Core Memories

[Accy cyclist]

Like other have said,being in my pram as a baby. My grandad's face as he pushed me and a green blanket covering me. Then there's the one where I was at a Christening...I think/guess i was. I Must've been a toddler. I remember some Brylcreem haired blokes in white shirts and narrow black ties(early to mid 60's fashion)pouring beer down my throat and making me smoke a cigarette.

Last one before I bore you...having my tonsils out at Accy Vic' hospital when the Mexico '68 Olympic Games were on. The nurses seemed to all be like scary matron/nurse Hattie Jacques. I fainted after an injection in my backside. Thankfully despite many injections since,non have been in the bum.

 

[srw]

Perhaps it happened twice.

Could be, though that would be a heck of a coincidence. And given the nature of this thread and the human mind it would also probably pop up in the canonical retelling each time - "Did I ever tell you that I'd been taken to hospital twice by a hearse after I fell over in Midnight Mass? The second time the undertaker bought me a pint the next day."

I know that I tell my own story - that I remember being taken around a roundabout in Newcastle on the back of my mum's bike when I was about 3 - with pretty much the same facts each time. The other one is about sucking lemons in Majorca while learning to read and hearing cowbells.

 

[Rocky]

Could be, though that would be a heck of a coincidence. And given the nature of this thread and the human mind it would also probably pop up in the canonical retelling each time - "Did I ever tell you that I'd been taken to hospital twice by a hearse after I fell over in Midnight Mass? The second time the undertaker bought me a pint the next day."

I know that I tell my own story - that I remember being taken around a roundabout in Newcastle on the back of my mum's bike when I was about 3 - with pretty much the same facts each time. The other one is about sucking lemons in Majorca while learning to read and hearing cowbells.

My first memory is throwing up on my grandparents floor on being told my younger sister had just been born. I was four. 59 years later, I try to remind her of that whenever we meet.

 

[gbb]

And one I can see almost like it was yesterday....
I may be 8, I can't remember where (we moved frequently as dad was in the services)...but sitting at the side of the road. It was quiet, hardly any cars at all. The road had recently been resurfaced and had those almost purple blue sparkling chippings on it. A car went past and I smelled the fumes. I wondered..'will the fumes fill the sky in the future ?'

And laying in bed when we stopped over my grandads in Bristol when we were very young in the 1960s. He was a very severe, upright kind of man and had loads of old furniture and clocks, I could hear the thud thud of a grandfather clock in the night. I've always found clocks ticking a very comforting thing

 

[ren531]

Riding in the old style child cycle seat on the back of my mums bike along Knott End sea wall to catch the Knott End to Fleetwood ferry in the mid 60s ,crossing the Irish sea on the Munster and Leinster ferries to visit family in southern Ireland in the mid 70s ,Mr Sutcliffe the one and only teacher at school that ever gave me any encouragement when all the rest never even noticed I was there so thank you Mr Sutcliffe I wished I had more of a chance to thank you at the time ,certainly high emotional events such as the birth my son and daughter

 

[raleighnut]

Christmas morning going out on my new bike, first time I braked I pulled the lever as hard as I had on my trike and went straight over the handlebars.

 

[swee'pea99]

Lots of my early memories are based on family photos. So how much is actual memory and how much is manufactured to believe it is a memory is anyone’s guess.

Indeed. And photos don't necessarily have to be involved. I do distinctly remember an incident when I was proper young - tho' quite how young I couldn't say - when I went in the sea, came out, and couldn't find my parents. And I was young enough to adopt a distinctly dumb search strategy: I set off walking along the beach, in one direction, sobbing as I went. I think I got a fair way before some kind soul stopped me, and somehow I ended up being reunited with my (it has to be said, shamefully inattentive) parents. But the thing is, although I do 'remember' this, I don't remember it in any real experienced sense - I can't bring to mind the sun, sea, sand or sobbing - it's like a story I was told. One that I just happened to play a part in.

 

[Bazzer]

My first memory is throwing up on my grandparents floor on being told my younger sister had just been born. I was four. 59 years later, I try to remind her of that whenever we meet.

That reminds me of one of my pre school days. My Mum was rushed to hospital having a miscarriage and I was left at home with my Dad. I can't remember the events leading up to the ambulance coming and taking Mum, but I do remember trying to eat spaghetti for tea whilst being very upset and eventually throwing up. It took over 45 years before I could eat spaghetti, wretching even before it reached my mouth.

 

[Salar]

Lots of memories.

Start with this one as we are talking about first day at school.

It was my first day at Infants school in a rough, tough area of town. My mother walked me to the gate.

I'd been warned about the school bully who attacked those on their first day by my young mates.
He was a few years older than me, but he still picked on the younger first day starters.

Anyway, there he is, bigger than me, standing next to the drinking water fountain eying up his prey.

I charged at him, pulled his head down banging it on the water fountain. He never bullied me or my friends after that.

I did quite well at that school making it through Infants and the Juniors, enjoyed my time there, being the only one to pass for Grammar School.

 

[Salar]

Here's a couple more, the older you get the more memories you have.

Back to childhood again, this time adults not believing what children say.

I must have been about six, I was jumping up and down on my steel angle frame bed.

I slipped off the bed and somehow ended up with my knee being embedded in my bike inflator handle. In those days the handles were steel and had sharp edges.

Off to hospital for stitches, I still have the scar, "matron" and mother ask how I did this, told them,wouldn't believe me, convinced I'd done it on the bed.
Go back to have the eight stitches out, nurse takes seven out, tell her one is still in their under the scabs, once again they don't believe me, until she digs it out.

Next one involves teeth at the age of twelve I think.
I had three front teeth knocked out whilst by the river ( told you I came from a rough tough area of town)
My previous dentist, knowing I liked to draw asked me to draw some pictures of Disney cartoon characters to display in the children's dental area.
I did these for him and dropped them in the dental hospital.
A few weeks later I was back.
Feeling proud seeing my artwork on the walls I tell my new dentist I drew them. No you didn't was the reply, you can't draw.

Even when you are young you sometimes feel you are banging your head against a brick wall.

 

[otek59]

There’s so many to chose from ,seeing the first moon landing as 10 year old my grandads funeral a few years later the loss of my brother in law in a house fire. Some happier ones my wedding day the birth of my children the time I spend with them and being told by my gran how her school watched the anchor chains for the Titanic being taken through Neatherton on the way to Belfast it was strange to see those chains still in place when the wreck was located

 

[biggs682]

Thanks to all those who have shared some core memories with others

 

[Brains]

Unfortunately, possibly, I have a memory like a sponge.
It means now that I'm nearly 60, I've become the family Wikipedia

My earliest memories are of the summer of 1961 when I was 2 or 3.
I can to this day still navigate mentally around the house we lived in despite moving out before I was 4.
I have clear memories of the winter of 1963 (aged 4), starting school in 65, boarding school in 68, the blackouts of the early 70's when I would have been 9.
Likewise ask me to name the gardener or the name of the shop or the next door neighbour in any of the places we lived in the 1960's or 70's is not a problem.
Since the late 1980's I've run a Venture/Explorer Scout Unit, hundreds of kids have passed through the doors. Given a prompt I can still name them all.

For those that think brilliant, I can assure you it has disadvantages.
However, I rarely loose pub quiz's !

 

[slowmotion]

Skiing down the Col de Mines in brilliant sunshine with Kim Wilde on my Walkman.

 

[biggs682]

Skiing down the Col de Mines in brilliant sunshine with Kim Wilde on my Walkman.

Did you get any pictures ?