed them. I remember how their long black tongues licked my arms. I thought it was one of the neatest things that they had black tongues because I have never seen or heard of anything having a black tongue. I don’t remember exactly what thing it was about them made my like them so much I just thought they were such neat animals, so I have been in love with them since. This memory is something that we have pictures of, so I believe that pictures can help you remember things. But I also found out that, in talking with my parents, I have memories of a lot more little details than I thought I had. Whether they were good or bad memories, they have definitely helped me with who I am today.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I don’t remember my childhood. I only remember “landmark” events until the age of about 13, which is where I finally start to have a decent grasp on most of the things that happened. I don’t attritbute this lack of memory to how my parents raised me, since I grew up in a pretty stable home where I was able to talk about my day everyday. My mom was always the one to volunteer to chaperone a field trip so we could discuss it on the way home. She made sure we read books together every night until I was in middle school. I tend to remember the general, long-standing things like that in my childhood, as opposed to having distinct memories or stories to tell. Understandably so, the most vivid memories I have come from making mistakes. I remember getting caught for staying awake until six in the morning at a sleepover with my best friend in kindergarten, or when my crush in preschool embarrassingly asked me in front of everyone why I sat next to him everyday during snack time. Luckily in retrospect, these mistakes don’t really mean anything, but they were sort of my “guiding compass” when making decisions when I was younger. This could also be a reason why I don’t really remember my childhood so much anymore; the less useful the memory is to me, the less I need it. I didn’t really do anything notably bad when I was younger, so most of my childhood doesn’t really offer me any guidance for the rest of my life. In contrast, these last few months have been an incredible period of personal growth for me that I really think will help me for the rest of my life, so I doubt I will be forgetting it any time soon.
ReplyDeleteI have some memories that i can recall from my early childhood days. Some being chopped up or just parts of memories and others that i remember fully and then some that i "remember" only because of what my family has told me. Most of the memories i have from when i was little happen to be with one of my best friend’s, well the memories i can remember more clearly anyways. Maybe i remember them clearer than other memories because she was my “first” real friend? maybe it’s because i didn’t see her everyday so that when i did things seemed more exciting? One of the earliest childhood memories that i completely remember was when i was about 4 years old, i was going to pre-school in Fair Haven with my best friend, her mom alway brought us there and we would sit together for snack time and lunch time, we always used the same colored blue cups. One day i was trying to be a “big kid” during snack time when i choked on a chip. I think the reason why i remember this so clearer is probably because in my mind as a 4 year old i thought i was going to choke to death! But my friends got me some juice and “saved” my life. I also remember getting in trouble a few times at home and growing up with always having baby ducks to play with every spring. Overall i had a stable childhood, and always had both parents at home each night, eating normal dinners at the dinner table, having regular chores and rules. It seems like when i was younger there was never a “bad” day and life was less stressful and easy going. I also feel like As a child everything was much easier days went by much faster. It’s safe to say that i have never actually had any “traumatic” memories, that i can remember anyways!
ReplyDeleteI can't remember much from my childhood, but there are a few memories that stick out. I was playing in the front yard with my trains when I noticed my neighbor mowing his lawn. I went inside and grabbed a pair of plastic scissors from my play room. I went back outside and sat on my neighbors front lawn and started to cut patches of grass with my scissors. It took me a while to realize the mower has stopped running and everyone was watching me cut the grass with my little pair of plastic scissors. I remember this because I was proud for cutting the grass and my mom kept telling me I did a good job. Another memory that stands out is me kicking my little rubber soccer ball around the house. I would kick that thing for hours around the living room, through the kitchen, on the back deck, but never down the hallway to my moms room. In the hallway was a light cover. It was pretty big and sort of looked like a pine cone. I was absolutely terrified of this light cover. I always had to have a parent walk me down the hallway. I probably remember this so well because that light cover scared me so much. Other than the light cover my childhood was pretty happy. If my mom and dad were busy I always had my brother to entertain me. My mom always asked how my day was and my brother and I were always close. I was pretty much always smiling and having a good time, except when I saw that light cover. That probably contributes to why I am so laid back and happy today. I am glad my childhood went the way it did and I wouldn't change it if I could, only I would smash that stupid light cover.
ReplyDeleteI can recall many memories from my childhood very well. I always contemplate how much of my memory is actually me thinking of these moments. Often my mom will pull out the baby books and VHS tapes to cry and tell us how cute we were and how tall and grown we are now. I think something that contributed to my memories standing out is how much I moved around when I was little. I went from a house on the beach, to a house in Vermont, to a house in Florida. I feel like these different places makes memories stick out in my mind. The extreme changes of scenery makes certain memories more vivid. I also think that from the info in the article, my mom contributed a lot to the amount of things I remember. The article makes me really think about how when you ask a child about their day they are more prone to retain memories. I have a little three year old brother that can’t remember where he places his sippy cup after ten minutes of not having it. But, every night he gets into bed and my mom asks him what he did that day. My brother needs some prompting but overall he can recall the big events of the day. I think that my mother always asking him will help help him. Since I must of gotten close to the same upbringing, I feel like my mom must be tied to me remembering some things that happened in my younger childhood and today.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up as a kid I don’t remember much from my earlier ages. Most of the memories that I remember are not a clear picture and I can only remember bits and pieces. The memories that I can remember clearly are achievements I made during my childhood. I would be able to tell you when and where I accomplished some of my big achievements. Some accomplishments now might not seem like much but when you're at young age, some of the smaller things mean the most. My parents will often talk about my first experiences in doing something whether it be playing in my first basketball game or shooting my first squirrel. Talking about some things bring me back to it as if I was actually there again, reliving it. When I shot my first deer I remember shaking and calling my mom as soon as I shot at it. I remember the whole experience of tracking it and and finally finding it after a long day of tracking. When I got to it and noticed that it had little spikes, that was the best. I couldn't think of anything better than to have my first deer be a buck. I also can remember some bad memories like the four wheeler accident I got into when I was in second grade. There are only certain parts i can remember but those parts will never leave me. I can remember the four wheeler flipping and then waking up to find myself in the backseat of the car. I remember going to the hospital and getting a big teddy bear from my dads friend. This has stuck with me and I think about it every time I go on a four wheeler. Talking about memories, whether they were good or bad have helped me and definitely shaped who I am today.
ReplyDeleteI don't really remember much from my childhood which is really upsetting because I always get told how memorable I was! Honestly the first memory I have when I probably was in first or second grade. I was on my couch and it was late so I was pretty bored. Well my strange little mind wandered me to my room and grab my green blanket. I wrapped my blanket around my neck and I wanted to fly. I mean who can say they have never wanted to fly? I am pretty sure every kid had a dream that they could fly! But I wasn't just jumping in the air and landing on the ground, I was jumping off the couch onto my table. just back and forth, well one attempt of me flying was a complete epic fail! I completely missed the table and hit my head on the edge of the table. I remember going back to my room and then putting my head in the pillow and seeing a big pool of blood. From that point I didn't really remember what happened but I just remember showing up at the hospital and then bringing me into the ER. I remember them putting staples into my head and every single time I hear or see a stapler I think back to my horrific moment! But just seeing that pool of blood really stuck with me throughout the years. I guess because it's tramatic and it sticks with you the most. I remember coming home and my mom had to wash my head. I remember the exact words "You look like you dyed your hair red." I put my head in the sink and I just saw the rainfall of blood go down the drain. I mean suprisingly blood has no affect on me, but it shocks me seeing that much would make you sick to your stomach. It's just really depressing that I don't remember any of my earlier birthdays or happy memories. Just me bleeding from my own head. That's just say Gabby didn't do much flying after that event.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up with the kind of parents I have, has definitely affected my ability to recall early events in my childhood. My family and I are very close, and recalling memories of the past brings us that much closer so we happen to tell them more often than not. One early childhood memory that has been branded into my head was at 3 years old, when my family lived in Wells, Vt. Our house was this huge log cabin in the middle of nowhere. It was early morning and I was sitting in my highchair, watching my dad carrying over my cereal when all of a sudden I heard this loud purr from our cat at the time. My dad stopped dead in his tracks, mom and I looked down and saw a half eaten rabbit my cat had just brought in laying across my dad’s feet. To this day my mom still talks about what happened and my dad cringes every time. Other than events like that, and my 3rd birthday where I got my first four-wheeler, I can’t quite remember what really happened in my first 5-6 years of life. Now and then I’ll have dreams about things that has happened when I was younger, little snippets, but that’s really it. Even though I can’t remember most of my childhood, the reason why I think I can recall some of them is because of the intensity it had on me as a young child. That rabbit was the first “Predator vs. Prey” moment for me, and getting my first four-wheeler was the best thing that happened to a little tomboy like myself at that age. However I do believe that my parents have helped me remember some memories like when a moose came right up to our sliding glass doors of our house, she shares that picture with everyone. My parents also bring out the first legit halloween costume I had, which was Raggedy-Anne. Therefore, I do agree with the research, in regards of parents helping their children recall important memories like my parents have done for me. But the best moments are the ones at family reunions when I get to hear all about my parent’s childhood’s. Recalling crazy memories is something that my family will always do, which not only had made me get in touch with mine, but also has brought us closer together.
ReplyDeleteI remember a lot of my childhood memories but for sure not all of them. I had a good childhood growing up with my parents. I never had any “traumatic” injuries or life changing events. When i was young in pre-school probably around age four, i remember the scenery around me and what i was doing in my pre school at the time of my incident. My mom showed up early to the daycare so i dropped the legos and ran into the other room when i was turning the corner and hit right under my eye on the metal chalk holder of the chalkboard. i remember being in the hospital getting stitches under my right eye and to this day i have the scar under my eye. I think i remember this incident because i had to get stitches and it shocked me when i was running to see my mom and suddenly got knocked out by the side of a chalkboard. Another time that shocked me was also when i was four i was running in at daycare from recess it was winter and i went to stop and i slipped on ice and fell and broke my arm, to this day i can remember what happened like it was yesterday and still feel my feet falling out from under me and trying to take the fall with my arm. This was very painful i remember everyone was shocked that i did not cry i was shocked at myself that i didn't cry. Once i got to the doctor they put me in a cast and i was able to pick my color and i picked red because i loved the Red Sox. I think its amazing how our brain remembers the shocking incidents that happen in our life and keep them sealed in there for our life in such great detail.
ReplyDeleteI have been able to remember key moments from my early childhood but there's a lot of "blank spaces" where there's just a few areas that lack any memories, and they're the filler memories (mostly the boring things). Some of the key moments include the birth of my sister, preschool, my Hawaii friends, and other bits and bobs from living in Hawaii. Before I reached the age of four, I can remember my sister being born, and living in a bare bones apartment with 1 or 2 toys and an ABC book to entertain me for countless hours. When I was very young I was reading all the time, and we only had spelling books which can probably be attributed to my exceptional spelling and grammar skills that I have today. I have good memory when I sit and focus on the certain thing I'm trying to keep in my memory bank for at least a solid half hour. I'm not sure why I remember a decent amount of moments from practically every year of my life, but I just do. I was never influenced by my parents to do any memory exercises as a child either. This research does not apply to my situation because I remember because of myself, not because of some outside influence. I do not remember any of my birthdays or any of the times I went trick or treating, or opening presents (which I found out after watching the recordings, were all books) on Christmas. The most vivid and memorable of my memories are the times I either was hurt, sick, or in trouble. One of those moments was when I was playing at the playground with my other preschool friends and some girl was at the top of the slide (which was red) and I waited for about 3 minutes before I finally pushed her down the slide because I was young and impatient. I was put in timeout for a full day after that, because the girl ended up doing a barrel roll right into another kid. A final note is that I sometimes dream about memories and re-live them through the eyes of a spectator, and it refreshes some memories so they aren't lost.
