Not a sound from the pavement

[venta]

This week's stack of library books included Arthur & George. On the train in to work this morning, the first chapter introduced me to both the gentlemen

Comments

[lanfykins]

My earliest memory is of jumping up and down on the sofa claiming that I was Peter Pan and could fly. And it's a proper memory, rather than a vague impression. I don't know how old I was, but I was still in nappies, so I'm thinking 'toddler' :)

I do also have something more in the vague-impression category, which may have been from about the same age or from a little younger.

It's particularly striking in that I don't have any other 'proper' memories until rather later. Then again, I don't tend to remember personal life events very well; at any given time, most of my life up to the last two years is a set of fragmented images, not well connected or chronologically arranged.

Facts, on the other hand, I tend to keep :)

[lanfykins]

...I should also like to add that in the lamplight the withered leaves collect at my feet, and collect my kudo :)

[venta]

You may have your kudo :)

[beckyl]

Which I will refrain from claiming now, since someone else got there first, although I shall feel slightly worried that I have a notional 2 out of 2 for your past two entries...

[bopeepsheep]

I have impressionistic 'memories' of Christmas Day 1973, when I would have been 19m old. I have a clear memory of the morning of my second birthday, 5 months later. We suspect this was because there was an Incident of Indignation and Rage (high emotion tends to make good memories). Big Paul* stole my Donald Duck birthday card and ran away and I had to chase him round the garden for ages to get it back!!! I was Not Happy and kicked him after I caught him.

My regular memories start some time around 3y3m, but I've lost huge chunks of later years.

* Next-door-neighbour. Younger/smaller than me, but bigger/older than Little Paul, who lived the other side of us.

[venta]

There was a time, not long after I started working, when I was cramming too much into my life and not sleeping enough. I felt like I was coping at the time, but it seems like the thing that went out of the window was proper memory-formation.

It's quite disturbing to hear a group of people reminiscing happily about things that happened and to think "well, I *know* I was there..."

[lanfykins]

Ooh, interesting. Because I don't think I've had enough sleep for longer than a week at a time since primary school. Which may explain something about my broken memories.

[venta]

I've no idea how solid the science behind this is. But anecdotally it makes a big difference to me (over a long period of time, rather than, say, a couple of late nights and I lose a day).

I've always imagined deep sleep as a time when memories are sorted, catalogued and filed. And, if that doesn't happen, they just get mislaid down the backs of shelves and under sofas.

[phlebas]

I just about remember moving house when I was 4, to where my parents still live. I can't remember living anywhere else, even leaving the previous place, just arriving.

[bateleur]

I have an official "earliest memory", but I found out more recently that it's actually not accurate! (It's a very visual memory, but the carpet I remember in the scene wasn't there until years later.)

[venta]

Yes, I wonder how many of my very early memories aren't accuarate at all. One of my memories of my Nana's house looks suspiciously (in form, though not in furnishing) like the living room in the house of my first piano teacher's parents.

[timeplease]

The earliest memory I can date is the birth of my sister. This happened at home; I was sent outside to play in the sandpit with my uncle Dave. I was just under two-and-a-half.

I have another early memory - being driven to a christmas party through some really heavy rain - but I can't say whether it was earlier or later.