by William Dotani
Member since:
October 27, 2006

What was your first memory in your life?

September 04, 2007 08:33 AM EDT
views: 55 | comments: 24

I don't remember if it was last year or the year before that, but for some reason my mom had gotten out some old photographs of when I was cute. One photograph was of a large fountain in a park in Detroit. I said, 'I remember that. That's where I was crawling and got my knee bloody.' My mom looked at me and said, 'You couldn't have possibly remembered that. You were only 6 months old.' I told her I did remember it and with detail told about her running to get me out of the fountain and taking me to a water fountain that had a brass spigot of some kind of animal. I told her my dad held me up to the faucet as she wiped the blood off of my knee and it had hurt. My mom then said, 'Someone must have told you about this.' I thought about this possibility and then asked, 'Who knew about this except for you and dad?' No one else did. She had kept this quiet because she feared people calling her a bad mom because she had let me crawl in the fountain and had momentarily left me unsupervised. To put it lightly, my mom was quite shocked I remembered this. I personally don't understand why this was so shocking to her.

My next earliest memory was when I was one year and 8 months old. I still remember that day as clear as if it were yesterday because that's when my parent's moved us into our first house. It's strange how I can remember something that happened 53 years ago, but can't remember what I did last Tuesday. I am wondering what your first memory of life was?  

link to this page
Bookmark this post:
Facebook
Twitter
Delicious
Buzz
More

Comments: 24

Bundy P Sep 4, 2007, 8:50am EDT
My earliest memory was being in the hospital with a bladder infection when I was 2. I can see it like it was yesterday...my brother was an infant, and the hospital wouldn't allow her to visit with a child, so she would just stand at the window and wave.
Patricia I. Sep 4, 2007, 9:04am EDT
wow great subject, I don't have a clear memory of anything being my 1st memory. but my husband remembers being about 7 month old and his dad holding him up outside in the garden in Michigan and his mother taking a picture of them, and him thinking I like these 2 people. When he told me that I thought he was pulling my leg but he swears its true
Donald M. Sep 4, 2007, 9:08am EDT
I can remember living in the back of a shipping and receiving yard for tractor trailers. To be shipped out on boats or sent to the highway,.Playing in the empty truck trailers was my thrill at nearly three years old. BTW the doors were propped open so they couldnt shut. Daddy had some portable steps to get in and out , up and down.
Miz Lynn aka/BooBoo Sep 4, 2007, 10:02am EDT
My earliest memory is of me sitting in my white crib bawling! Mom and Dad had company and I was put to bed for the night. No way, I was afraid I was missing something...hahaha!
Wilma M. Sep 4, 2007, 10:52am EDT
For a long time, I couldn't recall any childhood memories. I didn't have a bad or traumatic childhood at all, but couldn't recall anything under age 10 or so. This last spring, I wrote about 10 happy memories (or something similar) here and that opened up some that I hadn't thought of in years. Despite that, I have no clear memories under 6-7 years of age.
Alison H. Sep 4, 2007, 10:59am EDT
Mine was not dramatic. I was three and at my maternal grandma's house and on the floor tracing her rug pattern. It was a green "carved" rug with spiral-like designs that were indented, and I was fascinated by it.
*Carol ~Bronx Southern Belle D. Sep 4, 2007, 11:09am EDT
I remember my father's face standing over my crib. He had electrical tape cut in pieces taped on my crib. He looked worried. When I told him, I was about 12 years old. His face went white. He told me that when I was about 1 year old, I got my legs stuck in the radiator and they got burned pretty badly. He was an electrician, so he was bandaging my legs with gauze and electrical tape.
Marge H. Sep 4, 2007, 2:41pm EDT
One of my foster families had a green leaf on a pink background wool rug in the living room. I would climb on the back of the couch and pretend I was riding a horse on a leaf-strewn pink trail. I also remember that there were quite a few other children of various ages running around. The "mother" had a flower garden with many pansies. She said they were her favorite flower because they had "smiling faces". Strangely, I don't remember a "dad". I don't know how old I was but it was before I was three.
William Dotani Sep 4, 2007, 2:55pm EDT
There are a lot of great comments. By the way, my memory wasn't traumatic.
Elsie Duggan Sep 4, 2007, 5:26pm EDT
Now this is going to sound strange, and I know I probably am, but all my life I told my mother about being in the hospital right after I was born, and the part I told her was true, and she couldn't believe it but since she was the only one that knew about it, thought I must have had a memory of it. She has never told anyone else about it, it wasn't bad, I just remembered being there and describing it to her., I also remember other things very early in my life, a few months old moving into our new home, things like that, so maybe memory does start way back then.
Sheila Deeth Sep 4, 2007, 7:18pm EDT
My earliest memory dates from before my first birthday too, and my family insist that I couldn't have remembered it. Not traumatic - just pulling wallpaper off walls through the bars of my cot.
wiaka's just ... curious Sep 4, 2007, 7:26pm EDT
I don't know how old I was; but I remember living in a caboose and falling down because the train was hooking up other rail cars and it jerked us, mom was fixing pancakes and the batter went everywhere. It was in Kananas, my dad Iwas told later worked for the railroad.