ReplyDeleteThere is not a lot that I remember from my childhood. The things that I do remember are just little bits and pieces. I remember going to Disney as a child and I remember my uncle taking me to preschool everyday. i remember my grandfathers funeral. I think I remember these things because they were important events to me. I remember some things because they were a happy experience and I remember other things because they were very sad to me. I think that I would have remembered other events from my childhood if I had been asked to talk about it more. My mom has a lot of photos of when I was little and they are of events that I can’t remember. Some of the stories my parents tell me are stories that I wish that I could remember. There are a lot of memories I have from after my brother was born. That is around where my earliest memory starts, but not until he was a few years old. I remember a lot of random events happening through my life that don’t make sense for me to remember at all. I remember when we changed the the walls in my dining room. I don’t know exactly why I remember that, it’s probably because it was a change in my surroundings. I remember random birthday parties and random events that are strange for me to remember. After things happened my parents never really asked me to recount them. I feel that if they had done that I would have remembered more from my childhood. Having me repeat it back to them would probably help me to remember details of the event. I wish that I could remember more about my childhood and not just what I see in pictures and videos.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do remember some things from my childhood, many of them were insignificant. I grew up with a somewhat normal childhood, but of course it had some ups and downs. What my earliest memory would have to be is when I was around 4 years old, and I lived in Bridport, Vermont in a lake house. Every once in a while, my family would take my younger sister and I down to the lake where we would spend the evening fishing and making s’mores over a fire. My parents would invite friends, and I would splash around in the lake with my golden retriever, Whisper. Another thing that I remember was when my mother was in the hospital to deliver my youngest sister. I remember watching a movie with my dad and my younger sister, Rhiana, while my mom was at the hospital. I can remember holding her for the first time, and the first day that we brought her home. I definitely believe that my parents having conversations with me helps to remember some of these memories more vividly. For example, sometimes when it’s late at night and there’s nothing good on TV, we’ll talk about some of the memories that remember or watch home videos. I have a much harder time remembering many bad memories, though. Maybe this is because my family doesn’t like discussing them, or maybe they weren’t horrible enough for me to remember them as vividly. For example, the one very detailed bad memory that I can remember is when my mom told me that my parents were getting a divorce. I was devastated, as any little kid would be growing up with both parents. I can remember how I felt for days afterwards, and how every day I would come home off the bus to fighting parents. Eventually, my mom took my sisters and I and we moved to a different house. This was one of the more negative memories I remember, but it is a memory that is very hard to forget. That being said, I definitely believe that discussions between my parents and I helped to shape which memories I remembered better versus the ones that I really have to think about to recognize.
ReplyDeleteI remember a lot from my childhood, I remember daycare and preschool memories and family events. I do not consider these things to be traumatic or significant. Most of the things that I remember are completely random. I do not believe, however, that being able to recall these memories will help me better develop a sense of identity or make sound choices in adulthood. Also, in my childhood, both of my parents would talk to me and ask me and my sisters how our day was. Our father would pick us up from school or daycare and talk to us about our day and later, when my mom came home she would ask us questions about our day. I have heard stories about me as a child and I guess I was very talkative. I think that part of me remember who I was and stories from a young age must do with the fact that I have had stories about my early life told to me so many times. I think that I originally remembered fractions of the stories but after hearing them so many times, my mind has “filled in the blanks” and created full, vivid memories. I do not believe that if a person does not remember their childhood it means that they’re parents didn’t do talk to them about their day. The most traumatic thing that has occurred in my lifetime would be finding out that the tooth fairy isn’t real. I remember crying for an hour until my parents offered me ice cream, I was a rotund child. Everything else I remember is seemingly pointless. I remember my sister putting lipstick all on my face and playing the Bratz movie on repeat every night. I do not understand how remember that would possibly have an effect on my future life and decision making.
ReplyDeleteIn the article by Sue Shellenbarger called, “The Power of the Earliest Memories,” describes and emphasizes the importance of studies that explain the best ways to enhance a child’s memory from a very young age. These experiments proved that if a parent, most predominantly a mother, asks their child to explain in detail a story or an event that they experienced it will remain in their memory longer and will help develop better memory making skills. This piece made me think back on my own childhood and the things that I remember from before I was five, and I am surprised with how many I have. Some of them were funny to think of because out of all the things to remember, I remember stupid little stories. Like a dream that I told my mom about, there was this really pretty princess with blonde hair and a pink dress and she showed me around her castle. At that time it was the best dream ever! This dream that I remember is all thanks to my mom for asking me about my dream and listening to me tell the whole story. Another funny little memory that I have is from my 3rd birthday party. A parent of one of my friends was there and I had never seen him before so I didn’t realize that he was a parent, instead I thought that he was troll (like the kind under the bridge) because of his features and grumpy demeanor. I told my mom this story that day because I was just so scared and she talked me through it and made me realize that he was just Ben’s father. After the initial memory so many memories came flooding back and it is all thanks to my mom for being such a great listener. However, I did find that while I remembered a good amount of detail from these few memories, I didn’t remember a large number of memories. This leads me to think that my parents used this technique sometimes but not all the time.
ReplyDeleteThe first memory I have is very vivid. It was the first day of preschool at Mrs. Jensen’s on Pencil Mill Road. My friend since birth Matt Hadeka and I rode with our parents up the driveway- there was a bright purple lilac tree on the lip of the lawn just before the road. We rode up the driveway in my mom’s old green van, which I remember feeling very safe inside. I remember seeing about 6 kids playing in the front yard: one had a bright yellow truck, one was chasing another with a bubble wand, and another was chasing a butterfly. I then recall getting out of the car and being told quickly and excitedly to get up on the front steps for a picture. I nervously clung to both my backpack straps, white knuckled and red faced. After that all I can remember from pre-school was meeting my other lifetime friend Jaxon Smith- it was a complete accident and I’ll never let him forget it. It was a few weeks down the road and I walked into school that day looking for Matt. He actually hadn’t gotten there yet, but I was looking everywhere for him. Finally in the back room I found him- he was sitting at a table by the window with his face bathed in bright yellow light. I ran up to him and tugged on his shoulder, he turned and it became apparent that wasn’t Matt. These two are without a doubt my earliest memories, and I appreciate them for that, because I think about them everyday. They remind me how simple it can be to make a story that can last a lifetime, or accidently meet your best friend. So I do think I get significant value from these memories and lessons learned from early childhood recollections. A
ReplyDeleteI remember quite a bit from my childhood, but some of them are not ones I would think I would remember because it wasn't very important and nothing happened that was exciting. One thing i remember is standing in my kitchen eating something, but I don't remember what it was, and seeing my cousins and brothers running by me playing. My mom and uncles were leaning against the counter talking. There wasn't anything that happened that stood out or anything, and I don't know why I remember it. I was about 3 or 4 when this happened. Another early memory I have is around the same time when I lived in Benson. I was standing outside playing and my little brother Shawn was playing too. We had a yard on a hill with a big pine tree that grew halfway down the hill. I remember Shawn getting in the wagon and going down the hill and this was when he was 1 or 2 and he went down the hill and went right under the tree. I remember him crying and my dad jumping off the porch and running to get him. While this is happening my mom is yelling at my dad to hurry and I'm just watching while it happens. Then my dad gets to the tree and pulls him out and that all I remember. I think I remember because it was one of the first traumatic things I saw in my life. I remember a lot from my childhood but not a lot of them are worth remembering and I don't know why I do remember them.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Page
ReplyDeleteAlot of memories from my childhood are very clear to me. My family brings up a lot of things in the past, good and bad. The most clear thing I can remember from when I was very young is when I was 3 we moved to North Carolina. My parents got jobs, and wanted space from their parents. I remember exactly what the house looked like, I even remember that you had to walk up 4 stair to get into the front door. I remember that because my dad wouldn’t let me up the stairs unless I counted them. I also remember the dog we had for a very short time. He was only with us for 2 years. He was very mean to me, he always bit me. I remember when my grandparents all came down for a visit. It was Christmas in July for us. My mothers parents bought me a Barbie Jeep that I could drive. I was terrified of it for some reason. I also remember that my dad had a train station set up in the attic. And when I got really scared at the house at night, I thought I heard something outside so I threw a toy truck at my window. I remember my parents being scared or mad because they knew the landlord would see it. Before the age of 3 I do not remember anything. I have a million family videos, and baby videos, but remember nothing. But the memories I have remembered, have made me realize I was a spoiled child. And had a wonderful childhood. I even remember my first sleepover. When I was 4, In North Carolina my friend Kelsey lived right next door. I got scared in the middle of the night, and had to have my dad come pick me up.
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ReplyDeleteThere aren't many memories that I do remember from age four and below but when I was in pre-school which was when I would play house with the girls in my class. We would take and all have characters in the house and I was usually the dad because I mean I was the only guy. The other girls would either be my wife or my daughter’s and we would all pretend that we would be doing things in the house. Another of my most vivid memories was when I was in kindergarten. We were supposed to be making webs out of glue and string. Me and my friend took the string and where making random shapes and after a while we threw the string at each other and around the room. this is kinda random but he ended up being a bully and so I didn’t stay friends with him. I think that a lot of the memories that we have from when we were younger is do to them being something that we would do a lot or that the memories are something that resulted in something bad or very good. I think that a lot of the memories that our parents remember help us think that we remembered a lot of the memories that we think we know but a lot of the times they are just out parent’s memories. Our parent’s memory of those events is something that can be helpful because that memory is in there point of view. One of the memory’s that my mom said she remembers is me pulling movies off the shelves at my house. Me myself i can’t remember doing it but my mom has pictures of me doing it so I can imagine me pulling the movies off the shelves. I think that our parent’s help us remember things sometimes but in a different sense i don’t because that's just making us try to remember the actions of what we did. This doesn’t help us remember the thoughts that we had in our head when doing these actions.
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ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to tell which memory is the earliest. I’ve often wondered which one is actually my first. The oldest ones I do remember aren’t necessarily complete. I remember brief scenes from preschool and doing this with babysitters but not what I would call a complete memory. If I were to recall my earliest memory that I could actually explain, it would be from preschool. I remember how preschool was set up into a morning class and an afternoon class. I was in the afternoon class. I remember my routine every morning. I was able to sleep in and get up when I pleased. I remember that every morning I would get my breakfast and watch cartoons. I can vaguely remember what I was watching but no names of shows come to mind. I remember going into preschool and doing things like learning to tie my shoes. We were able to play games and on certain days we could use things like the sand box. I remember learning things in preschool like nutrition and cleaning. We did things with the food pyramid and we were told to always put things back where we found them. My preschool teacher knew my dad pretty well so I remember a joke we played on him one day. At the end of the day my teacher sent me home covered in bandages to make my dad think that I got all scraped up that day. I remember his reaction and having so much fun. He of course probably didn’t fall for the joke but in my 3-4 year old mind he did. I am able now to see these memories of my childhood clearly. I try to pause every now and then and remember what it’s like to be here right now in hopes that I won’t forget when I get older.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I have a clear memory of is somewhat bittersweet to look back on. I only met my maternal grandfather once before he passed away in 2003. By the time I was born he had moved to Georgia and only met him when we made a family trip down to see him. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything of him or the visit. However, I remember something from the plane ride. It was October of 2002 and I was just two and a half years old. I remember no details of the ride into Boston, or the busy airport. I don’t remember boarding the plane or the turbulent take off. The small detail I remember, and remember vividly, is just after the plane was in the air. Suddenly something came to me and I realized I had no idea where my doll was. Now I wasn’t any sort of a girly-girl but I had one rag-style doll that I would drag everywhere for some years. For some reason my parents had packed it away in our luggage instead of keeping it in a carry-on. When this wave of realization hit me I looked straight at my mother and demanded to know where my doll was. I remember her beginning to mumble some explanation for my empty arms and could not come to terms with emptiness I felt. I looked between her and the window and was not phased whatsoever about that fact that I was some 30,000 feet in the air. All I knew was that I did not have my doll and I was not getting clear answers as to why. I can see the beige seats and curtains surrounding me. I can picture the oversized seat I was restlessly stuck to. Most clearly, I remember never receiving a good answer to why I could not have my doll. Even after my father tried to explain how we couldn’t get to our luggage during the flight still, to this day my parents admit it was their mistake to not have my precious doll on hand.
