Do others retain memories of mundane events from their childhood? Or am I weird?

[The Genealogist]

I have all sorts of memories from when I was a child. I am sure I am not the only one. But some of them I have no idea why my mind holds onto them. One in particular is strong. It would have to be the very late 70s, or perhaps 1980.

Our house was at the end of a north-south dead end street and faced east. To the south of where the pavement ends, there was a rockpile in a small grove of trees. I have awakened late on a very sunny Sunday morning. It rained heavily the night before, and there is water gushing out of the rockpile, like a waterfall or a spring. We proceed to the Skaggs Drugstore that we frequented back then, where I whine my way into a package of Bic Banana markers. I wanted the markers because of the brightly-colored caps, and I was also sure they would smell like bananas.

I was no more than 6 years old. Fact of the matter is, I am not sure the rockpile memory and the marker memory actually happened the same day. Hell, to be honest, I am have no way to confirm that these two events ever occurred. I could have been dreaming or something, imagined it up. Who knows. But my mind insists upon retaining these memories, and connecting them. Why on earth do I need to retain this? It is a pair of pretty emotionally neutral events if they did happen.

[drray23]

1. i retain memories of events that happened when i was two years old.

most people do not, typically anything before age 6 or 7 fades away. A few for reasons unknown have memories reaching back all the way to toddler. Here is an article about that :

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/longing-nostalgia/201504/what-your-oldest-memories-reveal-about-you

[rzemanfl]

3. Now that you mention it, some of mine are from the late forties, despite what I posted below. n/t

[The Genealogist]

7. I know I have memories before 6-7

The earliest memory I have is of being carried out of the house under a plaid blanket and feeling very safe and cozy. I must have been three or so.

I can remember Saturday Night Fever playing at a theater and thinking it meant you couldn't go to the movies because you were sick. I can remember my would be half sister graduating from high school and getting married that summer, and not being able to go to a cousin's funeral in OKC. Those happened when I was three and four. I can remember preschool, the first day of Kindergarten, a family reunion trip to Topeka, and telling everyone my age was "cinco*." Those happened when I was I was five.

*I knew the word "cinco" because I watched a lot of PBS when I was a kid. Shows like Sesame Street taught some Spanish. My grandma was a retired educator, and was THRILLED that I loved PBS.

[Mr.Bill]

31. I can draw the floor plan of the house we moved out of when I was four.

Lots of memories of those times. But I can't remember much of last week.

I think it's the weed.

[pamela]

36. I have a memory from when I was About 18 months.

I had a bad, freak accident and I remember the seconds right before it happened and I remember parts of the ride to the hospital. I have other memories from when I was 3 or 4, but those snippets from the accident are very vivid.

[rzemanfl]

2. Mine are from the early fifties. I can assure you this is a sign your mental state is as good

or bad as my own, so proceed with extreme caution....

[czarjak]

5. 1961...

Family reunions in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma to coincide with the 40th year since the massacre. (Not proud of it either)

[rurallib]

6. Some really big things

like the time my brother poured gas on me and lit me on fire ..........................

[The Genealogist]

8. OMG that's awful!

[rurallib]

9. I got lucky - our mother was watching out the kitchen window

she put me out before I got burned too badly

[Nay]

23. Good God! Did your brother turn out to be a serial killer??

[rurallib]

26. No - he's an upstanding citizen and a Democrat

I think it was the circumstances - @ 1954 summer. Early evening, our Dad was cutting grass with a gas push mower. We had a double lot so it was a big job.

Back then we had burn barrels to burn the daily waste (newspapers etc). Ours was @ 20 feet from the back door. The gas can was set in the middle of the yard for refueling. I was @ 4 and therefore my brother was @8.

There was a fire in the burn barrels. I was @ 5 feet from it. For who knows why, my brother grabbed the gas can, threw some on me and pushed me toward the barrel. I lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree. Fortunately our mom saw it and was out in a flash, and rolled me and rolled me til I was out.

I had only very minor burns, but my favorite cowboy shirt was toast.

Who knows why kids do things like that? Hard to believe how lax parents herein those days - no seatbelts, if you skated you had usually some bad scrapes on and on.

