Last week, my therapist asked me what my first memory was. She said, "What's the first thing that comes to your mind?"
The first thing I can remember is standing in a garage with a group of other kids and somebody's dad. I don't even know who the man was, who the kids were, or whose garage we were in. The man was helping us turn empty coffee cans into stilts. I thought he was the coolest dad ever, and I remember feeling warm and safe.
My therapist said that our first memories can say a lot about us. For me, growing up with an absent, drunken father, it's telling that my first memory is of a father-figure doing father-things with me, even though it wasn't my own.
my first memory is when i was a little baby and i felt rejected by mom, because she left me for awhile because i was crying. She didn't really reject me, but that what i felt. Yep, my first memory has led to my screwed up life
my first memory is of the terrible black forrest in germany. it was a dark rainy day and i was watching for witches to come and eat me up cos i was a girl, well my brothers had told me thats what happened. hmm somedays when i look back i wonder why we hav family :)
Jen: How did you do this? I was tryng to think of my first memory but I don't know ... I have some memories of certain things from early in my life, but have no idea what would be the "first" memory. Or did you just go with the first memory of something like an activity or occurrance that you could remember?
Sorry to sound so ignorant. I just really wanted to try this. Thanks for sharing!
Its like we are all getting free therapy... :-)
I have some other memories from around the same time, and I don’t really know which one actually happened first. My therapist asked me what first came to my mind. It was the coffee cans.
Hmm...first memory? Mine is being at a 'wake' for my great-grandmother, and I remember everyone was crying, but I had no clue what was really going on. I was probably about 3 years old. I felt scared, insecure and unprotected.
It's fuzzy, but still a strong memory.....Thanks Jen!!
Jan ♥
i have such fuzzy memories of my childhood but when i was 3 years old i do remember walking down a hall and seeing an old woman make a gold, dark green and white blanket---i swear i can still see it in my head---it was a large knitted blanket----and i think ---ok--i dont know what happened after that---but i do remember that lovely knited blanket. i wonder if i held it or something? not sure--but i can still see that image....
yes, you can remember things from when you were 3 years old--it is hard to, but possible...
the rest of my childhood i dont want to remember...
OK I have one memory that continually comes to mind so I will go with it, although I have never quite understood it. I was maybe about 5 years old at the swimming pool with my dad. I was laying down wrapped in a towel and my dad was patting me on my bottom; not hitting, just patting. And I remember pretending I was asleep. It felt really good. and warm. Wierd, huh?
I have two that stick out in my mind - one is when I was about three and I seperated from my parents in a hospital, I was so scared and I remember this nurse helping me find them and my mam being so relieved.
Another was of being at my grandparents house on Saturday evenings I used to go there while my parents went to Mass and watch MacGuyer with with my grandparents...but on this one occassion I turned to my grandad and said "you're getting old now, you're soon going to die"...I will never forget my grandparents faces, they never laughed so hard, I can still remember that exact moment down to a T and I must have only been 3 at the time.