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few memories that I have of myself when I was young. Most of them aren’t even the ones that I remember, but ones that my family has repeatedly told me. My grandfather passed away when I was seven years old. The only real memory that I have myself is with him. In kindergarten, I went to St. Mary's in Middlebury and everyday he would pick me up after school. I’d like to say that I was wrapped around his finger and got just about everything I wanted with him. He would take me out for a snack and then we would go to the Dollar Store for a treat. At first I would pick out a doll or barbie of some sort, but one day I decided to go for the makeup. I came home that day with lipstick smeared all over my face. As I walked through the door I could see my mother's mortified look on her face. She then banned both my grandfather and I from ever buying that again. The next day or so when we found ourselves there again, and I headed right towards the make up. My grandfather reminded me of what my mother had told me, but I just told him that she said no lipstick, not other types of makeup. Somehow I convinced him to go with the bright blue eye shadow this time. Why he agreed I’m not completely sure, but after that, we were told no more makeup of any sort is to be on my face when I got home. My grandmother to this day says that it was my puppy dog eyes that would get him every time. Although a lot of things happened when I was younger, I personally don't remember a lot. The few memories I do have will stick with me forever.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my childhood, I had a pretty great life. My parents were together, my younger brother and I were best friends, I had a home, plenty of food to eat and a big family that loved me. Although, the few unfortunate events that I did go through, I remember pretty well compared to the normal days that I spent at home playing with my mom and brother, Jake. The first memory I have is getting stitches at the Rutland Hospital after I had just turned 3. I was playing hopscotch on slate rocks at my Nana and Pop Pop’s with my cousins, and I slipped and cut a huge gash on my ankle. I don’t fully remember that though, my parents told me those details. What I do remember though, is the ride to the hospital from Castleton, while I was bleeding, and screaming in the hospital bed while my dad and aunt were holding me down for the doctor to give me the fourteen stitches. I also remember waking up in the middle of the night on the way home from a family party, when my family and I got into a car crash, when I was about 5.
ReplyDeleteOn a brighter note, my other vivid memory from when I was 3, was on Halloween. I was dressing up as a ladybug that night, and in the memory I am just looking into the mirror in the bathroom in the house that I live in now, while my mom is putting black polka dots on my face to enhance the ladybug effect, I suppose. In that moment though, I am the happiest kid in the world. I really do not remember anything else except for that though. I imagine that part of this memory could possibly come from looking through scrapbook pictures that my mom has shown me as well.
I don’t think that I remember these memories specifically because they were talked about so often with my parents, but more because they raised my emotions so highly. Whether that meant a traumatic emotional state, or peaceful, I believe that is why I have these certain memories. Also, because these events were out of the norm, or average routine of my life. Even if my parents had asked about day more often I believe that most days would have blurred into one big memory rather than many specific little ones, because most of my days at home with my mom and brother were similar.
As I start to think back to remembering my early childhood memories, some seem very clear to me, and some are a blur or not very detailed. I have short clips that go on in my head as I think too. When I was 2 I remember going to this pond with my mother in Proctor, VT. I just remember getting ready to go and being so excited because swimming was my favorite thing. My parents always told me I was a fish. I remember short little clips of me also swimming at my daycare and at my parents friends house too. I think having so many short memories of me going swimming was because I would be so excited and would do anything to go in the water. I learned very quickly for a young girl. I only remember having a life vest on, being in the shallow end or having someone hold me in the water, but I still loved being in water. I also remember playing outside, swimming, and going on four-wheeler rides with my father. I remember having my dog, Serriah riding with me as well when my father would drive. My father would also let me work out with him in his garage. As he lifted weights, I would lift weights too (I am sure they were only about 1-2lbs). I would also watch TV with my parents, but it's kind of a blur. My father would be laying on the couch and I would climb right on top of him. One thing that really sticks out that I remember was my Mom always trying to make me take cold cherry medicine when I was sick. I would cry and cry telling her that I didn't want it. When I finally took it I would instantly spit it back out and cry. I just didn't like the taste. After that I don’t remember what happened, but I sure didn't like taking that type of liquid medicine. I think remembering these memories have really made me think that as I get older, will I ever remember these memories? Will they ever go away? I will always wonder.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory comes from when my cousin austin and I were about 6 or 7 years old, right around that age. We were at our grandparents a lot and always trying to find something to do and most of the time we would choose wiffle ball. We weren’t the best at this time because we hadn’t been playing long but I do remember a few times my brother would come out and play with us. I think he did it because it made him feel good to beat us in it. Austin and I just enjoyed we had someone else to play against. The games mostly went like this, we would be at bat first, we would hit it not very far, he grabbed it and through it at us, got three outs on us, then he would be at bat. He would hit home run after home run in our backyard field until he felt we could hit again. But like I said, we didn’t mind all that much because we were just happy to have someone to play with. One particular day I remember we were playing and I was a bat, I hit the ball right to him like we usually did, but this time I took a risk and jumped when he threw it. The ball missed me and went under my feet, I was able to make it all the way to third. That was my highlight of that wiffle ball game. It was never a lot of competition for my brother when we played him, but I thought it was fun. When I was younger all my cousin and I did was play in the yard, and one of the activities we did the most was wiffle ball so I believe that’s why I have a good memory of us playing against my brother.
ReplyDeleteMy childhood was definitely eventful, but how many of those events I actually remember are slim. My earliest memory would go back to 3rd grade when we did a play. I don’t exactly know what the play was about but I remember I was the mouse, and the only reason I was because my teacher thought I was so little and quiet. I guess I remember that so significantly because I’m always being called short or tiny. Special memories that come back are ones that go with actions that occur now. For example, whenever I got to the Rutland mall I always think about going there with my dad on the weekends. When I was little growing up, my dad would pick me up on the weekends and we would go grocery shopping then he would give me $20 to go to the arcade in the mall. Having these memories help me bring back times with my dad, because I always think that he wasn’t around much during my childhood. Going back and looking at his old house and the land, I remember whenever he went hunting in the early mornings he would carry me across the yard wrapped in a blanket to my Aunt’s next store. Along with that, whenever I go to the store and see those packages of powdered donuts, I remember when my dad came back from hunting he would leave me a chocolate milk and those little packages of powdered donuts. Coming back to realize these moments with just little objects to spring them back into my mind gives a lot of repetition. Things my parents do to help me bring back memories from my childhood, usually is done by my mom always telling the same stories to her friends. Or seeing all my baby pictures or videos, helps to recall the moments. I really lack at the short term memories, right after something happens and someone else brings it back up I have the hardest time understanding what they are talking about. But, after a while when they keep saying it and asking about remembering what happened, it comes back to me. Memories are difficult, young or older age there are just certain situations that trigger them to come back to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe first memory I have of my childhood is pretty vague. I was about 4 or 5 and it was Thanksgiving. I remember feeling so whole and loved because I was with my entire family. We were at my grandmother's house, which was honestly my true home. It was blizzarding outside and there was probably about 3 feet of snow on the ground. I remember sitting in my high chair, in my flannel dress, eating mashed potatoes. I felt so mature because I would take a nap with the adults afterwards. There's actually a string of memories I can recall from that time. I remember Christmas at my house with my brothers, mom, and grandma. I remember getting a Teletubby toy and freaking out. After that, I can recall Easter morning, jumping on my bed and eating a ton of chocolate. The best memories I have as a kid are those little moments that didn't mean anything then, but are pretty heartwarming now. Like when my brother and I would play dress up, or when we would stay up late and watch adult swim. Or whenever I went to my grandma's house we had buttered noodles and she always made sure there was ice cream in her freezer when we got there. It's funny how what seemed important back then, doesn't now. I never realized how much people did for me, to be honest. And, as I get older, I tend to remember more and more of the little things. Like when I used to always drive in my mom's lap down the driveway. Or when we lived in our brick apartment, how I would always sneak out to hang out with my neighbor in the early morning. Or even how each time I went to my grandma's, I would call her neighbor's horses by my own silly names. I think the little things are definitely the memories that touch us the most. Not only because we remember them, but also because they were randomly and so elegantly created.
ReplyDeleteOne of the earliest memories I have was when I was around four. I was in my moms car and we were driving down the highway. I remember looking out the window at the bridge where you can see old route 4. The only reason I remember this moment is because It was the first time I ever thought to myself “Why am I me?”. I wondered why I was who I was, Why I had the family that I had, and Why I wasn't someone else. I remember the exact moment, the trees and scenery I was looking at through the window and how I felt when I thought this. I dont understand why I remember this because it wasn't a traumatic, embarrassing, or fun thing that happened in my life. It was probably just because I repeat this question to myself frequently. It’s one of those questions that can’t be answered. I just think it’s weird that at such a young age I was thinking about this. I always say that things are meant to be and things happen for a reason. If certain things never happened we wouldn't be who we are today. I guess I just started thinking about these things earlier than most people do. I just wish that this question could be answered but that would probably ruin all the fun. It would change our adventure in this world and how we view things and how we go around doing things and talking to people. This moment in my life was probably a significant moment in my life that I will remember for a while, because I ask the question so much. Why are we us? Why are we living the life we live? Why am I me?
ReplyDeleteI do not remember a whole lot from my childhood not to many things were traumatic or significant. I do remember around an age of 5 me paying outside in the front yard of my house. I was running back inside to go eat lunch or something like that, but on the way in i tripped and hit my head on the concrete stairs up to my house. By this point my mother and father were there and telling me to get in the car panicking i dont remember really the pain i just remeber being in shock and not really aware of what i was doing. We eneded up going to rutland to find out there was no guy able to do stitches on my head there right now. We had to pick up surgical glue and glue my cut shut in a car that was moving. i dont remember the healing process or anything after gluing my head shut. I also remember when my cat got ran over when i was 8. I saw my mom come inside and came and talked to my dad looking very upset. They went outside and drove off and told my sister to watch me when they were gone. Once they came home they told me to come to the backyard and then we buried my cat in a box and told me to say goodbye to her.
ReplyDeleteMy memory does not serve me very well in the good sense but if you need to hear bad memories i can come up with some. I can come up with some memories that are painful because that's all i can remember well enough to talk about. I have two that i could describe in much detail and all others memories are vague and hard to remember. The two memories came from when i was 9 and 13 but ill tell the one when i was 9.This memory was from when i had an accident on my fourwheeler because of not the greatest judgement. Both my older brother and my cousin have four wheelers also and we were riding around the lawn and we would hit the drive way and get launched over it. We all took turns and being the youngest of the three i had the lightest fourwheeler. It was only a 90cc but i had lost my speed regulator screw so i could go as fast as it would go. I decided to get a running start from the other end of the lawn which was about 45 yds away from the driveway. I picked up as much speed as i could and i jumped it and long story short the four wheeler ended up landing on me and rolling off. I had a gash in my rib cage for a few years until it went away. So i still do stupid stuff now and four years later i got a dirtbike and managed to break both of my wrists on it. The adrenalin rush was what i liked because it would send a shiver down my spine. It was such a good feeling, but i dont get it as often any more but i still try. I don't remember happy event or learning events, i only remember traumatic and bad events Any time i try to think of something from my childhood i only come up with bad events but i don't know why. I wish i was able to remember more things from my childhood by some way. But for now all i have to recall are accidents which is fine because i don't dwell on the past.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember many early memories, except this one. Whenever I think back to when I was younger it jumps out at me. I wouldn't consider it traumatic now. As a three year old (my age at the time this memory took place)it was. I was at Old Orchard beach in Maine. My grandmother was standing in front of me in the water.She was wearing dark blue clothing and I was in my hot pink bathing suit with seahorses on the side. My back was facing the beach. She was trying to take a picture and as usual I wasn't paying attention. To the right of me in the water there was this greenish, red tinted thing. I thought it was a crab. I remember staring at it for a few seconds then jumping up and running back to my spot on the beach screaming. I stood at my spot shaking and can still feel my grandmother's slight anger at me for ruining her picture. I found out later that it was just a pile of seaweed that happened to look exactly like a crab. I was still scared, though. I wouldn't go back in the water for the rest of vacation. I think I can still remember this because it was one of the only times I have been truly scared. My family never really reminisced with me. We didn't verbally look back on things, only in pictures once in a while. Whenever I look at a picture I can recall exactly what was going on at the time. Not just the scene, but my emotions and sometimes smells. If I'm not looking at the picture, or haven't in a long while then I probably won't remember the moment. It could also be because my childhood was routine and not much out of the ordinary happened.
ReplyDeleteMy first memories were when I was around 2-3 years old and my parents were still together. My very earliest memory was when I was 2. My parents took me to a concert in Middlebury with their friends and I remember that we got pizza and I felt special. I explained it to my mother and she said it was because I was being passed around and the person on stage said something about me and I noticed he was talking about me. I can remember what the concert room looked like. As a child I was very anxious and I had a lot of irrational fears. One night I was watching the Discovery Channel and they had an episode on that was about vampire bats. It started out with facts about them and how they fed off of cows while they were sleeping, and then it showed a clip of a boy getting attacked in the face while he was putting clothes on the line. That freaked me out so much that my mother bought me a book called Stella Luna, which was about a bat, and read that to me almost every night. We also had a bat under our fridge once, but mom barely remembers it so I must have been really little. I remember catching lightning bugs with my dad and riding around on his moped type thing in the back yard. Another slightly traumatic memory of mine was when I was at my friend Polly's house. We were crawling around in her small corn field, and I saw a lady bug. I don't remember running away or what I did next, I just remember feeling really scared because I was petrified of bugs. My mother sang Baby Beluga to me when we went swimming. Most of my memories are like blurry pictures with key emotions like anxiety or feeling special. I try to remember more memories from when my father lived with me but it's really hard. I wish I had more happy memories as well, but I guess the only ones that stayed were the more traumatic ones.