I was the youngest of three boys so we had lots of accidents the wouldn't be tolerated these days.

[Mr.Bill]

32. I had twin brothers who were six years older than me.

Until I was about ten it seems my mission in life was to kill them. Fortunately, I failed every time.

[Nay]

49. Whew. I'm happy to hear that!

[frazzled]

10. Not in general, but I have one recurring memory

I was either 5 or 6 years old ( After 6, we moved from that little starter home to a newly built home in another area.)

I am sitting in the morning on the sofa in the living room of that first house, in front of a picture window, and reading a Little Lulu comic book. My mother has gone to the bedroom attend to my older sister, who is sick. My mother emerges and alarmingly says, “You didn’t leave for school yet?” I had been so absorbed in the comic book I had forgotten. I was shuttled out the door and walked the block and a half or so to my school when I panicked: the school crossing guard was no longer there!

My memory ends there. I’m not sure whether I gathered the courage to cross the street by myself or not.

[The Genealogist]

22. That reminds me of a memory I had when I was about 7 or 8

I started riding the bus for the first time, 2nd. I felt like such a big boy! Anyway, the route changed and they drove past my stop. I was petrified! What was happening was the driver was taking a loop and coming back to my street. It was safer coming from the other direction, as the stop was on a very busy highway. I just remember being so scared that I could hardly ask "are you stopping at my street tonight?" I was the only one left on the bus.

[frazzled]

27. And your story reminds me of another!

It involved my first nephew, on the first day of first grade, probably 40 years ago. His mom (my sister) had dutifully put him on the school bus that morning, and was waiting by the street for the bus to bring him home. A bus came, but he didn’t get off, and thinking he must be on another, she stood there waiting ... and waiting and waiting, for a very long time. Far past the scheduled return time. Had he been kidnapped, lost? Every possibility crossed her panicked mind.

Eventually, the bus turned up and her son, the lone passenger, disembarked. When asked what happened he explained that he had read the sign that said “No standing in front of this line,” and although he knew it was his house, he didn’t think he should cross the line to get off. The driver didn’t notice him until he’d returned.

We still laugh at the earnestness of that kid. I guess being 6 or 7 or 8 has had its traumatic school-traveling experiences for us all!

[The Genealogist]

28. I think my anxiety that day came from how I was raised.

My mother was very overprotective, and liked to keep me as close as possible. I remember I had to really work on persuading her to let me ride the bus. Not being used to such situations as happened that afternoon, I had little idea how to cope with the situation.

[frazzled]

30. I sympathize

I think my anxieties were probably self-induced. I hope you outgrew yours.

I can fully imagine your 7-year-old fears on that first bus ride. I still have some fears related to that crossing the street all alone episode, mainly involving fear of merging onto the highway and failing to see a car coming from behind. I hate to do it unless someone (my big sister still, maybe) helps me out.

[SheltieLover]

11. Here is an interesting web site

Alfred Adler's theory uses eaiest childhood memories to develop self-insight & interpersonal behavioral patterns.

This technique is projective, meaning amplification is necessary, meaning the importance to you is what matters.

Amplification is an essential part of Jungian dream interpretation.

So what do these dynamics represent to you?

On edit: https://www.mnpsych.org/index.php?option=com_dailyplanetblog&view=entry&category=industry%20news&id=156:adlerian-early-recollections-application-to-the-client

[The Genealogist]

24. I skimmed through and will read more thoroughly later.

This observation is very interesting to me:

"Metaphorically, Early Recollection is a story of one’s life, a way to understand the client’s view of self, others, the world, and how one deals with life challenges on her or his way to a desired sense of perfection and completion – through purposeful remembering. We selectively (purposefully) remember only those events from early childhood that are consistent with our present view of ourselves, the others, and the world."

[SheltieLover]

38. Glad you are enjoying the article & the process

[zipplewrath]

12. Sort of

I remember all the way back to about 3 years old of so, but not continuously. A more continuous memory starts about 8 years old. I do have a few odd "memories". It's more like events. I have moments when I see things as if I'm looking back from years ahead. Sort of a reverse deja vu. I call it reminiscing in real time. Then years later I will recall that memory very clearly, again seeing things a clearly as I did the first time.

