First memories

My first memory is sitting on a swing in our garden and my older sister feeding me earth from a trowel. I remember thinking it was oddly crunchy. I was two, my sister three and a half.

It’s very odd because friends say I’ve a good memory, but of my early years, I remember little to nothing. I have no memory of living in Harrogate until I was 5, then only stories of a couple of dangerous situations when I was 5 up here in Durham. I have a few memorable occasions, but
when I really start to remember is around sitting my 11+ and after that is clear as a bell.

My earliest dateable memory is crossing the tram tracks
at Bispham to get to the beach. I was 22 months at the time. All other early memories are undatable.

Yes, absolutely Unfortunately, I have had depression since I was a teen. Between 1988-90 I have almost no memory as I had post natal depression on top of the usual. Tough time, thank goodness for my OH x

I remember things but especially the feel of things.
I can remember the feel of my pram cover which was navy blue and kind of plasticised and I can remember the feel of some toy bricks I had aged about 2. They had pictures on each side that you had to match up. They felt smooth.

I remember my brother throwing my dummy on the fire. I remember being cosy in my big pram, age around 2. I remember a lot of things and have photos.

My first memory was when I was no older than two, I was in my cot beside my parents' bed .I could not sit up in my cot and the covers were not covering me properly so I was crying.

My first memory is from when I was 3 yrs old. I was sitting on the floor and my mother came in with a bottle of milk from the doorstep. "Look, she said, "the bottle's wearing a top hat". This was a tower of snow on top of the bottle. It was winter 1947 which became noted as one of the most severe on record.

I remember being in my pram, tucked up and warm. I could see my mother pushing the pram. It was raining and I listened to the raindrops drumming on the pram hood. Behind my mother I could see a huge gas holder. From this I later realised it meant that we were going home after visiting my grandma. I was about 14 months old at the time as I went to live with grandma at 15 months for the next two years while mum did "war work" . I have lots of memories of living with grandma. Being bathed in front of the fire in a large enamel bowl, having bread and milk for breakfast (she called it "pobs".)

I remember when my sister was born; I was nearly 3 then. I was lifted out of my bed in the night and taken to the home of an old lady we called Auntie Grace. I slept the rest of the night on a chair that folded down flat to make a bed and I still have a picture in my head of that chair. I can also picture sitting in a little seat across the top of the pram and being excited because I was so high up I could see myself in the hallway mirror!

My first memory is the coronation in 1953 so I can date that exactly. I was 2 years 9 months 26 days old.

I think I remember lying watching the sun through the leaves of the overhead trees as I was pushed down a country lane in my pram... but as my mum was such a fantastic story teller about our early years and we have so many childhood photos it's not easy to know if any of the memories are true

My earliest memory is when we moved house. I was 30 months old. My grandmother and I were in the back of the furniture removals lorry when the furniture shifted and she was banging and screaming to let the driver know what was happening. I remember how dark it was.

Both DDs have early recall. DD2 built a snowman with her 16 year old brother when she was 19 months old. She remembers how sad she was when it had melted the following day.

I remember sitting in my big pram, aged around 2. I was strapped in with a leather harness that had pictures of a pixie and two bunnies. The hood was up and the raincover was over the blankets. My father was pushing the pram, and he had arranged a line of 5 Floral Gums in front of me to keep me quiet on the way to my uncle and auntie’s house!

I remember, just 5 days before my 3rd Birthday, my Mum taking me to a neighbour who sat me down in front of the television with a drink in a glass and a couple of biscuits on a China plate. Playschool was on and there were pandas through the window. Next time I saw Mum, a few days later, she had a new baby with her.
The next memories come a year later. We were living with Nan and Grandad while Dad was posted to Borneo for a year. Grandad taught me how to chop kindling with the axe and I also learnt how to clear the fire grate out, remake it and light it, using a sheet of newspaper across the front if it didn't draw. I can't imagine today's young children doing things like that.

My first memory I must have been around 2 years old and I remember being taken to visit my great grandparents. I remember my mum sitting me on their sideboard but not much else except that my great grandfather was still alive at that time . My great grandmother only died a week before my 18th birthday . I also remember at the age of 3 and a half my brother starting school and I screamed the place down because I couldn’t go in with him .

My very first memory is of me lying in the back of a bubble car on a tartan rug. My Mum got me out of the car and screamed, "Oh my God, she's red". Then she saw the dog and said, "Its alright, the car must have a leak and it's from the rug." I was about 30 when I said to Mum about it and she said that I couldn't possibly remember it but agreed it had happened. She was apparently on holiday with my Dad in a car that they had borrowed and she was pregnant with my sister experiencing the most terrible morning sickness. There is only 20 months between us!

Oh, and like others, there are loads of things I can't remember but these were also times when I was dreadfully unhappy.

My second birthday my 3 older cousins all ate the sweets out of a sweet shop they had brought me
.I once described a room I remembered to my late mother and she confirmed it was the lounge of a house we left when I was just over two.

My earliest memory is when I was two and my dad was giving me a bath and singing Yellow Submarine. It would have been 1967 and I think it was probably no. 1 at the time.

My first memory is the party held in the street at the end of WWII. I was 14 months old and my Mum always said “you can’t possibly remember that”. But I do, I can see my cousin, who lived opposite us, in a white dress with red,white and blue buttons. Just recently this cousin found a photo of that day and there she is in a white dress with darkish buttons. (The photo is b/w) I remember sitting in my high chair at the table watching a jelly shimmering. I also remember my Dad coming home from the Navy in 1946 when I was 2 and after a few days of ignoring him I thought it looks like he’s going to stay so I better be nice to him! Other things, the workmen coming to repair the bomb damage to our house, the lorry that emptied the rainwater drains then moved down the road and let the dirty water out again so us children could collect all our marbles that had rolled into the drain. No health and safety rules then.

I remember getting a blue penny for my 2nd birthday, I think it had embroidered picture of mice on it, so I was fascinated with mice and was convinced a leave that blew across the floor was a mouse.

I have an excellent memory. It’s spooky. Years ago, I was watching Upstairs Downstairs with my parents; when it was first on) and I pointed out that the actor who was the footman - Christopher Beeny - used to be in The Groves which was on telly when I was very small , before I was at school. They were amazed and a bit weirded out. I remember good and bad things in Technicolor detail . It’s a blessing AND a curse, believe me .

My first memories must have been when I was less than 2, but then I don't seem to remember many more until from when I was about 3 or 4.

I know I was not even three, I was not well and in a tin bath in the kitchen. My mother had a neighbour in for a cup of tea. As she stood me up to get me out of the bath I vomited green stuff. My mother then said to the neighbour "I would have been back at work if it hadn't been for this one". When I was three she said "you don't mind if mummy goes to work do you"? That was in 1954. As if a three year old could comprehend that! She obviously didn't want me and my childhood was miserable.