How Far Back Does Your Memory Go?

by snowbird 89 Replies latest jw experiences

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  villabolo

  At first I thought I was about three years old but later found out I was between twelve to fifteen months old. A man, who in my memories I thought to be a stranger, was holding me over a balcony which I later found out to be five stories tall. I have a vivid recollection of seeing potted plants down at the ground, everything looked like I was looking through a zoom lens. I was terrified yelling while I recall him saying, "it's allright I'm holding you". I understood what he was saying and I recall thinking, in a wordless manner the response, "I don't care!!!" Next thing I remember my mother comes and asks that man what happened. He responded by saying nothing.

  That memory haunted me throughout my life and although I know it is authentic my later thoughts on it as an adult indicated that there were some distortions in my interpretation not my recollection. I later found out by questioning my grandmother whom I did not recall being there that she was there when it happened and the man was my father who had separated from my mother.
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  caliber

  because infants don't remember early experiences for long. But exactly why can't we remember wearing ice-cream-cake makeup at birthday party numero uno?

  It turns out that the pace of brain development explains this "infantile amnesia" for events in the first year or so of life. (Infancy, obviously, is a time of intense learning: most of us learned to walk, talk, and maybe chew gum --but we did not retain long-term memories of those events).

  In recent years, neuroscientists have begun to attribute infantile amnesia to the pace of growth in the frontal cortex, a site crucial for event-memory storage, which develops rapidly at about 12 months.

  That notion gets support from a recent experiment by Conor Liston, then a senior, and Jerome Kagan, a professor of psychology at Harvard University. The pair tried to teach babies aged 9, 17 or 24 months to make toys, and found that, four months later, only the older two groups of children remembered how to make the toys.
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  snowbird

  I remember my daddy's love and how he would look at me with such tender concern, but how old I was, I have no idea.

  Sylvia
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  ferret

  I remember events from 2 years old
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  Witness 007

  .....put it this way I scare myself every morning in the mirror.
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  Jim_TX

  I'm an odd duck when it comes to remembering things before a certain age.

  I was involved in an auto accident when I was 7-1/2 years old - and my head got walloped on something which cracked it open - which I believe is the reason that I do not remember too much from before that time.

  I know that I used to visit my aged aunt (now deceased) who would tell me things about me - when my mom would drop me off at her house - sometimes for weeks - according to my aunt. I do not remember any of it.

  I do seem to have 'blips' of memories though... I remember the porcelin doorknobs on the doors at my aunt's house - and how the house was small (no joke! - I think it was one of those 2-room houses from the depression-era). I remember the tobacco pouch that my uncle had his bull durham tobacco in - and his cigarette papers... and him rolling cigarettes. I don't really remember his face... just the act of his rolling cigarettes - and licking the paper. I always wanted the tobacco pouches... great for carrying marbles - and other kid trinkets in.

  I remember getting the daylights beat out of me - by my dad - using a leather belt. I remember about 2 or 3 occurrances of this - sometimes for reasons that I feel could have been talked about. I was probably about 5 to 7 years old at the time.

  Once - I remember being a passenger in the car my mom was driving - all 6 of us kids in it - and she was driving up near Austin, TX - along some wind-ey road - with a cliff just off the road. I got a sudden feeling of terror... and familiarity. I spoke up and said, "I've been here before..." only to be scoffed at by my siblings... "...suuuuure you have..." "hahahahaha", etc. My mom spoke up quietly... "Well... we DID drive up this way, once... but you were only 18 months old at the time..."

  Yeah. I don't remember that - but can only imagine how it is that the memory got stuck in my sub-conscious... my mom... holding me over her shoulder - me looking down terrified - into a cavernous pit... yeah... I can see that making an impression on an 18-month-old child.

  Other memories that I may have... are just 30-second 'blips' - if that. Not sure what they are... or when they happened... or if they happened.

  <shrug>
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  ohiocowboy

  I have many memories of my Grandparents. Back in the 60's, they owned a Bar in Edgewater, FL. and my Mother and I lived in a trailer behind the bar. I remember being in my Crib as I was 2 at the time. There was an intercom system between the trailer and the bar, and I would always want to talk to my Grandparents through it. I also remember that same time frame when my father would come home from the Air Force, and my Mother would Iron his Uniform in the trailer. I also have memories of the inside of the Bar. There was a kitchen area in the back, and I would write my numbers with a pencil or crayon on the white fridge. I remember my number 4's being backwards. I remember the setup of the bar, and there was a brown accordian curtain that separated the bar from the pool table area. I was playing with it one day, and I fell and got stuck under it and was crying.

  My most memorable experience there was the jukebox. My favorite song on there was 'Winchester Cathedral". There was also a button you could press and a Girly strip show would come on a screen from a projector in the jukebox. Whenever my Grandfather would lift me up to the buttons, I always pressed the Peep show button, so that the strippers would be shown. I got a kick out of it, and I remember my Grandfather pretending that it was a big deal for me NOT to push that button, but knowing that I would anyways. I remember the buttons were H3, but I don't remember if that was for "Winchester Cathedral", or the strippers...He always got a laugh when I did it, but I remember my Grandmother telling him not to let me push the buttons.

  Then there was a time when I was 3, I was out back with my Grandmother as she was doing gardening. I was holding one of those small shovels. I saw a frog, and I cut it in half with the shovel, and the front part of the frog tried hopping away. I was terrified and I started crying as I realized I had killed it. I was so sad. My Grandmother tried comforting me.

  I could go on and on with memories of when I was 2 and 3. I would amaze my parents and Grandparents when I told them, because they remembered those instances, and they knew they really happened. I remember more at that age than I do any other time in my life.
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  snowbird

  I know about those 30-second blips, Jim.

  I think imbedded in all our subconscious is a memory of a happy, peaceful time when all was right with the world.

  I get flashes of it every now and then, and pouf!, it's gone like quicksilver.

  Thanks for sharing your memories.

  Sylvia
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  Farkel

  :How about you?

  I remember sitting around a camp fire and listening to Methusaleh tell old man jokes. I swear I am not making this up!

  leolaia,

  I also remember the San Fernando earthquake in 1971, but under much different circumstances. I was pioneering and my wife and I were cleaning a building just north of Compton when it happened. Later we were driving back home on Long Beach Blvd. and a mob of people were hauling out new television sets and stereos from the Sears building there, basically stealing everything they could cart off. I've been in 5 earthquakes in my life, but that was my biggest one by far.

  Farkel
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  snowbird

  OC, you were a precocious little bugger!

  Oh, Farkel, go on with you!

  Sylvia