[Clearly fogged in]

13. I remember starting this reply

but forgetting why. I guess it doesn't matter now because it's all in the past. Where things go haywire is when everybody else remembers something you did that never happened.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. I have some pretty vivid memories

that go back to when I was about 3 -4. At that time we lived in Milwaukee, only about a block from Hubbard Park. You could get to the park by walking through a tunnel, and I very distinctly remember running through the tunnel and yelling because it echoed. I also remember that there was an open area behind our house and then past that there were railroad tracks, and my dad got really mad at me once because I ran up to the tracks. I remember making little paper May baskets and putting dandelions in them and leaving them at the neighbors' doors. And I remember that the next door neighbor's dog that snapped at me and I was scared of dogs for a long time after that, and I recall the dog as being huge, but years later my mother told me it was a cocker spaniel. I suppose a cocker spaniel looks pretty big to a 3-year-old. I remember when my little brother was born and I was disappointed because I wanted a kitten, and I remember my imaginary friend who lived in a little broom closet off the kitchen, and my dad reading stories to me, especially The Elephant's Child.

[The Genealogist]

25. I also had an imaginary friend

John-John, a cuckoo bird. It wasn't really a cuckoo bird, that is just what I called him. Built like a snowman, the top being red, middle yellow, bottom section was blue. Of course John John was really my conscience given a form.

[Turin_C3PO]

45. Maybe your imaginary friend was a ghost!

I’m not really sold on the idea of ghosts but my dad insists that many children’s imaginary friends are apparitions. Not sure where he gets that idea lol.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

46. I think my imaginary friend was just an excuse to hide in the broom closet.

[csziggy]

47. My dad also read The Elephant Child to me!

I had to be four years old or younger because after that he spent several years away from home much of the time with his business. By the time he was home regularly I was old enough I could read and preferred to read myself to sleep than to be read to.

Another early memory is me riding the tricycle I "inherited" from my older sisters and running over the cat's tail. The poor cat, Boots, was taken to the vet and his tail was all wrapped up. A week or so later Mom unwrapped it and about half his tail fell off. Otherwise, he was fine and lived for many more years.

The clearest early memory I have is being in kindergarten. One day Dad picked me up which was very strange since Mom usually did it. He told me I had a new sister and I was very disappointed since I already had two older sister and wanted a baby brother more.

[CentralMass]

15. I do as well.

[polmaven]

16. You are certainly NOT weird!

I retain many memories of my childhood!

[kimbutgar]

18. Every now and then I get these forgotten memories of my childhood

Something I see, a song or a place I went to.

No it is not unusual. I did a zoom with my cousins who I really haven’t seen since we were teenagers. A lot of memories of them came back when we were children.

[kimbutgar]

19. Every now and then I get these forgotten memories of my childhood

Something I see, a song or a place I went to.

No it is not unusual. I did a zoom with my cousins who I really haven’t seen since we were teenagers. A lot of memories of them came back when we were children.

[Arkansas Granny]

20. My earliest memories are like snapshots. When I described them

to my mother she said they were at a house we moved from before my third birthday.

I vividly recall my first day of school just a couple of months shy of my 6th birthday.

[liberal N proud]

21. I remember all sorts of things

Something will just spark a thought of things from the past.

[patricia92243]

29. My first memory was being in a playpen on the back porch. So,

I would have to be really young. I always consider it a good thing that I remember all sorts of good things from my childhood.

[spinbaby]

33. When I was a baby

I would get on my hands and knees and rock back and forth to move the crib. I’m not sure if this is a real memory or something my parents described to me. I have other early memories that I know were from the age of three or four because I lived in the Alps then. I can still remember the sharp smell of burning coal on a snowy day.