ReplyDeleteI have many memories from when I was younger, most are just random little things that don't have a lot of significance to them. I guess when you're a toddler there isn’t many memorable things that happen to you that would give you a complete memory to look back on years latter. But I do remember kindergarten pretty well because it was some what of a traumatic experience for a five year old me. I remember crying and clinging to my parents begging them to not make me go because my teacher was always mean to me and would single me out at any chance she had. Another pretty vivid memory I have was when I was a little younger about three, my mom took my brother and I to California to visit my aunt. I remember running to catch our plane but nothing about the plane ride it self, my mom told me I got sick so I guess it’s not a bad thing I don’t remember that. I also remember going to disneyland and making my mom go on “It’s a small world” ride, she told me that I made us go on it about ten times because I loved it so much. I remember pretty vividly standing in a huge line for “The haunted Mansion” and my brother crying because he had to pee but didn’t want to get out of line. The ride itself was pretty memorable because it scared me so much, it wasn’t at all like “It’s a small world” with happy singing mechanical puppets, which actually seems terrifying now that I think about it.
ReplyDeleteI don’t remember full details or full events. I remember little bits from here and there. One vivid memory I have is when I lived in Akron Ohio. One hot day my friend Maya and I wanted a way to cool down and at the time we had no pool. We lived right across the road from each other. Fair Lawn, the town I lived in wasn’t too big if I remember correctly. Maya had a kitty pool in her yard for her three little brothers, who were triplets. But we didn’t want to share with them to cool down, we wanted to find our own way. Once my parents walked over to get me, we ran to hide in her garage. I saw that there were cans of soda on the ground and got the idea to dump them all over each other to cool off from the scorching heat. Thinking we were funny at the time Maya agreed with my plan and we started dumping soda after soda on ourselves. Then when all the sodas were empty we walked around back to the front of the house to see our parents. They were so mad at us! My parents made me help clean up the mess then go straight home and shower. I still laugh at this memory to this day. I mostly have good memories from the Ohio days. I also remember the day I moved to Vermont. It sucked. I remember the last thing Maya said to me was “we can’t be friends anymore since you won’t be here.” and then she ran off away from me and I got in the car with my family and drove away. It was very heart breaking. Just a couple days before I left, I had one last sleepover with Maya at her house. I had to stay there until I left because all of our things were packed away. Hanging with Maya was how I spent my last days in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, I lived a pretty quiet and simple life so I don’t have many early childhood memories. One memory I do recall, though, is a happy and life changing event. I had just turned four, and for the first three years of my life my family had lived in a small apartment. One day, I was told we were finally moving out of our tiny home and into our own house on our own property. I could sense the excitement from my parents, so I was excited too. I was most excited when I found out I would have a bedroom which I wouldn’t have to share with my brother and that I would have a whole yard to play in. I can recall more memories from after we moved into our new house. I did more activities, made some friends, and was excited to start school and learn. I feel that living in our own home also brought my whole family closer together. I have memories of holidays and birthdays spent with relatives, which I don’t remember happening when we lived in our apartment. I believe I have more memories from the time after we moved into our house because different aspects of my life were expanding and nothing was as simple as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest memory,that I remember most of the day, is my 5th birthday party. It was at my house/trailer in Damby. It was outside in my huge yard. All my friends and family I invited was there. I remember my cake was yellow cake with Strawberry Shortcake decorated, yes the cartoon character. That day it started out nice. My friends and I played on my swingset. As time went on my cousin showed up and I hung out with her a lot. Then for a surprise my nana got me horses to ride for a couple hours, but as soon as they got there it started raining so they had to leave. It only rained for like 10-15 minutes then the horses came back and everybody got to ride them. I was scared to ride one. I started crying I was that scared. So my cousin walked beside me and after a few a minutes I was okay and I liked riding the horse. Even though I still was relieved and I couldn’t wait to get off the horse. That is the last time I rode a horse. After we rode the horses we played for a little bit longer then we ate the cake. After we ate the cake I got to open presents. That I didn’t let get wet by the rain. One of the bags that my present came in sang. I don’t remember what song. I remember that I loved it and played it until the battery died. One of the presents I got was Nala from my favorite movie, The Lion King. It was a big real sized one. That day was fun for me and I was so happy. After the party was over everyone went home and I went in and went to bed even though I never wanted that day to end.
ReplyDeleteI think I was maybe 3 or 4 years old when this memory happened. At my house we used to have a wooden swing set with a couple swings and a slide and monkey bars. It was learned by all young kids that if you laid on your stomach and spun around so you twisted the rope all the way up you could create a good amount of potential energy and force. When you released the energy you could spin back around really fast and you’d get all dizzy and then you might start laughing and having a good time. The swing set itself was not very big to begin with and I wasn’t getting any smaller. Well, being a 3 or 4 year old at the time, I spun around in the swing and then I spun back around maybe doing this two or three times. However, it was on the fourth occasion that I spun around and wapped by soft little head off the support beam of the swing set. I run in the house crying and all snotty to my mom who fixes me all up and tells me to go back outside but don’t do it again. Of course telling a boy not to do something again or not to touch a particular thing is a sort of challenge. So what do I do? I wap my soft little head again on the support beam of the swing set and again run up to my mom inside the house.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know why I remember this certain time I got hurt cause I got hurt plenty of times when I was little. Maybe it was how funny I think it is now that keeps it refreshed in my head.
I was always afraid of losing my baby teeth. I am pretty sensitive to pain. Also I’m not a very daring person. So my two front baby teeth were loose and started to get discoloring because I was afraid of dealing with the pain of them being pulled out. So one day I went to daycare and it was picture day. My mom kept telling me that I needed to pull out my two front teeth and I kept saying no to her. We were lining up to go outside for recess and the boy in front of me was whipping around his coat and the zipper came back and knocked my two front teeth out. I didn’t even know they both came out at first. I thought only one was knocked out but then I felt my mouth and I didn’t feel my other tooth there and I saw blood so I started crying. My daycare advisor came over with one tooth and couldn’t find the other one. I looked down at my feet and saw my tooth. The best part is the boy that did this to me laughed while I was crying. So not only did I lose my baby teeth which was one of my main fears when I was a kid, but it had to be about an hour before my pictures were taken. So not only did I have to clean up the blood from the teeth, but I also had to clean up myself because I didn’t it to be noticeable that I was crying during the pictures. So all in all I would say this is one of the most broadest memories in my life, and at the same time one of my favorites, because I balled my eyes out, but I faced my fear and sucked it up and felt as if I took an amazing picture.
ReplyDeleteI have a very indistinct remembrance from my childhood. The earliest thing I remember I was about 3-4 years old. My aunt and my cousin, Jared, have lived across the street from me my whole life. I would go over there all the time and visit. My cousin would always come downstairs with the Scream mask and freak me out. One day, as I was leaving, he thought it’d be funny to torture me and chase me all the way home dressed in all black with the Scream mask on, carrying a knife. To this day, I am still terrified of the Scream mask. Another thing I remember was in first grade, and my friend, Becca, and I got put in time out. We were singing “Hollaback Girl” and wiggling each others teeth. The earliest memory I have after that was in third grade when I had my first heart episode. I was sitting in my desk, silently reading, (I wasn’t allowed to play games with the other students because I was put in time out for talking too much) and I started to shake really bad and my heart started racing. I remember going to the nurse and lying down, drinking water. I have had many episodes and come to find out I have SVT. I have many videos of me when I was a baby, but I don’t remember the events. One video we have is my second birthday. In the video, I gave all of my gifts that I opened to my cousin, Kendra. I also had a balloon that repetitively hit Sissy and Chunky with in the head. Another video we have of me I was only two months old. I was on the ground at my aunts house, playing with her dog. When my mom needed to change my diaper, she would sing the “One, Two, Freddy’s Coming For You” song to me. Since I was only two months old, I didn’t know what any of that meant, but I still looked very scared.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory that i can recall is not one of the best memories. This memory is from about when i was two. I remember That we were at a family reunion at a lake. We were all having a good time partying. But then i decided that i was going to run to the picnic table. Well that did go so well because as i was running i didn't pay attention to the giant tree roots sticking out of the ground. Which caused me to trip and fall and break my nose. I think this is one of my earliest memories because not only did i break my nose but it has made it so one of my nostrils is now larger because i never got surgery to fix it. But it was also traumatic because it was the first thing i ever broke. Not only that everybody came running over and crowded me when it happened which didn't help the fact that i was already freaking out over it bleeding profusely. So everybody was trying to help while my parents were just trying to make sure i was okay and that i was okay but everybody was crowding me and i just didn't know what to do so i started to panic and then people came with ice and that just made the pain even worse. But the bleeding did not stop for a while but all the hospital said was that at the time i was to young to get the surgery to get my nosed fixed at the time but i never went back to get it fixed. So now i am stuck with my nose being lopsided and larger on one side than the other and that is what my earliest memory is that i can remember.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think back to when I was younger than four, nothing really stands out. I have memories of that time that I can think of, but nothing terribly traumatic or vivid, just things that I can remember with some detail. This time was weird for me, as my mom had divorced my dad and we moved to Vermont. So my memories back in this time seem to often have to do with all the time I spent with my older siblings who were in high school. I remember the times I spent with my family, and the funny things they would have me do. I remember just a little bit from the days I spent at Head Start, but mainly times I spent with family and a few memories with friends. I think I remember these things because my family was just what mattered to me most, and I still care a lot about my family today. Whenever I think about my childhood, family memories are always the first image. I can think back to a lot of the times I spent with my sister and my now brother in law. They introduced me to a lot of new things and pushed me to try new things, and I think they really helped to make me who I am today. A majority of the memories I have I think I remember because of all the times my family has brought them up and we’ve all laughed about them. Every time my family is together there is always one story about me when I was really young that gets laughed about. I think my mom helped me to remember these things, because I remember I would always tell her everything that I would do with my siblings or what happened in the day. I don’t think I ever could or ever want to forget these memories from even 3 or 4 years old, or when I was 10. They may not be traumatizing or vivid, but I could never forget them. Not only with my family talking about them and watching videos laughing every time we’re together, but just when something makes me think about them every day.
ReplyDeleteMy first childhood memory is when I was four years old. I was sitting on the floor of my kitchen. I was sitting in a sunny patch of my wood floor between my counter and my windowsill. It was a warm summer day. I remember feeling very content and satisfied. It was a bright yellow and bluish kind of sunlight. A slight breeze was coming through the window. It was the end of summer almost fall and my mom was baking a pie. The smell of pastry was wafting throughout the spacious room. I felt great, like I was in my own little world I could see the little specks of dust and pollen floating lazily in the air. I didn’t have a care in the world, no stress. The thing I had to worry about most was the next toy I was going to play with or what to eat for lunch tomorrow. A big part of me wants to go back to that time, when I didn’t have to worry about homework, a job, family, my friends, a relationship, and classes. Carefree, happy. Why can’t adult life be like that? Why can’t it be that simple? If the world is progressing so much, with all this new technology and new ways to do everything, why aren’t we looking for ways to simplify our lives? To make them as happy and carefree as our childhoods. If our lives were simpler we would have less problems in our world.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory is extremely vivid. I was living with my father’s sister in the Philippines I believe. My sister and I had a small yellow tricycle with Winnie the Pooh stickers all over it. There was a little bucket in the back that could carry little objects. We would only play with it in the rain, where my sister and I would take turns riding in it, the other chasing the rider. My mom would always yell at us since she didn’t want us playing while it was raining. The bucket in the back of the bike would fill with water, and I would try to cup it with my hands to splash my sister with it. It wouldn’t matter since we were always soaking wet due to the rain when we got back in. Then my sister and I would have to take a shower even though we were already soaked. Sometimes I would go to the back of our big house. There was a little alley, and at the end was a huge spider web, an enormous black spider right in the middle. When my sister was busy playing, I would go near it, and then run away because I was scared, but also fascinated. When I try to remember the past, it’s always a few just bits and pieces. I don’t remember much of when I still lived in the Philippines, which makes me sad since there was a time that I was halfway across the world, and I can barely remember any of it. When my parents then tell me what I did as a child and funny stories, I always wonder what it was like through my eyes. What I was doing, feeling, and why I ever did that. Since I don’t remember it’s sometimes fun to imagine the scenario as my parents told it to me.
