exactly what Jessica said. It is hard treating mac because of this. He saw things and his 2-4 yo brain imagined it happened to him. Or he saw stuff in films (they had a tv and vcr at some point) and remembers those things really happening. or or or. a million possibilities and we will never know what was reality.

I can see that, except I like reading about flawed and mutable memory and other things that tell us we're not as smart as we think. I'm weird, I guess.

It's super interesting but really hard to think about, so I kind of need it spoon fed to me to be able to take it in at all. And when I can wrap my mind around it, it's alarming - not so much that we aren't as smart as we think we are, as we aren't as real as we think we are.

My earliest memory is of being at my grandmother's house when my sister was born, and it's almost certainly something somebody told me about rather than an actual memory - it's not even from my point of view, it's more like watching a film of myself.

I've found that the stories I retell are the memories I remember. My earliest memory (it's real) is of my mom and I spinning off a snowy road and some dude coming over and yelling at her like it was her fault. I was three, I think. A lot of what I remember is stuff my brother and I reminisce/tease each other about to this day - like the time he was riding his bike at dusk, got distracted watching bats, and rode into a tree. Heh. Or when he ruined the "airplane" I had made at nursery school* by painting it with watercolors. Or mildly traumatic stuff like when I stepped on a crayfish in bare feet.

I remember lots and lots of random stuff from before I was six.

* looking back I'm astounded that they let us use hammer and nails in nursery school. Hey, my first construction project!

I also remember my mother being pregnant with my sister, but that was in a different house from the toilet training, so I think it was later. Perhaps even a different country. I swear I have memories of living in New York and eating grapes for the first time, which would make me pretty damned young. Those are also unsupported by anecdotes.

My sister is going to a family funeral this weekend of someone I don't remember AT ALL. Who had clear memories of me. Boring memories, and apparently the standard ones to have of me if you're older than my parents--apparently when I showed up at your house I demanded bread and butter and Milo and then disappeared into one of your books. It's how my paternal grandmother described me too. And my mother's older sister.

This funeral is drawing a huge amount of family together, and I don't remember jack about the lady. I feel awful. Part of me likes to think she only remembered me because I'm my mother's daughter, and my mother is notable in the family, but a lot of my generation in the extended family will be flying in to attend. I don't know how/why they remember her.

Weirdly, I've had to go back and edit this post to make her verbs in the past tense. I might not remember her, but I can't believe she's dead.

My earliest memory is one that I know is true because I've talked about it with my mom. I remember stomping egg shells on the back porch. I had to have been only 2 or 2 1/2-ish. When I asked her about it she was floored that I remembered it. She used to dry them out and give them to me to stomp. But really? What kid is gonna forget something as fun as stomping egg shells?

My very earliest memory is of my sister being born. I remember looking at her right after she was born and being really grossed out. So me and my best friend Naomi (her mom and my mom were La Leche League buddies) went to play in the basement instead.

Neurologically, long-term memories start to form around 24 months, so at 2 1/2 it's certainly something I could have remembered, and it was obviously a pretty big deal. But it's also a story I loved hearing about as a kid, and there's no way to separate my memory of the actual event from my memory of the way my mom told it to me.

I remember (or remember remembering) being carried down the hall of the AI DuPont Institute where I was being treated for hip dysplasia when I was about a year old. And then hauling myself out of my crib and shuffling down the hall to the bathroom wearing the foot brace thing they'd given me to fix the dysplasia. I only had the brace for about 6 months so I was under 2. I walked super early (9-10 months) and was potty trained shortly thereafter. Evidently I did not like diapers at all (I do not remember this. My mother has told me.).

I also remember getting on a plane to Texas carrying my pillow when I was about 2.

My best friend from high school, still my best friend, has an amazing memory so I rely on her a lot for remembering all the shared times we've had. And also stuff I've told her that she didn't experience but still remembers really well.

Now, my memories of my other sister being born (when I was six) and my brother being born (when I was 8) are clear as a bell. My younger younger sister because she was born in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, and my brother because it was three or four in the morning. My oldest younger sister woke me up and said "Mom had the baby!!" And I mumbled "Is it another girl?" because if it was I wasn't going to bother getting up.

Earliest vacation memory goes back to '73, when I was seven. We rented a camper and drove through Michigan and Wisconsin, up to Mackinac and Sault Ste. Marie, then came back and stopped by Jellystone Park for a night or two. Distinct memories are of the ferry ride over to Mackinac Island (sis and I were hanging over the side watching the waves--it was very choppy that day--and Mom was sitting on the bench turning green) and then the carriage ride tour on the island.

The following year, we spent a week in Minnesota at a lake resort in a rented cabin, and then spent a few days at my great-great-uncle's place in Minneapolis (I remember Uncle Gus playing pinochle to the wee hours and then getting up on Sunday morning to watch his pro wrestling on TV).

My earliest memory is sitting the rocker in the nursery holding my baby brother, but there's also a picture of this, so I have no idea if that's what I'm remembering seeing.

I have a lot of random memories of early childhood, and pretty good recall from about second grade on, I think.