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b9
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30 May 2012, 10:10 am

yes i do.
i can remember almost everything that ever happened since i came into consciousness (if i try).

i can not be bothered thinking about the past, so i rarely reflect on my childhood, but when i assign my mind to the task of thinking sequentially about everything that happened to me since infancy, i can recall almost everything.

eg: when i was 3, i stuck my head between 2 bannisters on the second floor railing at home, and i could not retrieve it. i remember they smothered vaseline on my head and that did not work, so they had to cut out a bannister beside my head to free me. later on, my mother wanted sweet and sour pork from a chinese restaurant called "wing wah" at north ryde. she also ordered crunchy cold egg noodles from that place that night and they became a favourite dish of mine..............

so not only do i remember hallmark situations, i also remember the mundane peripheral situations that precede and succeed them.

but that it is a futile task, as it prevents me from looking at what is happening now.
whatever happened in the "ago" is not happening now, and in my mind has not much capacity for deriving meaningful data from reflection anyway, so i rarely think about the past except when someone challenges me to remember things.



CanisMajor
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30 May 2012, 10:21 am

It always amazes me to hear that other people don't remember their childhoods. I can't imagine it. What's it like? Is it like you just came into existence as an adult, out of a big, fuzzy cloud that vaguely resembles childhood?

I remember quite a lot. The earliest memory I can recall for sure was when I was 18 months old, a few weeks after my little brother was born. It was a sunny, warm summer day and I was playing in the backyard. Suddenly I was gathered up by my dad and we sat in a line with my mom and brothers to have a family photo taken. Years later I found that photo... it was pretty surreal when I recognized it. The memory is really fuzzy now, though. It used to be much more vivid. I also have vague recollections of having my diaper changed on the living room couch, while my mom chatted with a few of my aunts.

I remember hating preschool. I liked when I was given a coloring book and could just sit there and color, but I hated when they suddenly decided it was time to do something else, especially if it involved standing up and playing with other kids. I remember being forced to play song-games like "Farmer in the Dell" or "Ring Around the Rosie", where you have to hold other kids' hands and go around in circles. I hated it. It was so awkward and I felt embarrassed. I especially hated any game where you have to pick another person, such as Duck Duck Goose or in Farmer in the Dell when "the farmer takes a wife" and has to pick somebody from the circle to join him in the middle. I felt awkward being picked, but I felt even worse when I had to pick another person. I didn't know any of the kids (besides my little brother) and always felt that if I singled another person out, they'd feel as bad as I did when I felt singled out. I also worried that they'd think it was a sign that I liked them especially, when I actually didn't know them at all. I eventually became a preschool dropout (which I enjoy saying. It's quite an unusual phrase. :P ) I remember the day that I dropped out. My mom had baked cupcakes for the class. I really wanted one, but I also couldn't take going to preschool anymore. My mom tried to bribe me by saying that I couldn't have a cupcake if I didn't go to school... I ended up turning down the cupcake and insisting I go back home. I think of this today and can only imagine how annoying that must've been for my mom... but hey, maybe they should've taken that as a sign that something was up with me. ;)



Juliana
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30 May 2012, 11:15 am

CanisMajor wrote:
It always amazes me to hear that other people don't remember their childhoods. I can't imagine it. What's it like? Is it like you just came into existence as an adult, out of a big, fuzzy cloud that vaguely resembles childhood?


For me, I remember where I lived, the floor plans of all the houses, the way my room looked, who my friends were, what my school classroom looked like, what my childhood dentist's office looked like, and things like that. All visual things, and mostly just images of things/places and not people. But outside of that I only have a few select memories of what I actually did. I'm not sure what I was like or what I enjoyed. A fog is a good discription of it. I don't feel like I just came into existence because I do have pictures of my childhood, but I don't know much about that child that I was. The only thing I can figure is that I spent so much of my time daydreaming that I wasn't paying attention to my day-to-day life.



Sora
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30 May 2012, 11:22 am

I remember my childhood well when I focus on recalling memories.

I remember situations from when I turned 12 months (the ER being one of that), I remember being very frustrated about not being able to make sounds/talk and I remember the layout of the house I lived, the house of one of my grandparents, the layout of our property as well as what the place we lived in looked liked and how the many small roads connect.

There are many "blanks" in my memories however, nothingness where faces and people should have been as well as what they said to me or what they talked abut with each other about. Social activities, who was around me if I didn't know them well, things they did - all those things are "blank" or muddled too throughout kindergarten, elementary school and early secondary school when I wasn't aware of many of these things/didn't pay attention/didn't understand. Blanks like that occur right in perfectly accurate and vivid memories.

I now suspect that I can't remember because I didn't "see" and "hear" these things back then to begin with and also lacked awareness of many types of social interaction. Can't remember what my brain didn't process correctly, huh.