ReplyDeleteThis is Regina Ruiz, I couldn't put my name in so I thought I would put it here to make it easier.
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ReplyDeleteI don’t have to many very early childhood memories, because I didn’t have too many very traumatic things happen to me. But I do remember this my mom went to work or something I think, so my mom left me home with my uncle to babysit me. At the time my mom wanted him to just give me a regular buzz cut because my hair was getting kind of long. So while my mom was gone my uncle proceeded to cut my hair, and I was young at the time, probably somewhere around two years old, so I didn’t think anything of it. When he finally got done cutting my hair I didn’t notice anything. When my mom got home from wherever she was she looked at me and just look super upset and I was confused at the time. She proceeded to go find my uncle and yell at him, I didn’t know why until she finally brought me to the bathroom and let me look in the mirror and I remember this very clear, I looked and just saw no hair… just a bald head, completely bald not one spot of hair on my head. She freaked out on my uncle and I just thought it was funny. When I brought this memory up to my mom I asked her about it, and she was surprised I remember that. She later on went on to tell me that when she would bring me places people would just look weirdly at me and some people would even come up to her and asked if I had something wrong with me because I didn’t have any hair, they thought I was getting leukemia treatments. So at the end of day I guess you could this experience was more traumatic for my mother, but I will never forget that happening, and definitely never forget just seeing myself in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteSome of the very few early childhood memories that I can remember happened when I was very little, about three or four years old. My mother used to watch over children about my age in our house while their parents were busy. They were dropped off in the morning and got picked up in the late afternoon. I remember this because these were the first experiences that I ever had with one of my very first friends, Emma. I don’t remember much about single visits, but I do know that without these first experiences I probably wouldn’t have met her until years later. I can also recall my visits to preschool, I went to two different schools. The first one was at the Fair Haven Grade School with Ms. Mccrea and the second one wasn’t a school at all, it was the house of one of my sister’s friends at the time. I remember those days pretty vividly, we played so many games and I was exposed to several things. At the grade school I tried tuna fish for the first time, it was ok at first but I despised the after taste. My parents had me try it again as soon as I got home, and after I knew I hated it. To this day I hate tuna fish, the smell alone makes me nauseous. But one memory sticks out in my mind, the day when our dalmatian Katie had to be put down. I was young when it happened, but I remember the details like it was yesterday. She was a pretty old dog, but I never thought that she could be gone someday. The week before, she was experiencing some problems like scabby legs from falling down the stairs. All Katie really wanted to do was sleep, she wasn’t her old self and that worried me. I still remember hugging her and hoping that maybe she would come back from the vet and it wasn’t that serious. But she didn’t come back, and for months our house wasn’t as cheerful anymore. It all felt so weird to not have a dog in our lives, I never knew how sad life could be without one.Besides the sadness of losing a pet, I never really had a traumatic experience in my early childhood. My childhood was pretty good, my parents read to me every night, I had an ok relationship with my older sister, and I have never broken anything. I feel like I might have remembered some of these experiences today because my parents asked me about my day often, and I would remember and tell them. I am happy that I have these early memories, the good and the bad. Without them I probably would have never grown up to be the person that I am today.
ReplyDeleteMost people only remember things that happen to them from others repeatedly telling them the stories over and over, so for this reason they can not be your own personal memory. There are very few personal memories that I can recall before the age of five, the earliest one was when I was about three years old, maybe four. I perhaps remember this memory because it may have traumatized me. Just kidding! It did hurt a lot nonetheless, but I’m fine now. This memory has started an ongoing battle with my parents friend, Seth, and I. It was in the middle of winter, Seth was staying over at my house that night so him and my dad could get up early to go ice fishing the next morning. He likes to joke around quite a bit but he does not often think his plans through before he does them. I was very short at the age of three, therefor I had to stand on a chair to brush my teeth. I was brushing my teeth, and I thought I heard a noise. Then out of no where I got blasted by a huge stuffed bear that I had in my room. I ended descending off the chair smacking my head off the door,and suddenly I started to bawl. After I hit my head and started to cry, my Mom rushes in because she she heard very loud noise and was worried. While my mom was trying to calm me down, Seth started freaking out because he never meant for me to get hurt. He ended up feeling very lousy and kept apologizing after this had happened, I eventually forgave him because after all it was an accident. Ever since this incident we have been getting back at each other left and right.
ReplyDeleteI do not remember exactly what my first memory, I can remember things from when I was around 3 and 4 years old, but I can not remember too much detail or even which one happened before the others. Neither do I have a lot of memories from people telling me stories -- I usually remember them myself. One thing I do remember though was a time when I was around 5 years old. My family went “camping” at a rental house thing. We brought our dogs so I guess we were there for a bit of time. I had a small chihuahua named Ms. Puddles. I took her outside the house and somehow she ran off. We were surrounded by a forest so, obviously, she ran into it. I looked for her for an hour or so. It was terrible, I was very scared I was going to lose her. My brother helped me though. She came back safely eventually. Next to the house there was this boy around my brother’s and my age and he became our temporary best friend. I do not remember his name, but we hung out with him a lot and went swimming at the lake. He had this toy jeep car thing and we thought it was so cool. We were sad to leave him because we bonded so much, I think about it a lot because it happened and ended so fast that it was weird. A table in the house had pennies on it, like it was the design. I remember we drove to this fish store so my brother could fish and I was upset because I wanted the worms to live. My family also went to this ice cream place and I remember everything being so much taller than me, like all the people there. Or maybe just thinking back at it reminds me how short I was since I was around 5 years old.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest memory that I can recall, has to be from when I lived in North Carolina. I was 2 maybe 3 when I moved down there. I remember going to the ocean with my mother and playing in the sand. My father was never with us being that he worked so much. I can see the waves and smell the salt in the water. My mother had a friend with her. I can't remember her name but I can see her face as clear as day. She was a black woman with long beautiful dark hair. Deep brown eyes, warming smile, and she had very glowy, radiant skin. My brother would get all excited whenever she would come over. He was around 5 or 6 at the time. We moved back shortly after the hurricane. My mother wasn’t too fond of those. I think the reason that I remember memory from so long ago is because my mother would always go through her photo album. I would have bits and pieces of a memory, but by going through her photo albums, it was like putting together a puzzle. Although I can remember a memory from that far back. There are gaps in my memory. I don't remember the time between when I lived in North Carolina and when I lived in Castleton for the first time. There was a house in between, but I don't remember it. I also don’t remember most of living in my house in Whitehall, which was only a few years ago. There are gaps in my memory which do tend to bother me, but at the same time I feel there is a reason behind why I don’t remember things. Maybe I’m just forgetful. Maybe I subconsciously block those memories out on purpose. I don’t know. What I do know is, is that by hearing stories and seeing pictures of when I was young, I’m able to put the pieces together and vividly remember certain parts in my life. Why this happens I don’t know, I would like to, but I feel like I would get confused haha.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory is being with my grandfather every day. He would pick me up from school and take me to lunch everyday. I have an awful memory and that’s the earliest thing I can actually recall without watching home movies or anything like that. But my grandfather was a huge part of my life. I spent every day with him. If your earliest memory is something amazing or traumatic, it’s hard to forget. Especially since it’s really serious. My memories are extremely patchy. I can remember a few details to a certain day but other than that I have the hardest time remembering what exactly happened. When I was eight I wanted to start keeping a journal to write everything that happened that day so one day I could write a book. But then I lost the journal somewhere. From my childhood I can only remember the happy parts, I know there were sad parts but I can’t recall them without talking to my mother about it. I can really only remember the good parts about my grandfather. I was with him everyday so it’s kinda hard to forget everything, but I did spend a good chunk of my childhood with him. We never had a dull moment together, even though I was young, my grandfather never ceased to make me laugh. I think why I never forgot these memories was because I was with him every day. To be honest being able to recall memories, I think, has nothing to do with being psychologically healthy. Memories, you either remember them or you don’t. Its all on if you have a good memory or not. I don’t think being psychologically healthy has anything to do with memory. Memories being remembered good but shouldn’t have anything to do with being healthy.
ReplyDeleteI do not have many early childhood memories that I can remember. But I can remember so many little details from my life. The one that stands out the most is when I was 3 years old and we had a big going away party for my whole family. I remembering having a pinata at my party and I was the first one to hit and I accidentally hit my brother on the head and gave him a concussion. I felt awful about it. But next thing I knew we were both headed to the hospital because I hit myself on the head as well. We both had a concusion for a week or so. I felt awful. When i try to think back on my earliest childhood memories they all seem to be very traumatic. When I think about memories I expect them to be like happy thoughts and being happy. My parents would always tell me that I was such a happy child if I was only in my brothers room either trashing it or stealing money from them. Memories like that make me smile because our whole family would just watch videos of me when I was younger and i just seemed to be so happy when doing that. Even little memories of me falling of my bike and breaking my finger is something I can remember. Or even when I would go through the streets of San Francisco with my parents and dance on the sidewalk. Those are memories I will cherish for the rest of my life. Everyone thinks memories are something that need to be happy things. I can remember so many tragic and sad things from my childhood but who wants to always constantly be remembering these things. In life bad things will happen to us but we always have to look at the positive.
ReplyDeleteBranden Soulia 9-3-15
ReplyDeleteMy first memory that i recall is from around the age of three or maybe four years old. It was back when my mom and dad lived together and we all lived in the blue house on the corner of Furnace street. I remember having this toy lawn mower with a plastic dome on top that had colorful balls that popped up as i rolled the mower along. I remember that my little cousin Ashlee lived right behind my house, and we use to play a lot, for some reason i remember being with her while she pushed a toy baby carriage alongside me while i pushed around my toy lawn mower, i can’t say for certain but i believe we were playing house or something along the line of that. I remember some of the scenery such as the nicely mowed green grass, the blue sky the wooden fence that divided mine and Ashlee’s back yard, the picnic table my dad had and i remember laughing a lot and just enjoying the day. Over all i don’t think the interaction lasted more then maybe a hour or two but looking back on it, it seems like it lasted longer than it really did.
I had a very basic childhood. I would get up in the morning, go to daycare, come home, and then go to bed after dinner. I don’t really remember a lot from when I was really young. I do have one very distinct memory from when I was about 5. My best friend Angus and I were exploring, something we did on a very regular basis. He wanted to take me to this pond he said he had out behind his house, and of course, I said yes. We ventured out into the woods for what seemed like miles to us back then and came across the pond. It was an old, grown up pond with old fallen trees over the top of it and lots and lots of bugs. Lots of bugs. I remember Angus leaped up on one of the old fallen trees and tip-toed across the pond with no fear at all. He stood at the other side and looked at me, waiting for me to come too. I was scared to death! But him, being my bestfriend, got me two long sticks to help me across and made sure I got across safe and sound. After this we ventured across the road to another, larger pond. Angus insisted on showing me a beaver dam that was nearby. So I went with him, he lead me through the woods, down a crick and through a field to get to this beaver dam. Once we got there, we looked back on where we had just came from. And we both looked at each other. We had just ran through a bug patch of poison ivy. But Angus being my bestfriend and all, took action and helped me wash off my legs and I never ended up getting poison ivy. He was the most wonderful friend I could have ever asked for.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I had a wonderful childhood. A mom, dad, and little brother. A warm bed, food, and acres of land to run around and explore. It was a very easy, laidback childhood. I was very creative, imaginative, and full of energy. I have lots of little insignificant memories for when I was really little. But my most vivid memory is when my little brother was born. I was about two and a half. Being so young, I didn't understand at all what was happening. It was the middle of the night, and I was woken up to my mom and dad getting ready to go to the hospital. I went to the top of the stairs, where my dad then tried to tell me what was happening.They told me I couldn’t go, and that our neighbors were coming to watch me. I remember being really confused and scared. I threw a tantrum because I didn't want to be left out, I wanted to go with them. The neighbors came over, and my parents left. From there its a blur, I imagine I went back to sleep. And then the next morning I was woken up very early and brought to the hospital to see my new baby brother. I remember looking at him, and holding him with my mom, while he was in her arms. I then remember my grandparents coming as soon as they could. Showing up a couple hours later that morning. That’s about all I remember. But it will always be one of my fondest memories as a young child.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest memory was when I was three years old. I can remember bits and pieces of my childhood starting at three years old. I know this was 13 years ago because my memories start the year that my dad died. I vividly remember two memories while my dad was in the hospital. One of them was me wandering the halls looking for him because he was not in his room. I was near an elevator when I saw a nurse pushing him in a wheelchair around the corner, he was wearing his favorite hat, and I ran up to him. Im not sure why I remember this moment because it has no significance, but I am glad that I still have this memory because it is a happy one for me. Another memory that I remember is when I was at daycare. I was riding a tricycle and was going too fast around a corner and flipped it. (not sure how) I was covered in blue bandaids and would not stop crying, so the teacher painted my face as a tiger. I had big black whiskers and everything. (also, I was wearing pink overalls) Everyday after daycare I would go and visit my dad in the hospital. I was so excited to show him my tiger face and battle scars. None of the memories I have are very significant. But they mean the world to me.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can’t remember it fully my earliest memory was when my sister was being born and I was at my Mimi and Papa’s. It’s where my bond with them started because my parents needed time with my sister because all she did was cry. I was around 2 years old, and I never would have remembered it if it wasn’t for videos of me running around with my Papa. I was riding the lawn tractor and four wheeler with him. My Mimi was recording Papa and I. It’s a hard one to remember but if I think hard enough I can remember the four wheeler ride and seeing my Mimi recording us. I’m happy for having this on video because it’s one of the only things of me doing something on video, the rest are all pictures. If it wasn’t for the video to spark this small and early memory than I think it would have been forgotten, because there is no way I could have remembered this by myself. This required some help.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of childhood memories, some good some bad, The first one that i remember, I was 4 or 5 years old, I lived in Dominican Republic at that time with my Grandma. She had a big backyard and inn there were a big amount of trees, Mango trees, Avocado trees, Banana trees, but there was this huge one in the middle of the backyard, she told me it was there long before her. I remember climbing the tree every day after 4 o'clock. to watch the sunset.