[zeusdogmom]

34. I remember burning my hand when I was ca. 2 1/2

Saw mom take a pan of pudding (yes it was pudding - I loved pudding) from the burner. I wanted to see if the burner was hot after it was turned off - it was. I remember looking down at my hand and seeing the imprint of the electric coils on my little hand. Mom put me in the crib - which was set up in the living room by the windows - while she panicked. I know my baby sister was in the room and that the crib wasn't in the living room all that long - that last bit of knowledge from family chit chat in later years as to what was where when in the house, etc. I don't remember it hurting a lot although it probably did. No scars, etc. Just a memory burned into my little brain

[rickyhall]

35. I remember the 1st time I saw snow in Colorado when I was 4, in 1959.

[Doreen]

37. There are some weird ones. Some might be memories or just pictures in my mind from things I was told

I am adopted because I was taken away from my biological mother because she left me home by myself when I was a baby so she could go to the bar.

I swear I have a memory of laying in my crib in a dark room.

I was adopted by a family and have a memory of me sitting on a big wheel in front of a house.

Oh yeah, they gave me back to the foster system but I got a wonderful mother and brother the next time.

I remember some dreams I had when I was a little girl also. That might just be because they were recurring dreams.

I can tell you what the inside of any place I lived in looked like and the outside also. That of course after I was adopted.

[Niagara]

43. That's terrible if that's an actual memory.

I swear I have a memory of laying in my crib in a dark room.

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I'm glad that you got a wonderful mother and brother eventually.

[2naSalit]

39. I remember all kinds of stuff that some say I couldn't...

But once, when I was five, I told my mom all about the day after I was born. I described what everyone was wearing and who was there and who held me, the time of day that happened, and what you could see out the window. She was freaked out about that and thought I was some kind of demonchild for decades after that.

I have vivid dreams where I can smell and taste things... been that way all my life. Sometimes I write them down even though I can remember the dreams quite well.

[The Genealogist]

48. I remember some way back there stuff, but not my birth

I do have some pretty vivid dreams, and can remember a few from many years ago. For instance, I remember this little 7-11 that operated perhaps 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile from from my house. I dreamed it was all closed up and had paper over the windows. That store, which I called "the dum-dum store" because my dad would buy me dum-dum suckers there, did close and reopened in a new building across the street. I've verified that the new one was built in 1978, when I was four or five. Guessing they'd told me it was going to move, and the dream was a way of me dealing with that.

[LeftInTX]

40. I retain a lot of random memories from that age

We remember them because at the time they were relevant to us at the time. We may not remember the relevance. You were probably excited about the banana markers.

My first two memories are trauma:
Age 1..pavement..I was falling put of a moving car . My mom caught me.

My 2nd memory. Age 2: Going to our old neighbors and they served us peas. (My mom had a rule that when we are at people's houses we had to clean out plates. At home, I did not have to eat peas.)
I sat there and stared as tears eventually filled my eyes. I ended up not having to eat the peas.

After that I have alot of random memories. One is at age 3 when I was on my swing set and closed my eyes.

[Niagara]

42. I was 2 years old during a winter blizzard.

My mothers washing machine broke during this blizzard, so she had a load of towels in soaking in soapy water in the bathtub. I took off my pants and got into the tub thinking it was bath time. My mom found me sitting in the tub with her load of laundry, laughed, dried me off and put my pants back on.



I remember being asked if I could tie my shoes during kindergarten orientation. So what do I do? I untie my one shoe to prove that I can tie them. I had my shoe untied before the interviewer said that I didn't have to. I often wonder how many other future kindergarteners did the same thing.

[Wolf Frankula]

44. A whole bunch of things.

Moving into a house and a guy pounding on a wall and saying 'Double construction.' The yards in the neighborhood in the city I was born. Crossing a border on vacation. Ethelberta Motherpupp. and much much more.

Wolf

[Earthshine2]

50. One of my earliest childhood memories, at 4 yrs old, is me watching Star Trek.

And, ironically, part of that memory is me realizing it was a rerun. I already knew the plot!

[Mad_Dem_X]

51. I remember several "mundane" things from when I was growing up

Being in a certain house, riding in the car on a certain day, etc. I have no clue why my mind insists on recalling them.

[malthaussen]

52. Yeah, particularly things I'd just as soon forget.

Meanwhile, some events I'd really like to remember are total blanks. Maybe I wouldn't like those memories if I had them.

-- Mal