Submit A Memory
My earliest memory is as an infant, probably a year or less, and being in my mother's arms in a rocking chair in a room with cabbage roses on the walls, in a room with cabbage-rose wallpaper. It was not dark. I remember that the rocking chair was near a window, it was a small room, the window was to my mother's right, the door was to my mother's left, and my crib was along the wall, on the wall where the door was. I remember feeling content and happy and safe.
Posted By: Tess S.
freelance humanoid, Southern California
I remember when they took a portrait picture of me when I was not yet a year old (in 1908 or 1909). I am sitting because I couldn't stand yet. In the picture, I was in a chair with a little stuffed animal in my hand. I remember them giving me the stuffed animal while this man, who was under a big black cover, was taking the picture.
Posted By: Elsie Frost McMurry
Author, Historian, Artist, East Lansing, Michigan
In my first memory, I was a babe-in-arms. I must have been 4 or 5 months old, because I was at that age when I couldn't roll over, so I could be put on a bed and expected not to roll off. My parents were visiting some friends and they took me with them. I can still see the pictures in my mind! Because they revisited this couple years later, I kind of figured out what was happening in my memory. They were building their house and were maybe having a house-warming party. I remember going from the car, down the side of the house, past some piled-up dirt, over a plank over a ditch, and into the daylight basement of the building. I remember seeing that and going into a whole room full of people, a room packed with people. I was an only child, and had a quiet life, so this was thrilling and exciting for me. I was passed around and made a fuss over, and I liked that. But then my mother took me into the room where everyone was leaving their coats and put me on top of the coats. I guess she thought I would go to sleep, but I remember being very unhappy, really mad about it. I didn't want to be left in a pile of coats when all those people were out there, so she came and got me up and held me in her lap. I got to take in all the sights. When you're a little baby, you're just immobile, but I remember being immobile, yet seeing and hearing all this stuff.
Posted By: D. D.
FEMA disaster-assistance employee, Benson, Arizona
I remember a time when I was about 7 months old. I wasn't walking yet. It was summer, because I was just in a diaper. I was crawling on the floor. It was hot, and the front door was open so there was a breeze coming through. My dad's best friend Paul Oden was sitting on the couch doing what most bachelor people do to babies, which is to play peek-a-boo with his hands over his face. I remember his face and what he looked like. He was wearing a military uniform of some kind. I remember being on the floor watching him do this thing to me and thinking, "What in the hell is he doing?" it was so stupid.
Posted By: D. D.
FEMA disaster-assistance employee, Benson, Arizona
I was very young. I was in a room and saw my grandfather (I found out this part later) sitting in a chair. I remember thinking, "Gee, he looks like a nice person to be with." I crawled across the room and pulled at his pant's leg until he stopped reading and picked me up. I've just always had this memory.
Posted By: Margaret Hopkins
Francophile, Southern California
My earliest memory is sitting on the living-room floor of the house where I lived with my parents. I'm in a diaper and nothing else, and I'm kind of moving on the floor, not really crawling, but kind of "getting there." I remember the feel of the rug under me. I remember seeing sunlight coming in from the right side of the room, reaching out to feel it, touching it, and feeling "warm." Our cat walked in. I reached out for him, and he let me somehow crawl on top of him. I remember feeling the way his fur felt. Then he slipped out from under me. I rolled onto my back and watched him walk away.
Posted By: E. N.
Veterinarian, Washington
My earliest memory is in my room. Deep in the forest where we lived during the first 4 years of my life, my dad moved an A-frame house from another part of the lot and built an addition for me on the side. That was my little room, with my crib. I remember just being in that room, being cared for in that room. It was sort of my little cave. Before that, I remember realizing that the room was bigger than my crib. I remember noticing that there was a huge space around me that was outside the little place where I Iay. It was interesting because I thought about this at the time, thought about how the blackness in the room, the black darkness was not defined, not yet. There was nothing in the darkness that I could identify. Over where the light was shining through from the outside, there was the definition of wall, and I knew that you couldn't go through this, or nobody had gone through it yet. I remember just discovering that at the time. It was so tactile and real that it's almost a physical part of me.
Posted By: Guy Sidora
Artist and Dancer, Germany
In my earliest memory, I was so young I was not talking at all, and I don't remember walking. What I remember is being pulled in a little toy car at our home, the place on Hickory Street where I grew up. My dad and I were very close, and in this particular memory, my dad has sort of a leash on this toy car, and he's pulling me around. I can remember being so full of laughter that it almost hurt. I couldn't talk, so I couldn't tell him to stop, but even if I could have talked, I wouldn't have been able to communicate that I wanted him to stop because I was so giggly. I remember just how fun it was. It is one of the very most joyful memories of my life.
Posted By: Leslie F.
Mortgage Banker, Silverdale, Washington
One of my earliest memories is in my crib, sleeping in my crib. I remember how, first thing in the morning, I would feel a warm beam of sunshine there. And I had what I thought for years was just a fantasy, but I really had a picture of a sleeping baby doe on the wall above my crib that I would communicate with. I used to talk to the deer. The sunshine would come in and I would talk to the picture of the doe and I would have a general feeling of well being. I felt a sense of communication and attachment. I also remember the high chair, the square table with the chair in the middle of it that I sat in and how enormous it seemed, like a big table would seem now. I remember the pattern it had on the top part, beige with a gray speckle on it.
Posted By: Julie _
Happily married mother of two, Texas
I know that I remember things, but it just takes a lot for me to really think back. I know that I was with my dad when I was really young. He held me in a backpack thing when he was out working in the yard. What I remember most is the sense of comfort and security I had with him.
Posted By: Jasmine _
Southern California