ReplyDeleteAlso I have another childhood memories that stick out here and there once in a while, one of them is the first time I've ever seen snow, it was awesome I believe I was 8 at that time. Funny thing is that the first time I saw snow it was here in Vermont. Also the time I was talking to my mom about what was going to be my sister's name, she asked me what she should name her, she wanted to name her something weirs and I completely denied it saying that it was an ugly name, I was looking at my moms photo and I said: " What about Janira like you " mom was happy and said that she liked it., I believe that I was five Another memory I have is a pretty traumatic one and is the reason why I can't come across cherries, I was four years old and I was trying new things, my step dad made this chery juice and I said that i didn't like cherries, I remember my stepdad forcing my mouth open and making me drink the chery juic. I remember the juice splashing on my shirt , my throat closing. I remember running away from my step-dad, locking myself up in the bathroom, crying my eyes out. Another memory is when I was three my mom was leaving for her job, it was raining wan I was holding onto my mother's leg telling her not to go, but she never listened. MY last memory that it is still livid at I still remember is the time I burned myself with a curling iron i was either 4 or 5 years old, my mom was using it and I accidentally put my elbow where she left it, i remember crying and screaming, I remember my mom peeling off the burnt skin and seeing the pink layer of skin. Every time I remember this livid image the scar still tingles a little bit, despite all the years that have passed.
When i was younger maybe 2 or 3 i was playing toss and catch with my dad. We were in the dining room. I could barely walk at the time but just enough to stand and throw. It was sunny and we were throwing a baseball from maybe 7 feet away. I had a rottweiler named Molly at the time. As me and my dad were tossing the ball back and forth Molly my 110 dog jump up at the ball while i was trying to catch it. Her head bumped together with mine and split my head open, from between my eyes too about 4 inches back in the middle of my skull. My dad describes the amount of blood by having me imagine him wearing a red sweatshirt of blood from picking me up. / He rushed me into the car and to the hospital. There they tried to put me into a body splint to hold my head and body in place, but because of my struggle not to be strapped down they made my mom hold me, because that's the only thing i allowed. I got 5 staples that day. Since then i have fallen down stairs and split my head open twice now i still have one of those scars that is about an inch to an inch and a half on the back of my head. On that day I was playing on the top of the stairs and had slipped, ran into the wall tripped over a toy and rolled down the stairs. Then i stood up like nothing had happened but my mom notice blood dripping down the back of me. I believe i was about 4 or 5 when that happened. I had to get 3 more staples that day and once again my mom had to hold me down to get them.
ReplyDeleteJordan Phillips
DeleteWhen I think about my early childhood memories I don’t really remember a lot, but what I do remember are positive memories. I find it hard to think about specific past experiences at early ages, but I can usually remember them when someone brings them up or I am in a similar situation. A decent portion of the time, when my mom or other family member shares a story of something cute/funny I did, even in memories from a young age, I can usually recall exactly what I was thinking at the time I did it, which is something cool I don’t know if other people can do. I had a fairly boring childhood, but one that I look back on positively . I went to daycare every day, had the stereotypical Disney trips, and other trips like playgrounds, water parks, etc.. One thing i’m happy about that a lot of other people don’t have, is that my parents always had enough money when I was growing up, we lived very comfortably and had room to buy luxuries, which for me around the age 3 or 4 were things like toys, which I usually got one a week. I had no interest in the things I like now, such as a phone or computer unless they were somehow superhero or other cartoon related. One specific memory I have is from when I was age 5, it was a big deal at the time but now thinking back, it’s a funny one. We were at the water park during the summer, and this was back when the wave pools were allowed to be pretty powerful, and actually make good size waves. Anyway, my brother was in a tube and he managed to get all the way back to the end where the waves start, so I was watching him from the shallow end. I was laughing at the time because when the waves started I saw him run a few people over which is funny to a 5 year old. I started to see him getting closer and closer, and before I knew what was going on, he hit me with the tube, and the ring around the outside of it where it is sealed hit me right in the eye, cutting my eyelid. I got up laughing but my mom saw me bleeding so I started crying, and ended up with around 6 lifeguards looking at my eye. In the end it was all ok, It wasn’t a large wound, it just bled a bit at first, but I remembered that for a long time, especially when we went to water parks.
ReplyDeleteA childhood memory I have is when I was 3 years old I went fishing with my dad. We went fishing on lake Bomoseen. We were ice fishing and it was really fun. I remember my dad brought the snowmobiles and four Wheeler, every time we had a tip up we would drive to the tip up and get the fish. I remember one time my father let me pull up the fish. I was very nervous because it was my first time ice fishing (I think/that I can remember). So my dad taught me what to do to bring up the fish and it didn't seem that hard. only problem was I was only about 3' 5'' at the time so the fish could possibly weight as much as me. So as I was pulling up the fish I kept slipping and falling on the ice which would cause me to lose my grip on the line. So finally, after what seemed like forever, I got the fish to the surface of the ice and it was only a one pound bass. After all that I pulled up the smallest fish we caught all night and i was heated. So my dad let me try driving the snowmobile back to the fishing hut and that made up for it.
ReplyDeleteAs a child I had a terrible memory. My mom used to make flashcards for me to remember simple things like that I had a dentist appointment that morning, or to ride the bus home from school. However it seems that I can remember different memories from my childhood. Whether it is truly my memory, my imagination, or my parents stories that I'm remembering I'm not sure. What I usually have trouble with is short term memory, but my long term seems to be average. One of the first memories that I remember was my 2nd birthday. My parents have many pictures from it so the memory is probably only partially from my memory and partially from the pictures. I wore a pink tutu and I had a Blue's Clue's cake. This memory is a happy one. I remember my dad dropping his phone in the pool, after which point the phone was placed in rice. It was a good party with lots of laughs. However the next memory I have I know for a fact that I remember it without my parents stories or pictures. It was before kindergarten but I can't say exactly how old. Around 4 perhaps, I was outside at daycare with my friend and she told me that I had a bee on my head. I didn't believe her because she was constantly joking around so I whipped my head up to prove her wrong, and there was the bee. It stung my eye, and not the outside, my actual eyeball. Coincidentally, I got a paper cut in the same eye in kindergarten, resulting in a trip to the eye doctor and an eye patch. I think the reason why I remember the bee incident is because it affected me later on. The eye patch didn't really hurt my confidence or make me feel bad, I honestly liked all the attention I got from it. I don't know why I remember my 2nd birthday though, it was good but not anything special. I'm glad I remember it but nothing really significant happened.
ReplyDeleteThis is Oshen, I'm not sure why it won't show my name
DeleteThe earliest childhood memory that I can remember is very vague. I don't remember much, only small details from various events and places, not usually the whole experience. One experience that I remember very well was when I was about 4 years old. My family and I were going on a cruise; my first real vacation. We left Bradley Airport in Connecticut and flew to Texas and then stayed at a hotel for the night to get on our cruise the next day. When we got to the hotel, we checked in, and asked for a 6:00 am wakeup call. When we got to our room, the bathroom was dirty, so my dad requested a new room. We stayed in the new room, but the front desk forgot to change the wakeup call to that room. We woke up at 7:30am, and had to rush to get to the cruise. Since the shuttle had left, we had to get a taxi, and my dad paid him to drive fast. When we got to the cruise, it was still docked, but everyone was standing on the deck in life jackets, waiting to run the emergency drills. We had to run up the ramp, and I was throwing up and crying. It was horrific. Overall, the cruise was fun though, after we left the dock.
ReplyDeleteI remember very little from my childhood. The things I do remember are mostly traumatic events that happened early on in my life; hence why they probably stuck in my mind. The events I do recall were about sickness and fear. For me, I am more apt to remember something that was scary or traumatic as those are things that people usually get mentally scarred from. When I was around the age of three I got pneumonia and stayed in the hospital for three weeks because I had asthma and I was less capable of fighting it that a full grown person without asthma would be. I recall several things from my long stay at that hospital. The first being that my mom would sleep in the hospital bed with me. The thing I remember most about the hospital stay was that they would also wake me up several times during the night and hit my back with a light pink round suction cup thing. To this day I still have no idea why they did that or what the device was. However i've never forgotten that part of the stay. One other significant memory I had was a fear of sirens. Everyone would tell me that is was ok because they were just going to help somebody but I would always cry when I heard them. That is funny considering how I am in EMT training and want to drive a “ scary vehicle” according to the little Maria. Needless to say I guess the fear went away. I think that I either thought that the sirens were coming to get me or that I felt bad for the people who were ill or in danger. Lastly and probably the funniest memory is I recall when I was four I would sleep over at my grandmas and we would sleep together. I would get homesick and I'd want to go home as soon as she would tell me to go to sleep. If she wouldn't let me call home to have someone come get me I would take my hand and literally pull as hard as I could on her hair until she would let me: and no she wasn't very happy with me. Looking back I find it funny and shocking that I did that.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory is when I was around 3-4 years old. My parents had found out that something was wrong when they noticed an indent in my side at 14 months old, but I can’t recall that, only what they have told me about it. They took me to many doctors to try to figure out what was going on, but the only time I remember is when we were in a room full of doctors and we were trying to decide what to do next and where I should go to begin my surgeries, since it was obvious I’d need one or the worst could have happened to me. I was sitting on my dad’s lap as we chatted with the doctors, everyone trying to stay calm, although hard to because of how significant this situation was.They kept telling my parents that I would never be able to walk because of how severe my curve was; it was 174 degrees, the most severe they had ever seen. That’s when we proved them wrong. My dad set me down and stepped back, squatting down and telling me to walk to him. I slowly made my way over to him, compensating because of spine curving so much. I had one foot flat and the other on its tip toe, but I still managed to walk. The doctors were surprised at what they had seen and kept repeating that it wasn’t possible, even though it was clear that it was real and happening. It was funny how intrigued, yet surprised they were. All 15 doctors at that table couldn’t believe their eyes, but even so, praised me for being able to walk and praised my family for helping me to keep going. We were in Rutland that day, all of us around that long table, when all of this occurred. In that same day, we decided that the best hospital for me to go to was Boston Children’s Hospital, which specialized in all kinds of medical needs for children, no matter how young. It was a truly memorable day.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a ton of childhood memories but the ones I do have were somewhat “traumatic”. The earliest memory I can think of is one of those memories that become your own after it has been repeated to you over and over. One day when i was an infant my mother was carrying me in my car seat up the stairs with a couple bags of groceries, lost her balance and instead of dropping the groceries she dropped me and I guess I hit my head. To this day I still get picked on because of that story. Another childhood memory is when I was maybe two or three years of age finally sleeping in my big girl bed and I had my very first nightmare, and till this day i remember exactly what happened. I think my most scarring childhood memory tho is when i was maybe in grade school and on vacation at my aunt's house waiting for my cousins to get off the bus and I had to watch the movie IT. It was so scarring that I am scared of clowns and till about maybe a year ago i had to cover the drain, sometimes i still do if i’m at a friend's house or somewhere that is not home. Also because of this movie i get that feeling and freak myself out all the time, thinking that someone is gonna blind side me in the shower and kill me. Sounds harsh but those are my childhood memories that come into my mind over and over. It seems like all my biggest childhood memories were somewhat “traumatic” but I do have little memories that are good. I remember spending almost all my time in the garden with my great grandma we were inseparable I followed her everywhere and being named after her made me her favorite great-grandchild. When i finally started to get old enough to understand reading she would send me these Ranger Rick magazines every month. Granted I really only read the comic strips that were in the magazines and looked at the pictures of all the animals. The memories I hold of my grandma I will cherish forever because they seem to make life so much brighter.
