Strong and colorful images, the best day ever, traumas, physical sensations.
People have no say about which bizarre thing from around age 4 worms its way into forever-ness.
But kids that age are totally all over the place and usually pretty dumb, so strap in.
I can remember a vivid day when my babysitter took me to the park to those long-necked ducks.
She gave me the whole loaf and I didn't have the tools of self-preservation to drop the thing and run.
To this day I shutter around ostriches. Zoos are a problem.
Redditor En-tre-pre-neur had some thoughts.
So they asked:
"Redditors, what is your earliest memory?"
Flipper
Happy Brain GIFGiphy"Walking up to a stranger on a ferry that was wearing the same (very obscure) jumper as my dad, hugging him and loudly proclaiming "daddy I saw a dolphin!'"
trustmeimweird
Flocks
"My parents took my to the park. Now, my mum is terrified of birds, including ducks. As in, she will scream if they come near her. I remember suddenly a flock of ducks, swans, geese, all of those water birds, suddenly coming towards us. My mum? She let go of my hand and ran off screaming. My dad? Went after my mum. Me? Well, I became duck food."
holipops
Just Sleep
"Being told to go for a nap (I was around 2-3 at the time), and I refused because I wanted to keep playing & was being defiant. My Dad repeatedly put me in my bed and said that I'll feel better if I lied down for a bit. I fell asleep and he woke me up 2 hours later. And shocker, I felt better. Lol."
zariaah
Daddy Help!
"When I was little, my dad used to trim the elderly neighbors trees whenever they needed. One day I was there, just sitting on the garden of this old lady while my dad was up in the tree cutting some limbs and the old lady's husband was holding his ladder. Both of them were wearing very similar plaid lumberjack-ish shirts and baseball caps. Then another neighbor's dog, a black and white pit bull of which I was always terrified, came running out of their house and in my direction."
"I ran to the old guy certain that he was my dad, legit screaming 'Daddy, daddy, protect me!' He handled it very well, got me up from the ground and shooed the dog away. When I said thank you, I noticed my mistake and this is the very first instance of morbid shame I remember."
LeftSeater777
She didn't care...
"Can't remember the age this happened, but I remember feeling really sick for some unspecific reason. I told my mom and she went out to grab medicine for me at the local pharmacy. I really can't remember what symptoms I was feeling or what she intended to grab to help me."
"While she was out, I started feeling much better and felt bad that I made her go out and get medicine. I remember waiting for what felt like an eternity, sitting at the bottom of our stairs by our front door waiting for her to get home. When she got home I apologized because I told her I felt okay again and felt bad she ran out just to get something to help me."
"She didn't care. She was just happy that I didn't feel sick anymore."
NeutyBooty
She Bounced
Falls Down Dean Winters GIF by MayhemGiphy"My sister headdiving down the stairs when I was 2. Watched her from the bottom. She was fine, though."
Interferonno2fan
Nipped
"I was 3 years old and playing with a toy cow in the living room of my old house. My grandma’s poodle was there and I have no idea why, but I remember putting the cow down and sticking my pinky in the dog’s mouth. He lightly nipped me and I remember feeling how pointy his teeth were. I wasn’t hurt, just startled enough to learn not to do dumb crap like that again."
sherrykathryn
out of body experience...
"I would have between between 2-3 years old."
"I had always remembered it as an out of body experience. I was at my grandma's house walking around the pool alone (I know, it didn't take long for mum to find out and ban unsupervised visits with grandma) and I fell in, I remember it as if I was reaching in and saving myself from drowning somehow. It's really hard to explain."
"I told mum about this in the last few years and it turns out I was actually saving my brother from drowning, but it had also happened to me and she thinks I must have merged the memories somehow."
OlympicSpider
Drive
"This is kinda depressing, but my first clear memory is of my dad beating my mom until she fell on the kitchen floor. Then she got up and told me to get my doll and we got in the car and drove away from him. I was 3 at the most."
Molly_dog88888888
"As messed up as it is to say, I'm glad that I'm not the only one with an early memory of their dad beating their mom. Makes me feel like I wasn't as alone as I felt"
methylenebluestains
Calm Down
"When I was little I guess I got pink eye. My mother was trying to get me to calm down to have eye drops but I think I took it as a game for her to chase me."
"The only thing I really remember is my mother grabbing me and slam-dunking me onto the carpet; she held me down with her forearm and forced some eye drops in my eye while I just was still laughing and screaming."
"I would like to believe that my mom RKO’d so hard I gained consciousness."
ImReallyDrowsy
Get Out
new kids on the block dancing GIF by Jacob ShwirtzGiphy"I was in my crib and my brother was talking to me, but I couldn’t speak well enough to understand him. I remember being mad because he could climb in and out of the crib and I couldn’t."
Sethrial
My Bestie
"My 1-year-younger-than-me cousin was watching me eat a lollipop and got so confused when it was inside my mouth. She kept asking where it went! Then I took it out and showed her. Then I put it back in my mouth and she asked me again where it went. I was 3. She still my best friend 39 years later."
omgwhatisleft
The Drop
"My mom was spoon-feeding my infant brother and she dropped the spoon in a bowl of soup. I thought it was gone forever in an infinite ocean of soup, and I was amazed when she got it back out. I think that was me learning object permanence."
cointelpro_shill
On the Wall
"Siiiigh... alright one of my best friends tells this story to anyone that will listen, but my earliest memory Is of sitting on the bathroom floor while my mom was changing her tampon. My dad came in and yelled 'What are you doing?!' And she said, 'He’s not going to remember.' **earliest clear memory.** I think the earliest was of a drawing of a goat on a wall."
poonpeenpoon
All In
"I remember my grandfather letting me sit on his lap while he played poker with a bunch of other grandpas - and they let me eat all of the cookies I wanted. They smoked cigars and made faces at me. I remember thinking it was hilarious. All of my earliest memories are of him. He was always happy to see me and would pick me up and laugh. He died when I was 4."
dainty_flower
SMILE
"Sitting in one of those chairs where they feed you. I remember just being happy, and pure. My mom was feeding me, and my dad was sitting on a couch across me. I remember them smiling, and I remember being filled with love, no actual thoughts, just pure love for my parents. I think about that once in a while."
that-bass-guy
Trailer Houses
"Mine is so embarrassing! I remember running down the hall to the bathroom because I had wet my moms bed. I can distinctly see the hallway and the light was on at the end of the hall in the bathroom.We only lived there between me being 3 to 4 so it was sometime around that age."
"Then my next one is sneaking out of my uncle's house (where we were staying temporarily after leaving the place mentioned above) sneaking into my grandparent's house and trying to turn the tv on in the living room. The houses were like 20 feet apart, two trailer houses."
_fly-on-the-wall_
Out of Focus
"I was 2 years old and having kidney surgery, and I woke up half way through my surgery because the epidural came out of my spine (they had snapped the needle in my spine on the first go, which was great). I remember seeing them working on me, freaking out (as you do), and I managed to rip the line out of my hand which was pissing out with blood."
"I remember the excruciating pain that came with all of it as the epidural wore off. I remember pretty much my entire hospital stay, and damn near everything since then."
StaceyLades