I do vividly remember that one situation at home when my I paused drawing and was suddenly thinking to myself that I do not understand what is being said to me beyond "shop" and then "supermarket" at age 2-3 although I then concluded correctly about that my mother planned to go to the supermarket. It's odd to think that I didn't understand so many words and I'm do not know how it can be possible that I had such limited vocabulary considering I seemed to be talking just fine (just very rarely) and echoed long sentences.


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CockneyRebel
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30 May 2012, 3:16 pm

I remember everything from my childhood. I remember all the good things and the bad things. I remember a lot of the songs that I'd hear on the radio. I remember all the visitors who came to our house. I remember most of the Christmases that I had up until the age of 1. I remember all the spankings and times that I was scolded. I remember times that I was sent to my room. I remember times that my mum would be very angry about me talking about my special interests and my parents trying to raise the autism out of me by using different things to bribe me into not talking about my special interests. I remember everything from each of the grades that I was in, from preschool up until I left college. I remember listening to The Beatles when I was 12, while liking some group who recorded all these songs about London and England better, but being afraid to ask my parents who that group was and I was forced not to talk about my special interests. I found out many later, that group is The Kinks. I remember high school and how Grade 9 was the worst grade for me, due to the arrogant attitudes of my peers about how if you didn't like the popular culture of 1990 to 1993, you shouldn't be part of the crowd. I remember my last year of high school and how happy I was to get out of that prison. I remember having a crush on a man who was married, who was in my work experience programme at the age of 19. I'm going to stop at 20, because I classified myself as an adult at that age.


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Matt62
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30 May 2012, 7:29 pm

I also am aware that when I was a child, my memory was unusually well-developed. Except for stuff people were trying to teach me. More of that executive functioning issues at work, I guess. But I could recall what I had for dinner on a certain day for years afterward. I still recall names of kids from my 1st & 2nd grade classes.
My earliest memory of all that is not a dream (there is one dream that is my first coherent memory) is climbing into my sister's crib..
Frankly, I had one day I forgot back in the 7th grade. Why I am not sure I want to know, considering where I lived at the time ( Neighborhood Haunted House. Seriously, not joking!)but it stands out because its a hole in a continuum of memories.

Sincerely,
Matthew



glider18
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30 May 2012, 9:55 pm

I have very vivid memories of my childhood. Those memories feel like they were yesterday. Many of those memories I can play back in my mind like a movie. I have memories back to when I was six months old.


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30 May 2012, 10:46 pm

CanisMajor wrote:
It always amazes me to hear that other people don't remember their childhoods. I can't imagine it. What's it like? Is it like you just came into existence as an adult, out of a big, fuzzy cloud that vaguely resembles childhood?

Yeah, I'm always a little surprised by what people don't remember. Meanwhile, others are always surprised by what I do remember. Go figure.

I can't remember every waking moment of my childhood, but I remember a lot from it. My earliest memories date back to when I was two years old or so. I remember my mom's old green station wagon, and my parents traded that in for a new car a couple months before I turned three. I remember that it had brown seats. I remember being in my car seat, riding in the back seat of that car. I unbuckled my car seat once, and I remember how the whole thing fell over with me in it. :P I can remember my mom standing in the corner of the kitchen by the coffee pot, holding my then-newborn brother in a blanket (I would have just turned three at that time). I can also tell you that I was wearing a gray sweatshirt the day I had eye surgery when I was four (it also happened to be overcast that day). I remember how I refused to open my eyes the following day--the doctors "turned off my lights," as I put it.



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30 May 2012, 11:17 pm

I remember a lot of things, I mostly remember things from when I was 2-5 years old. I remember I used to walk around the house, just walking not really playing or anything just walking and looking, even though I've seen the same things over and over again I liked to walk all over the house, avoiding the floor lines or whatever you want to call them.

I remember that I had some trouble with my feet, and my mom made footprints out of cardboard, each with a different color and faces on them so I could step on them to fix my problem. My school aged memories are not pleasant, I was alone most of the time.



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31 May 2012, 1:16 am

I remember lot of my childhood. I also remember my stroller, diapers, high chair, car seat, play pen, and I remember Christmas in 1987 and I only remember getting a tricycle and a toy piano and I still have that and it's my son's now. I can remember my dad and his friends looking at the tricycle at Toys R Us and then I saw it in the living room on Christmas day. Mom thinks I have all these memories from photos and movies. But yet I asked her if she ever owned these pair of purple earrings when we lived in Portland and she said she did and I asked her if they ever disappeared and she said they did when we lived there and I told her our old baby sitter took them because I can remember her putting them on. I don't remember everything of course and mom remembers stuff about me I don't remember.


