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At the age of 6 or 7 months, I started pointing at objects and giving their correct names. Little red pair of shoes with little brass buckles on them I really loved, and I thought that buckle was a beautiful word, so I pointed to the buckle on one of these shoes and said, "buckle."
Posted By: Chris Langan
Smartest man in the world, Princeton, MO
(Foreword: I remember this by its emotional connection. The profanity is a device used to depict that intensity of my thoughts and feelings at the time. This is not a pleasant memory.)
Now I'm on my back. My body feels like it's wrong or needs something? No there's nothing wrong with me! I'm unable to move it properly and this I know somehow. My legs should be much longer as well as my arms. My body feels useless. I feel trapped in a helpless tiny suit. Looking out into an alien world there's a Man's face. By my own powers I know the difference between Males and Females. I vaguely recognize the man as someone I see often but I do not know who he is.
He's staring at me as I lie on my back unable to move myself. Why is staring at me? Why is he looking away now?! Help me! I can't fucking move, dickhead! You're a fucking asshole! I don't like you, dude. What the FUCK?!! I should be able to be doing a whole LOT MORE!! I shouldn't be stuck like this! Ouch my neck you fucker! If you're going to pick me up without asking do it right! I don't like that guy one bit. He leaves me face down now. What the fuck are you doing? Pick me up right now you fuck! Don't leave me like this! I want to look up! I want to see shit! I can't see anything except the surface I'm face down on. My arms won't even move right so I can't push myself up. They're not the right size shape or strong enough to manipulate myself! I don't know what to do with my misshapen limbs. How long have I been like this? This mutant bodycase will be my prison. I need this. I like this. I love the floor. It's clean. It's cool and smooth. I have to adapt. Maybe this will last forever.
What if it doesn't? Am I allowed to ask to be able to look up? I can't say my words. My mouth doesn't do what it's supposed to. I can't make the right words. I'm not even saying real words! What language do you speak, sir? Tell me now and tell me everything so that I can communicate clearly with you. I want to tell you so many things about how you need to fucking check your conduct toward others. You're a fucking asshole. Put me on the floor face down where I belong; I don't want to look at you. You're mean to me leaving me alone on the floor unable to move or do anything! Did you cause all of this to happen to me? Can you make it stop or change? I want something different. I don't need to be in this little garbage-ass 'mechsuit'. Why is this happening? Are you the king in charge of reality and gravity and nature? Will you please help me? You're useless! Where is the Woman? She's only slightly less useless!
I'll do everything myself ...when I'm fucking good and ready ...on my time ...at my pace ...when I so choose ...by my powers! ...so that others will not suffer this way. I will not torture anyone this way.
Posted By: Francis L.
29, Colorado 2017
Before I could walk or talk, I vividly remember wiggling out of my diaper, pulling myself up on the bars of my crib, and smearing poop into a built-in intercom above, which I disliked for making random static noises.
I also remember being strolled by my mother in the middle of night under a starry sky.
Posted By: Michael
Ithaca, NY
I was 6-to-8-months old when we moved into an upstairs apartment that was sunny and bright and had a pea-soup green carpet, but was flea infested! I remember the fleas jumping on me and me trying to brush them off. I remember the rug and the fleas. My parents had to keep me off the floor until they took care of the problem.
Posted By: Christy H.
Workshop Facilitator, Ithaca NY
I remember a lot from when I was a baby. Maybe it's because of my disability, Aspergers Syndrome, I don't know. I was born in 1969, and what I remember the most from when I was a baby is hearing the 5th Dimension song “Aquarius, Let The Sunshine In.” I remember hearing it when I was a baby being in my baby seat in my mom and dad’s car that they had back then, in the parking lot of the University of Aridzona in Tucson where I was born. I remember hearing this song a lot when I was a baby. I even remember crying once when I heard this song when I was a baby, because I had heard it soo much back then. That was the first time that I remember reacting to something.
Posted By: Ben Goozner
Reston, VA
One of my earliest memories was knowing my first New Years Eve back in 1969. I remember riding in my grandmother's car, which was a '57 Desoto. I remember hearing several songs on that ride, and this was the first time I remember hearing a Beatles song. We went from Roosevelt, New Jersey, where we lived a little bit later, to Wayland, Massachusetts, visiting my grandfather. My mom recalled there was a blizzard on the northeast coast a few days before, and I think I remember seeing some snow. I remember the heater in the Desoto wasn't working properly, so the car got hotter and hotter, but I didn't mind because it felt like the incubator I was in just after I was born, which I also, believe it or not, remember. When we got to my grandfather's house in Wayland, I remember crying because the power was out from the weather.
Posted By: Ben Goozner
Reston,VA
Language and movement are my earliest memories estimating 4-9 months. Lying alone awake with people nearby, speaking not to me but to one another. Their voices sounded muffled and fast, different from how they addressed me. Being called 'Pooh' by my father who would exit my life at two years old and not reemerge until age 23 when he confirmed this nickname. Being in the crib and finding it hysterical how I could move my hands and feet in the light. My body felt good, but hard to control. There are more, but these are the earliest, brightest memories.
Posted By: Nico Lovetro
Happy to have found this site. I love Ithaca!, Rochester, NY
readingsbynico.com
I was about 7 months old and remember walking for the first time. I recall my feet hitting the floor from my Mother's bed and then swaying back and forth. The weight of my body on my feet was heavy. I remember walking down the hall into the kitchen. My Mom was at the stove cooking. I must have made a noise, because the next thing I remember is Mom turning to see me before her. Her face registered complete shock, and she dropped the pot she had in her hand on the floor. I did not ask my Mom about this until years later, and she confirmed my memory. I have had this recall ability all my life. I have always felt like an outsider, because none of my family or friends can go back to infancy. Curious!!
Posted By: Nina Webb
i remember seeing myself in the mirror of my parents' closet in their bedroom. my mother is standing to the right of me and is wearing something beige/pastel pink. i could already stand up, i'm not sure if i could walk. maybe that is why she was standing right next to me. i'm wearing an overall with green/white/red stripes and am unsure of what to think of the person i'm seeing in the mirror. i did not realize that i was seeing myself. and as i remembered this for the first time, i suddenly felt the grief i was feeling once i learnt that this person i had seen so often and had formed an attachment to, was in reality me and not an external person. that was something i had to chew on and learn to accept. this memory just recently came back to me.
Posted By: Eva K
Baltimore
Though the assertion hits you smack between the eyes, incites your mirth, provokes your incredulity, yet shall I still maintain until the day of my death that I can remember the day of my birth. Frankly the memory is not as vivid as it once was. Equally frankly the memory was never a memory of the event of birth itself, but only a memory of the consciousness of that event, a purely sensory imprint as it were on soul or flesh of the distinct shock coincidental with the experience of being born. (This is from Abbott's book, Being Little in Cambridge When everyone Else Was Big, 1936, page 1).
"I remember it perfectly! I was all curled up in my paws like a rabbit! It got sort of crowded! . . . And then something whanged me in the cheek!" I shouted. "Get up—Get up—get up and get born," it whanged, "or else you never will get born! And there was a rainbow that exploded!” (page 5)
Posted By: Eleanor Hallowell
Author, Cambridge, England
