What is your earliest childhood memory?
Posted by DLH64@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 46 comments
I grew up in the 60’s in Skegness, just after Butlins had opened, where both my parents worked. I am remembering lots of things from that time.
What is your earliest memory from your childhood? I’m willing to share mine, if you share yours.
Obvious-Water569@reddit
I grew up in rural Canada and we had some redcurrant bushes in our garden.
To prevent birds from eating all the fruit, we threw netting over the bushes.
My earliest memory is crawling under the netting and being swarmed by moths. Thousands of moths.
I must hve only been 2 years old, if that.
gaspoweredcat@reddit
walking down a country lane toward a small village in wales, i can see a row of houses/buildings one of them is the post office then it cuts out, i cant have been much more than 3-4 at the time, its the first visual memory i have
tykeoldboy@reddit
I was born in 1960 and I remember hearing Billy J Kramer on the radio singing Little Children, I didn't know who it was at the time I just remember the song. This was 1964 in the same year I remember going with my mum on several occasions to her place of work and playing in the back of the shop while she worked, no daycare or health & safety back then you were just put on the floor with some toys and left alone.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
I remember standing on a sweet tin singing along to Mary Hopkins. Was it, “those were the days my friends”. Was opportunity knocks on that early?
tykeoldboy@reddit
Those Were the Days was 1968. I do remember hearing the song on the radio at the time but I don't remember seeing her on Opportunity Knocks
DLH64@reddit (OP)
That time line works.
Fullmoon-Angua@reddit
My brother walking besides my blue & white stripped toddler buggy and we came to the local 'brook' and my mum told me I was big now and didn't need my dummy any more and told me to throw it away in the stream.
So yeah, my mum making me litter xd.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Brilliant. 😀. Hope you told your mum that she’s not environmentally friendly.
No-eye-dear-who-I-am@reddit
I remember a newborn (brother) that suddenly appeared in our house, I was five and couldn't have cared less 😂
DLH64@reddit (OP)
😀. I got my son a fireman Sam helmet.
LensmanUK@reddit
Trying to touch the flame of the candle on my 1st birthday cake.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Hope you didn’t burn your hand.
ambiiee96@reddit
Having chickenpox age 2 years 7 months
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Uwww itchy.
Lessarocks@reddit
My first day at school. I have absolutely nothing before that.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
That’s a good memory to have. No early trauma.
anon1992lol@reddit
I have vague memory of lobbing an ornament out of my brothers bedroom window
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Hopefully you didn’t hit anyone. 😀
closecharge715@reddit
Watching my older brothers play in the snow from the kitchen window. I wasn’t allowed out because the snow was deeper than I was tall. They made a snow version of me!
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Ohh that’s sad. Hope you are taller than them now.
fluffy_butt_bee@reddit
My 1st birthday cake and my mind telling me to scream and I did. I’m not even joking. I remember telling a therapist about it and I’m almost certain it’s why she tried to put me on lithium.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Do you know why you needed to scream?
fluffy_butt_bee@reddit
No i don’t. I just remember vividly hearing a females voice that I didn’t recognise telling me “scream” I thought it was just a fake memory for a long time until my 1st birthday pic was put on my 18th cake and I was holding my ears in the picture screaming. Hadn’t seen the picture at all before then.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
That’s awful. I also have horrible memories, that I now know happened. I feel your pain.
DryJackfruit6610@reddit
Reaching onto the table during my birthday party to get myself a grape.
Only to end up in tears because it was, in fact, an olive
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Oh that’s bad. I only liked olives after I turned 32. That’s an unpleasant memory. If you try them now, you might like them.
