Memories

I’m not surprised you don’t like rats, Panache. How horrible for you.
My wellies were kept in the under stairs cupboard and I remember, aged about 6, a mouse jumping out of one as I put my foot into it. . I recall screaming for ages. I would never now put wellies on without first feeling inside. However, they’ve always been empty thank goodness. ?

Also, I remember buying a print dress for my little sister at some sale or other, and my mother being so pleased! I must have been around seven or eight at the time, and looking back, I realise that money was tight.

Earliest memories were of sirens and all clears. Quite chilling when I hear these again in old films. First day at school, aged 4, my Dad walked me there. I can now understand why Mum might not have wanted to. I remember going and sitting at an empty desk and talking to the girl next to me. Remember saying goodbye 3 on my 4th birthday. Other memories are odd pockets here and there. I remember some things, my brother remembers others. For a long time I thought doing a wee was “being excused”. I suppose children now just sensibly ask for the toilet. Must ask “my” little ones.

I can remember being taken to see two maiden ladies, whose home my mother had lived in. I remember that they had one whole wall of what must have been their main living area, being a huge solid black-leaded range with ovens in it. It may not have been quite as I remember, but to me it seemed to go all the way up to the ceiling. That was the early 1950s and the two ladies must have been in their seventies at that time, so going back a long, long way.

There are 2 incidents that I vividly recall when surely only a child of 2/3.
Firstly opening this cupboard door and have (what seemed to me) to be a rat as big as a cat jump out at me.
I have never liked or tolerated rats evcer since though appreciate it was probably more frightened than I was!!

Secondly apparently sending my foster folk spare since I was "missing".......we lived on a small farm,well off any road at that time.
I was eventually "found" safe and sound, sharing the same dog kennel as our huge Alsatian guard dog....... with a reputation of being very vicious!!!

I remember very clearly lots of snippets in my primary school years and again in my early teens..........and there is rather a lot I clearly do not want to remember.
But yes also some rather blank spaces here and there.

I can remember lots of different things from both my childhood and teenage years. I am still in touch with three of my friends from early childhood and we often reminisce about those times. The school I attended also has its own FB site so lots of memories are shared on it and bring back different memories and incidents from our schooldays and the teachers we liked or disliked. In my childhood from age 5-9, I used to spend around three weeks of the main summer holidays with an aunt and uncle who lived over the water from us...their house had a big garden with masses of sweet peas growing over trellises everywhere...every time I see sweet peas now I am straight away transported back to their garden, the lovely fragrance of the flowers and the outings they took me on. I re- live the whole experience. I can,t imagine not remembering all of these things. Also as children with no TVs just radio to listen to and reading books, you had to have imagination to appreciate them.

I remember falling in a puddle in my new beige coat and being frightened to come home from school. Who would let a child walk 6-8 streets home from school aged 5 anyway?

I remember the spiders webs on the wall of our outside toilet (shared with 2 other families). I would have been 3 or 4.

I remember my favourite auntie being pregnant with my cousin and can even see her in her homemade pink gingham smock. I would have been about 4.

I don't really remember much from my childhood and always thought everyone else had a better memory than me. I was surprised then when I read my mother's eulogy at her funeral to have my brother ask me afterwards "How did you remember all that? I'd forgotten about the jobs she did." The memories of what she did when I was young just seemed to be part of things I knew and not really memories. So perhaps it isn't so much to do with what you remember but where you have stored that memory.

I remember large parts of my life (esp childhood) in great detail, but DH claims to remember very little before his teenage years. I also rember early married lufe a d having babies and toddlers. The bit that is rather vague is when my children were older (ie teenagers and at university) but I remember their weddings and all the births of grandchildren clearly.
We (DH and I) are currently writing our memoirs for the grandchildren and it's interesting to compare accounts of the same period as we remember different things and the emphasis is quite different. His is much more about his work, mine more about family and much more detailed!

I think some people have longer memories than others

I have very clear memories going back to about 3, helped I think by having a father in the army so that we were always moving house so I can remember things by saying 'when we lived in.....' DD and DH, on the other hand. have very short memories.

DD's memory is a bit like a computer disk. It wipes itself clean after about 5 years. There are events in her teenage years, that have entered family history and come up on occasion in conversation, events to her credit, not disasters, and she now has absolutely no memory of the event and says she is dependent on other peoples memories of her childhood otherwise she would remember little. Yet she remembers quite clearly how every house we lived in was decorated!

I can remember my childhood even at a very young age. I can remember my paternal GF and he died when I was two. The year I started school I caught chicken pox, measles and scarlet fever so being five was memorable.
What I did the other day is more of a challenge.

There has been a lot in the media lately about memories not being ‘true’ memories but having been refined every time we think of them or talk about them. Maybe you have never spent much time thinking back or maybe your life ran on an even keel so nothing stood out?
I remember falling over in our garden when I was 2 1/2 and I remember the coronation and my sister being born (I was 3).steangely I don’t remember moving home in the same year. My next memory is of starting school aged 5.

I can remember a lot and more if I make time to sit and consciously remember. Strange thing though. I shared a bed with my ten year younger sister when I was a teenager and I remember nothing about it, which I find sad. Obviously wrapped up in myself!

I can remember most things and random days jump out and surprise me now and then.I had a wonderful childhood surrounded by a huge family,my parents were the only ones of their generation who had kids so all the aunts and uncles were a big part of our lives ,we lived in the same house as Granny and two sets of aunts and uncles and an unmarried aunt.I think thats why I love being surrounded by people.My teens were busy I had wee jobs since I was 13 and left school at 15 ,I can see people clearly in my head and visualise places and things .The odd thing is I'm not sentimental or nostalgic so I dont actually sit down and talk about or think about the past...its just always there .I also dont keep momentoes or souvenirs

I wonder why some people remember more than others?

I also have problems with visualising things. I don’t know if it’s connected. My family say if you ask them to think about what something looks like, say a giraffe, they can see the image in their head. I can’t see anything.
Probably why I was no good doing visualisation and relaxation

No it's not an age thing my youngest son claims the same thing.

My earliest memory is of my sister being born at home when I was 2y 4 m old. I also remember taking her to 'the Welfare' as it was known, to get weighed and measured and get supplies of dried milk. I can almost remember the smell.
I also have clear memories of my paternal GM who died when I was 3.
Lots of memories of teenage years, possibly because I still regularly see my two friends from school who I used to go youth hostelling with, and inevitably we often reminisce about those days.