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31 May 2012, 1:33 am

Juliana wrote:

For me, I remember where I lived, the floor plans of all the houses, the way my room looked, who my friends were, what my school classroom looked like, what my childhood dentist's office looked like, and things like that. All visual things, and mostly just images of things/places and not people. But outside of that I only have a few select memories of what I actually did. I'm not sure what I was like or what I enjoyed. A fog is a good discription of it. I don't feel like I just came into existence because I do have pictures of my childhood, but I don't know much about that child that I was. The only thing I can figure is that I spent so much of my time daydreaming that I wasn't paying attention to my day-to-day life.


I'm exactly the same, I remember virtually nothing about childhood events or who I was as a child. I always thought that everyone was like that. The majority of responses on this thread are very surprising to me.



CanisMajor
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31 May 2012, 10:04 am

FishStickNick wrote:
I can't remember every waking moment of my childhood, but I remember a lot from it. My earliest memories date back to when I was two years old or so. I remember my mom's old green station wagon, and my parents traded that in for a new car a couple months before I turned three. I remember that it had brown seats. I remember being in my car seat, riding in the back seat of that car. I unbuckled my car seat once, and I remember how the whole thing fell over with me in it. :P I can remember my mom standing in the corner of the kitchen by the coffee pot, holding my then-newborn brother in a blanket (I would have just turned three at that time). I can also tell you that I was wearing a gray sweatshirt the day I had eye surgery when I was four (it also happened to be overcast that day). I remember how I refused to open my eyes the following day--the doctors "turned off my lights," as I put it.


I remember (and miss) the vehicles my parents had when I was so little. My mom had a huge gas-guzzling van (we were a family of 6, pre-minivan days.) But my carseat was kept in my dad's car. I always sat in the back, right seat. My window was perpetually broken (all the other ones could open, but not mine.) I remember sitting in my carseat, but also complaining that I was "a big girl" and didn't need it anymore (I had to be... I think around 2? Haha.) I remember asking when I wouldn't need it any more. My mom said, "When you can see over the window." So I promptly tried reaching my neck up as far as I could, barely able to peek over the window, just to say, "See, Mommy? I'm big enough!" :P

League_Girl wrote:
I remember lot of my childhood. I also remember my stroller, diapers, high chair, car seat, play pen, and I remember Christmas in 1987 and I only remember getting a tricycle and a toy piano and I still have that and it's my son's now.


I also remember riding in my stroller. My parents had one of those double strollers where one baby sits in the front, and another in back. I always had to sit in the back because my mom put my little brother in front... I didn't like that, I couldn't see very much from back there. As for Christmas, my most vivid memory was when an uncle of mine visited the house dressed as Santa Claus... I was so scared of Santa that I ran under the kitchen table and refused to come out... until "Santa" said he'd bring all my toys back to the North Pole if I didn't. Of course, then I slowly crawled out... but I was still scared. (You know, when a kid who frequently screams and cries hears the words, "You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm tellin' you why..." as though it's a threat, as well as "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake", do you really expect them to remain calm and happy over the thought of Santa? I thought he was a damn stalker and I had very real fears every Christmas that I was going to get nothing but coal...)



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31 May 2012, 11:18 am

I remember most of my childhood. I was definitely not a normal little girl. For instance, the only time I was given a doll, at about age 4, I defaced it with crayon and then mutilated it with a pair of scissors. Also about that time, I was allowed to go out in the rain on my own. For some reason I walked over to the nearby baseball/softball dugout. Lots of dead rats floating in the dugout. So I fished them out, took them home, and then laid them out on the front porch for an adult to admire.

My earliest memory was of hearing Mom tell a sibling to get me orange juice. I was lying in bed, sick. Was about 1 to 1.5 years old. Found out later the illness was measles. The other memories were of me standing behind the back door and witnessing one of the neighborhood kids come in and take something out of the house and of being outside with the older kids as one of them killed some ginormous bug by lighting it on fire. Was between 2 and 3 years old then.



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31 May 2012, 11:41 am

I do remember my childhood, I remember it very well.

Sometimes I wish I didn't though.



CanisMajor
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31 May 2012, 12:30 pm

Bunnynose wrote:
I remember most of my childhood. I was definitely not a normal little girl. For instance, the only time I was given a doll, at about age 4, I defaced it with crayon and then mutilated it with a pair of scissors. Also about that time, I was allowed to go out in the rain on my own. For some reason I walked over to the nearby baseball/softball dugout. Lots of dead rats floating in the dugout. So I fished them out, took them home, and then laid them out on the front porch for an adult to admire.


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nemorosa
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31 May 2012, 3:01 pm

I remember everything perfectly except for a blank spot aged about 12-14. I was deeply depressed then and have virtually no memories of that time.