What's the earliest memory of your life that you remember?

[SvennoJ]

hatmoza said:

Viper1 said:
I have a very unusual ability to recall my younger days. I remember helping come up with names for my brother who was born before I turned 2 years old. I even remember the names I suggested: Giraffe or Sunshine. Once an adult, childhood amnesia usually limits our memories earlier than 4 or 5 years old.

Is that even possible? I mean I'm not calling you a liar but I have a really difficult time believing that people can recall memories from when they were 2. Maybe it's possible but it just doesn't sink my brain on a personal level.

OP

My earliest memory is from when I was four. In my dad's car, it was brown. Very foggy memory of the car breaking down and me seat belted in the back seat. That's all, a 10 second memory.

I asked my dad many years later if he ever owned a brown car and sure enough he did. He said it was 1990, 4 years after I was born.

Same here, apart from an early traumatic memory, I can't find any memory before the age of 4 that is not part of a story that my parents told me later over a photo album or home video. (8mm footage, ugh I'm getting old)

It's not that difficult to figure out if something is a primary memory or secondary. Perspective in imagery in recollections gives it away. The world transforms rather drastically as your eye level moves up with age. Revisiting those places you used to live in as a child is always pretty jarring. The once immense schoolyard, now a tiny space jammed in between buildings. The heavy door handle you had to reach for above your head. Dogs that you could not look over. A world full of pant legs to navigate through. That huge climb up the slide.

All my 'memories' pre 4'ish are more in a adult perspective. I'm probably going to contaminate my children's early memories even more by mosty filming them at their eye level :/