DryJackfruit6610@reddit
Oh yes agreed I am 32 and I love them now!
thegreyman1986@reddit
I was attacked by a dog when I was 4, had most of the skin ripped off my right arm (which my mum swears is why I’m left handed and that before that I would catch and throw things with my right hand but that’s besides the point) … I remember the dog attacking me and then the next thing I remember was coming out of hospital with my arm all bandaged up. Apparently I didn’t pass out or anything and was conscious on the way to hospital and so on, so I assume it’s some weird trauma response to not remember the boys on between
DLH64@reddit (OP)
That’s horrific. I had the top of my thumb chopped off in a swing door between the kitchen and dining room of the hotel my dad managed. Have a photo of my thumb heavily bandaged in my first holy communion photo, when we lived in Liverpool.
PuzzledFishOfTheSea@reddit
Honestly, being hit by my mother at the bottom of the stairs.
I said "you hit me!" Through tears.
She replied "I didn't hit you, i gave you a clip 'round the ear'ol and you bloody deserved it!"
I don't even remember what I did wrong, I just remember being hit and realising my mother hated me. I must have been 4 or 5 years old.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
I know that pain. One of my first memories was sitting on the stairs up to our flat, and feeding our cat. One spoon for kitty, one spoon for me. Kittykat appears to be my favourite food at that time. My mother always said “I wondered why you always smelt of cat food”. I remember those words clearly as it was years later we talked about it.
I was then taken upstairs into the flat and my mother washing my mouth out with soapy water and making me sick. Happy fecking days. That’s my first memory I’m sharing. I have a few others.
trtrtr82@reddit
My memories of my childhood are basically nil. It's all one big blur and i'm not sure if the memories i do have are real or because my parents told me about what happened.
flakkane@reddit
🫂
undoneyet@reddit
I can remember having my nappy changed on my mother’s lap, and the smell of the empty Vicks jar that she had given me to distract my attention. I still love that smell 65 years later.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
I agree. Vicks has a comforting smell.
Dolphin_Spotter@reddit
I can remember seeing my older brother off at the station on his way to university. The train was pulled by a steam locomotive.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Wow that is early. He must have been so much older than you.
NathTheChippy@reddit
My childminder pushing me down the street in a buggy, I took my hat off and shook it in the air to wave at a man walking g past. No idea why I remember that, but I know it had grounds in men taking their hat off to greet people.
NathTheChippy@reddit
Also when I licked a fire engine shaped tent in Reception (Year R) and got my name put on the whiteboard. I cried.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
Oh no 😃. That’s so unfair.
Eyoopmiduck@reddit
I remember my sister being born at home. (I would have been 2). At around 2 and a half I remember fleetingly going on holiday and staying in a guest house on the lincolnshire coast with my grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins. My parents were at home with my new sister. I remember playing a circle game with my cousins - “wallflowers, wallflowers, growing up so high. we are little children and we shall never die” - in the guest house lounge and the other elderly guests sitting around smiling and cooing over us. That would be around 1971.
DLH64@reddit (OP)
That’s a lovely memory.
Houseofsun5@reddit
Flipping over stones on the beach with the dog looking for crabs and butter fish then wandering around to the tree swing , I am on the swing the dog is chasing my feet, once I had enough of that I went go further around the island to see how many seals were on seal rock. The weather was okay so I went up to the BIG woods where it was dark and spooky and scared myself, but I did gather a pocket full of pine cones to randomly throw into the long grass when the dog wasn't looking at me, she would think something was there and go charging after it. Then I wandered back past the couple of old graves and tried to imagine the bones down there and then a bit further on was the zip line my dad had built using wire rope from the fishing trawler and had few rides down that, then I picked some wild mint to make my hands smell nice, then the dog and I went home . This was my daily routine up until I started primary school and life was ruined.
DarthKrataa@reddit
I think its my little brother as a baby and me just kinda rubbing is face.
Its that or my mum being pregnant with him but that might not me "real"
Its a weird one because memories are very fallible.
Jack-Rabbit-002@reddit
It's a toss up between playing in the dark with my Cousin Kirsty Not sure why !? Eating and remembering the taste of ants or watching a magpie steel my glow in the dark ghost Playmobil
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