ReplyDeleteI think my earliest childhood memory was when I was about 4-5 and my sister was giving me a bath and I had stood up, fell and hit my eye on the cast iron tub. I learned my lesson, don't stand up in the bath tub. Another terrible thing that happened to me when I was a child, my dads girlfriend, my dad me and my brother were headed to someone's graduation party and someone had fallen asleep at the wheel and hit our front left tire. We spun a few times and hit another car which put us to a stop. Just then I realized that when on the road people need to pay attention to what they are doing and know what the others are doing. When I was in grade school some girl was yelling at me I told my sister who is 9 years older than me and she stuck up for me. Its nice having older siblings who will do anything for you. I don't have much memories from when I was little. A lot of my memories aren't that positive but the ones that are are ones that I will remember forever. One memory that I will remember forever is when my mom, me and Corey went school shopping. We would go to stores to get clothes and school supplies and laugh and have fun. After our clothes and school supplies were bought we would go out to lunch and get taco bell. Every year I would get so excited for school shopping. Another memory I have is when use to live by stewarts and me, Corey, and my mom would walk down to get milk or whatever we needed. On our way back me and Corey would walk near the road and my mom would run around the bush and scare us and chase us. It was always fun going to the store with my mom. Some memories I wish I didn’t remember then there’s some memories that I wish I remembered. But I will cherish the good ones I have forever.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t say i had the best childhood, throughout my early days in school from kindergarten through 3rd grade I believe; I was bullied for being in short a shy fat kid but when i actually go back and think about it even though i was bullied and didn't have very many friends my life wasn’t to bad until I i found out in the middle of third grade that my parents were getting a divorce, so unlike most kids my age i grew up a lot faster then them. I wouldn't say that that was traumatising but it definitely changed the way i look on life and how I grew up but it made me the person i am today. I’m one of those kinds of people who have trouble recalling my memories but as for my earliest memory i'd have to say when i was about four or five but i'd always go to my grandpas and we’d play Ocarina of Time and when he was making my profile he names mine pooper which was my nickname from him which always stuck with me for the longest time. Another memory that comes to mind is throughout my time in wallingford (kindergarten through third grade) when we used to play soccer at recess time no matter what team i was on they’d always put me as goalie because another one of my nicknames was bigfoot which implied nothing ever got by me. My team would always win thanks to my superior goalie skills back in the day. As long as we have family and friends we’ll always have memories, some good and some bad, some you wish to remember forever and some that you’d wish would go away but no matter what you’ve gone through you’ll always have people by your side.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a lot of childhood memories but the ones I can remember are pretty odd. The first memory is when I was around two years old and I put nine pieces of cat food up my nose. I went to the hospital to get them removed. I remember the doctor having a pair of long tweezers and putting them up my nose I remember my eyes watering because the tweezers were giving me an odd feeling. The doctor could only get seven pieces out. So the two he could not get got infected and I had green stuff coming out of my nose. Another memory is when I was three years old we went to park safari and my dad was feeding a buffalo and it sneezed and mucus went everywhere in the car. I also can remember I got really bad poison ivy when I was three. It was all over my body even on my face. One of my favorite memories is when I was four years old we went to our family's cottage that was on a lake. I loved to feed the fish bread. So one day I decided to put the bread in between my toes. The fish would poke their heads out of the water and grab the bread. Another favorite memory of mine is when my family was having a party at my grandma’s house. Half of my family was in the pool including myself. The other half didn’t want to get wet. So the people in the pool would throw water balls at the people who weren’t in the pool and they would throw them back. I got out of the pool turned on the hose and squirted everyone not in the pool. I made my grandma pee her pants. I felt bad that she peed her pants but it was a fun day other wise.
ReplyDeleteThis is Hannah Czachor
DeleteWhen I think about my early childhood memories, a lot of them are clear to me. A lot of people say they don’t remember their childhood memories because nothing traumatic happened to them. Nothing traumatic happened to me, I had a normal childhood. I also learned to talk and read before the normal age. My family and I talk about our memories sometimes, but they seem familiar to me regardless. From starting dance classes to horseback riding, I remember a lot. One generic memory I have is of my grandma taking care of me when my parents went to work. She babysat me until I was old enough to go to school, then after kindergarten I started going to daycare everyday until my sister was old enough to watch me. The earliest memory I can recall is of laying on the couch in the morning watching Bear in the Big Blue House as my grandmother walked in the house. It was very early in the morning, my dad had already left for work and my mom was just leaving. My grandmother always brought M&M ice cream cones with her. To this day, they are still my favorite ice cream. Another one of memories is from my third birthday party. I remember sitting in my chair at the end of the table with everyone in my family watching as I fed my sister a popsicle. I don’t remember what kind of popsicle, but I remember I smeared it all over her face. I remember many little things from my childhood such as going to my uncle’s for the first time in awhile, but no other details from that event. Some things my parents say happened when I was very young, I feel like I know what they’re talking about even though they don’t seem super clear to me.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest childhood memory is definitely traumatic. When I told my dad this story he was surprised I remembered it because I was under two years old. I remember my dad lifting me out of my crib. He brought me into my room where my mom was sleeping. He layed me down next to her. I don’t remember exactly what my dad said but my mom said, “I will.” My mom wrapped her arm around me as my dad left. I couldn’t fall asleep. I was wide awake. My mom rolled over and just left me lying there. I decided that I was going to get out of bed. I tried rolling over to get off of the bed. I ended up falling and hitting my head off of the night stand. I remember just laying there crying for my mom. She never said anything. My dad came in as I was crying and he started screaming at my mom. I remember him holding me, making sure I was okay. My next memory was when my little sister was born. I only remember my mother being in labor. I was screaming and crying because I thought my mom was dying. I remember the look of just absolute pain on her face. My grandmother had to miss the birth of my little sister because I was an absolute wreck thinking my mother was dying so I had to be removed from the room. I remember my grandma putting on my purple feety pajamas. I kept asking her questions like, “Will I see mommy again?”, “Will mommy be okay?”, “Is the baby killing her?”. All nonsense questions. Then I remember when Britney finally came. I was allowed back into the room when I ran and jumped onto the bed. Then mom yelled at me because she was sore and the baby was very fragile. She didn’t have the energy to put up with me at that point. Mom wouldn’t let me touch the baby until we got home. I didn’t want to give my little sister back… I wanted to hold her forever lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember much from when I was little. I only remember parts of events. I remember when one of my mom's goats charged at her, and she ended up getting a huge cut from the fence. She had to go to the hospital to get stitches, and at the time, my sister was only a few months old, and I was two. Within a week the goats were gone. I don't remember what the goats looked like, or their names, but I remember this one event. Another thing I remember from my early childhood is a party. I don't know how old I was, but I had to be two, because it before my great grandfather got sick.I remember a cake topper, and and I remember seeing my great grandfather. I also remember some things from preschool. One day I was on the swings, and I jumped off, I think, and I ended up scraping my knee. I don't know why I remember this, because I have always been clumsy,and I only usually remember details from some of my more serious injuries.I think I remember that event, because it was the same day we found a bat on the side of the building. I remember being so curious, and amazed. It was the first time I had ever seen a bat. This has to be my most vivid memory. All the other are fragmented, and are blended together. After these few memories, I can't really remember much until I was five. Even then, I don't have a ton of very clear memories, until I was nine or ten. It wasn't like I had a traumatic childhood, I think it was a very happy childhood, from what I have been told, besides being injured a few time.
ReplyDeleteThis topic intrigues me, and my entire family actually answered this question over dinner just a few weeks ago. I found that I could actually remember the least out of all of my family. My earliest childhood memory is when my parents left for a cruise, leaving me with my grandparents. I had recently started watching the movie Lilo and Stitch, so I was introduced to the meaning of ohana. “Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten.” So the next moment my parents called to check in, my grandmother told them they were in deep trouble with me. I wouldn’t stop rambling about ohana and how I had been left behind. It made my parents feel so guilty, and it’s been an inside joke to our family ever since. To this day Lilo and Stitch remains my favorite movie. This memory is probably from around age four, and I can’t seem to remember anything before that. I think I can’t remember much before because nothing intrigued me or stood out to me during that range of age. I didn’t discover my love of horses until I was between five and six, and that’s when, in my eyes, I truly started living. Any memories I have before that are either shocking events like falling down stairs, or events that have been retold by my family over and over. Most memories from my childhood feel as though they’re not truly mine since I remember them from others telling me. Any others stand out because they were painful or scary, so evoked strong emotions at the time. The article’s explanation of how/why we remember things at a young age completely makes sense. The lack of language and therefore ability to maintain memories is a connection that is completely logical.
ReplyDeletePayton Cummings- I would have to say that my earliest memory is from before moving to Colorado over 13 or 14 years ago, when my brother and I would go to our babysitter in Independence, Missouri. She was a nice older woman named Sandy. She had short, curly, blonde hair and wide rimmed glasses. Whenever we went to her house to be babysat, I remember during lunch that my brother and I would eat off of Zoo Pals paper plates at her table. I also remember that her house might have had a lot of earthy green tones.This memory it from around the age of three or four, I don’t quite remember how long before we moved to colorado this was though. I don’t really remember much from my childhood, unless something actually reminds me of it in a conversation. This could be chalked up to what the article says, my epilepsy, or both. Overall, though it’s a really interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteMy earliest memory that I have but was mostly engraved into my memory by a traumatic event but all other detail about it was from what my parents said happened to me when I was about 4 years old. It was a few months before I was getting ready to head to EEE. One night I was taking a shower but I had left my clothes in my bedroom that was up a small flight of stairs and down a hall. So after my shower I wrapped myself in a towel and peeked out of the door. I didn’t see anyone so I started running up the stairs to my bedroom but because I was wet I slipped on the stairs and I had fallen up them. I landed on the stairs very hard and I ended up breaking my leg and my nose. My sister heard me screaming and looked over at where it was coming from but just turned back around to finish her coloring. My mom came over to help me up but my leg was in too much pain. They took me to the hospital to see what was wrong. They took some x-rays of my leg and saw that it was broken. They had me on a bed with my leg hung up in a hammock of some sort. It was to pull my bones from on top of each other to put them back into place. It had took over four months to put them back on track but since I couldn’t move the entire time I was in diapers and I forgot how to use the bathroom so they had to potty train me all over again. In all of this I couldn't go to school but it turns out I couldn’t have gone anyways because my birthday was later than the starting age.
ReplyDelete~Marcus McCollum
Jarred Hayes
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 3, I used to love the show “Rugrats”. One day, I got into an argument with my mom because I KNEW that Tommy Pickles was a real person. He wasn't just a cartoon. No, he was a person just like you and me. And me being me (a three year old that doesn't want to listen to anyone about anything) got so mad at my mom for saying Tommy wasn't real, that i ran away. I would run away to my grandmother's house. She lived a few houses away from me. So I would go around and grab a couple toys, wrap them in my Bob The Builder blanket, grab a juice box out of the fridge and set out on my adventure. All the while, my mom is on the phone with my grandmother. “Jarred’s coming over because he's mad at me.” “Okay yes, I see him”
When I got over to my grandmother's house, I told her all about how mom offended my way of living. How dare she say that Tommy Pickles wasn't real. How could she do such a thing. After a good nap, I would head home from my grandmother's house because I GUESS I can forgive my mom for what she did.
Another time that I “ran away” was when my mom got mad at me for feeding the VCR a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now why would I do this? I did it because Tommy Pickles was hungry so I took out the Rugrats VHS tape and put in my PBJ. Lets just say, we needed a new VCR. After I ran away, once again, I took a nap and a few hours later, I went home as if nothing had ever happened.