Blessings
Jim Swan Sep 4, 2007, 9:49pm EDT
You're asking a 60 year old such a question? My high school graduation ceremony . . . .
Jim Swan Sep 4, 2007, 9:54pm EDT
Seriously, the first clear recollection that comes to mind is of injuring my eye when I fell against the corner of the brick steps leading up to our front door. Must have been about age five or so. Scared my mom half to death. I suppose I have earlier memories, but nothing dramatic enough to stand out.
Donald M. Sep 5, 2007, 12:41am EDT
They say to create a memory there has to be an emotion. Happy,sad,sacred, loving, hating, My early childhood memories are what made me happy or very frightened.
I would climb anything and climbed the wrong thing one day.
Donald M. Sep 5, 2007, 12:45am EDT
I was running across a floor on the second story of any apartment, climbed to the top of a dish safe.{called china cabinets now} it fell the glass broke and cut my head very bad. I plate broke on my head too and left a lot of that glass in my head. the only part I actually remember is when they were doing surgery. they covered my head. I was nearly four years old but knew when they covered your head you were dead. I kept trying to get the sheet or whatever off my head and telling them I wasnt dead.
Donald M. Sep 5, 2007, 10:56am EDT
Its a new day, Good morning, I can remember walking down the road at 5 years old, in a wonderful town. It is disappeared except for the graveyard now and that is locked. If I could find some of the pictures, to prove it was really there I would like to write an article on it one day.
Judi F. Sep 5, 2007, 12:35pm EDT
Hmmm...earliest memory. I remember my first dog - Butch. He was chasing me around and pulling on a red boa I was carrying around. I must have been about two.

thanks for posting this and evoking the memory!
William Dotani Sep 6, 2007, 2:58am EDT
Well Jim, my high school graduation ceremony I'd rather forget. Maybe in 6 years I will. LOL.
Minakshi w. Sep 6, 2007, 3:07am EDT
William and Elsie, you have the most super memories--going back to such an early time! Specially Elsie!!
I have grown old..sigh..and don't remember things the way I used to when I was about 4 or 5. Now?? The earliest thing I can remember is sitting in my garden under a henna bush with a friend and crushing the leaves into a paste to smear it on our hands! Must have been around 3...
Nardy G. Sep 6, 2007, 10:58am EDT
My first memory is of me around the age of 3 or 4 trying to get my grandmother out of bed to play with me. I don't know why it sticks in my head all these years later except that I now know that the reason she couldn't was that she was just days from her death of cancer. I haven't been in that house for 34 years but I can still see the layout.
Donald M. Sep 6, 2007, 11:37pm EDT
My mmemory will be better in the morning, right now my eyes are shuting.
Donald M. Sep 6, 2007, 11:38pm EDT
I can hear Donald calling from the other room. Get your b--- in here and go to bed.

Join the Conversation
Chime in! Become a Gather member to comment.
Already a member? Sign in
top
 
Gather | Friends | Groups | Share
About Gather | Engagement Marketing | Make New Friends | Gather Points | Advertise on Gather | Gather Press | Privacy | Terms of Service | Community Guidelines
Books | Celebs | Entertainment | Family | Food | Health | Moms | Money | News | Politics | Spirituality | Sports | Travel | Writing
Version 16961, "Pacino"; Copyright © 2009 Gather Inc. All rights reserved.