As a child growing up I can remember a lot of things that happened to me as a young girl from a very young age. I can remember laying in my crib in a room that I shared with my older sister Sarah, when in the middle of the night I woke up because I was cold and it was very dark in the room and I could not find my blanket because I must have somehow thrown it out of my crib. In the dark I can remember I was crying and calling out for my sister to help me but she just told me to shut up and go to sleep, which evidently caused me to cry more and louder.
ReplyDeleteI can also remember once when I was about two or three I was upstairs and I had been playing with my toy register, it was orange and blue and extremely ugly but it gave me coins that I had begged my father for, which normally I would get a quarter if I did something really good without being asked to do it that I would use for my mini gumball machine growing up, eventually it stopped working because well, I ran out of gumballs because I’m daddy’s sweetheart.
There was another time that all of my older sisters and I were piling up in my moms van because we were going somewhere when I was about four or five and my sister Kayla shut my right hand in the sliding van door and it was flattened completely for hours, that hurt so much just thinking about it makes my hand start to hurt. There was also a time where my sister sarah was holding me up in the air and I had vomited in her eyes, which I do not remember doing that because I must have been an infant but whenever I’m told this story I can’t help but laugh because my sister probably deserved it.
I only have one memory before the age of 5. It’s a really small memory and I’m not sure why I remembered it. I was 1 or 2 and it was winter and I was sitting by the window waiting for the squirrels to come to the bird feeders. I didn’t share this in class because I wasn’t sure if it was just a dream but the weekend after class I was looking through old photo albums and my mom had taken pictures of me. The second early memory I had was going to Disney World and throwing up everywhere from food poisoning. We had gone to an arabian nights show, where we were served dinner and a salad before dinner. I was the only one that ate the salad so I was the only one the ended up sick. I remember the tomatoes tasting funny but i’d never has anything like food poisoning happen to me before and i’ve always loved food, therefore I still ate the food. I was laying in bed in the hotel room and my stomach hurt really bad everyone was sleeping, so I didn’t say anything until I got out of bed and got sick. I think the reason I remembered this was because it was so traumatic. The fact that I was at Disney and was supposed to be fun but instead I got sick. Lucky I was only sick that night and the show was at night so I didn’t have to feel sick during the day and I just slept it off. These are my two biggest earliest memory, or at least the ones I remember the most vividly.
ReplyDeleteI have a bad memory so I don’t remember much, and what I do is blurry. But I remember one weekend morning some relatives visited the apartment my family was living in at the time. I remember my uncle who was only a few years older than myself visited too. I was doing a normal routine for a Saturday watching cartoons, when we decided to look at some of the toys I had then. He put on my favorite toy a “hulk” glove, and decided to punch me to test it. Which resulted in my ear being cut, and getting stitches. I don’t remember most of the details about that though. But that is my earliest memory of my childhood.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear the word “Memory,” many things run through my mind, both bad and good thoughts. A memory is something you remember or your mind stores from past experiences. Sometimes it's easy for people to remember things from when they were younger and sometimes it's harder. My memories tend to come easier to me. All my memories may not have been the best experiences but when I look back on them they still make me smile. As a young girl I always looked up to my older brother. We spent countless hours together, which was a good thing he was with me on this day. My brother and I were playing in my room one day, he was five and I was three. We were just playing with Legos and I decided that a would see how a Lego tasted. Well down the hatch the Lego went, and out the door my brother went screaming for my parents. My mom came running and and she asked, “ Hailey, where did the Lego go?” I replied while pointing at my stomach, “ down dare mommy.” That night we sat in the emergency room while drinking gross stuff to wait for the lego to pass, although we never found the lego. I liked lots of attention as a child that's why i would always do things to drag the crowd in. My mom put me in dance. I loved doing dance! I had taken tap dance lesson for a few months and that meant I would be in the next dance recital! Well the night of the dance recital I put on my little costume which happens to be a blue leotard and a little blue tutu. I brought my favorite little baby blanket with me that night because I was scared. My mom brought me back stage and we were all getting lined up to go on stage that nobody even remembered to take my blanket back. On the stage i went with my blanket in my hand. The crowd was laughing and i saw my dance teacher motioning me over to her and i wondered why. Then i noticed my blankey still in my hands! I didn't want to walk off stage so i tucked my blanket in my tutu and kept on dancing! Man were my parents and family proud of me that night. I could tell countless memories but these to stuck to me the most and I will treasure forever.
ReplyDeleteNick Jones
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 4 and my brother was 7 we loved everything Thomas the Tank Engine. My brother would watch the show with me sometimes and played with the wooden trains with me but for me, when Thomas came on television my spidey senses tingled and I became one with the screen. I would sit and watch it for hours upon hours and replay the Thomas the Tank Engine movie in the VCR and watch with no breaks. When it was a sunny day out, I was outside with with all my trains. My brother and I would play until dinner time sometimes. We would play in the garden the most but we would also play on the sidewalk and just on the lawn. Every once and awhile we would want the same train (even though we had a milk crate full) and we would get in a fight. My brother was usually the winner because he was bigger than me and would hit me with the train, so I would tell on him and would get the train anyway so it worked out. After like 15 minutes he would be let out of time out and we would totally forget that we were fighting.
Alyssa Bathalon
ReplyDeleteThinking about this assignment and it seems to me that most if not all my memories are from when I was at preschool so around the age of 4. One of those memories was the time I got a bloody nose. So basically I can't remember what exactly I was doing if i was goofing around or what but I remember walking although the wall in the gym at my preschool and against the wall this kid was sitting and when I walked by him, he stuck his feet out and he tripped me so I went face first against the brick wall and I remember her giving me a cold wet wash cloth and her having me sit up on the stage that there was in the gym. Another time from preschool I remember our little graduation we had which was basically just going from preschool to kindergarten but the whole graduation took place on the stage in the gym and we had all these songs we had to sing and there were all these props on the stage that our teacher had made. After they would call your name you got to slide down the slide off the stage with your diploma and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Then after the graduation I remember there being all sorts of food and people taking pictures.
I do not remember much from my early childhood. It seems very difficult to think back that early in my life. If I think hard I can remember some things. But they do not seem very detailed. I remember when I was about 3 or 4 I helped my dad put in a floor at my grandma’s. I was using some sort of tool to help him. I don’t think I was much help though because I was so small. I also recall another time when I was about 4 and I was out in the snow with my grandfather. I remember that there was a large snow storm. I was outside in all my snow gear shoveling. My grandpa would also carry me around in a sled. I seem to remember this because this was the one time my grandparents came over and there was a large snow storm. I also seem to remember helping my dad because it is not often that you put in a new floor for someone. I remember a few other times too. I also remember that my mother would read to me outside on a blanket. I remember we lived in Vermont next to the highway. In the summer she would read to me outside. Sometimes I would not pay to much attention and wander off. I would often go over to the garden we had and look at the flowers. I do not remember why I did this but I did. Other than that I do not remember anything else. I feel as if it is easier to remember things when I was 6 or 8. Those are when I remember things the most. The earliest I remember things was about 3 or 4. I feel as if the research is true. I can only remember a few things. I feel this is because my brain was still developing at such an early age.
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ReplyDeleteAustin Ellis: When i was 5 my dad taught me to ride my bike that i got for my birthday. It had spider man on it and still had its training wheels on but he made me take them off so i could learn to ride without them. I fell over a lot at first and skinned my knees but when my dad held onto the back of my seat and guided my handlebars straight, i could hold myslf up better. Then one time, he let go and i could ride by myself. I didn't know how to stop though so i kept going until i fell over in the grass on the side of the road. That's my earliest memory from my childhood
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few short moments that I can remember from my childhood. The one memory that is most clear to me happened when I was about two. I can only picture a scene in my mind from the memory. However it is probably the most clear image I can picture. At times it seems like it happened yesterday. I was propped up against the tv stand looking straight up to the tv. There was a single plane on the middle of the screen tilted at a downward angle as the clear blue sky covered the rest of the screen. A single heading scrolled across the bottom of the screen. That unfortunately isn’t as clear as the rest of the memory. Perhaps that's because I couldn’t read yet so it didn’t leave a meaning for me to remember it. I can’t recall if anyone else was in the room. Although being that young I can’t imagine being left alone in the room so it leads me to think that someone was there but wasn’t talking. According to my parents it was 9/11 so that explains the silence in the room. As for other memories there are more painful but common situations other people remember. From age two to four it seemed like every week my mother would take me to the doctors for check ups and exams. This is where the typical horrific memories start, the dreadful needles. I’d get worked up to the point where all I’d want to do is run and hid from the doctor. It didn’t help matters when my sister came along with me. She was probably nine or ten, the age where anything was funny. What was funny to her was making my trips to the physicians torture. She would run “worst case scenarios” through mind getting me super nervous. This is probably the very reason why we have a love hate relationship. Today I’m still uncomfortable with needles and the memories of my sister’s persistence still lingering with me in every appointment.
ReplyDeleteJade SM - When I think about my childhood I can remember loads of stories but trying to remember things from before the age of four is a little more difficult. There are a few funny and not so funny things I can remember though. When I was about 4, I distinctly remember purposefully peeing my pants to annoy my grandmother. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time or why I thought it was a good idea, but I did. I guess i’ll have trouble remembering the details for all of these early memories. A different memory that wasn’t so funny, more traumatic than anything. There was this one step you had to use to get back into the house from our garage that I always stubbed my toe on. That would be fine and all if it wasn’t lined with metal. I cut my big toe off that step so much that my family had to get the metal removed. I think the reason that I can remember this memory with more detail is because it left a scar, so every time I see the scar I get reminded of how I got it. Speaking of scars and memories, I have two scars that I don’t remember how I got them. It’s kind of strange how I can remember how I got one scar but not the others. Maybe I got them at a very young age, or maybe I shut out the memory because I didn't like it. It’s curious to me why/how people remember some things but not others. For example another memory of mine is the first time I ate a banana which is really strange especially since I remember when and where I ate it, but I can’t remember how I got those two scars. You'd think the scars would be more significant.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was around 3, I remember waking up. I was so excited for the day, because my mom was was taking me shopping to get something I have always wanted. That day I got my first pair of cowgirl boots! I was so happy! I finally got what I’ve been wanted for as far back as I could remember. I remember going to my grandmothers to show off my boots. Then we went to get pictures taken at the mall. Every year she took me to go get my picture taken. I still remember the flash from the camera. I remember the photographer telling me what to do, making sure I looked adorable in my pictures. I had those boots for 5 years. Until I grew out of them. I never wanted to give them up.
ReplyDeleteAnother memory was when I was around 4, I remember my parents were about to get a divorce. I remember them fighting, they were always arguing. They weren’t talking with each other or anything. If they did all they would do is fight. I remember them always screaming at each other. There was never any peace in our household. I spent most of the time at my grandmothers, because they did not want me round it. My parents making me go to my grandmother’s made me even more upset with my parents. I use to have to walk out back to see my father up in the camper, if I asked to stay with my dad for the night my mom told me no. My mother didn’t want me seeing my dad. This event had a major impact on my life. It changed the way I viewed my parents, especially my mom. It wasn’t the same after the divorce. My relationship with my mother was never the same after.
I hardly remember anything from my child hood because nothing big ever happened. My family and I never went to another state, we never did anything fun together like go to a water park. I do remember being surrounded by family who loves me. I remember when I was little my mom, me and my younger brother would always go to this guys house that my mom knew and pick out our favorite Christmas tree. As we got home Nikiah, Erika, Sean, me and Corey would all hang our baby ornament and lights and tinsel up. With my dad we went to a Christmas tree farm and chose a tree there. When I was probably 7 I went to this program called Rec. There was high school students that were the counselors and other children my age or some younger or couple years older. We would play games all day or do arts and crafts and on fridays was water day or we would go on a field trip. I remember when I was younger my sister told me about how when she was in high school I was just a baby. And when she went out in public with me people would stare and give dirty looks at her. So they got me a shirt that says "I'm the little sister". I use to go to this womens house who babysat me. She had children of her own my age. There was toys everywhere! And in the summer we would have popsicles all the time and cool aid and go swimming. I remember my mama would always pack either ramen noodles or spaghettios for lunch. I always played with polly pockets, baby dolls, barbies, and even weeble wobbles. A lot of times we watched movies. Thats some of what I remember from my child hood.
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