Anyone else not remember much about their childhood?

[starfish]

Well my Grandmother passed away this morning.

She lived a good long life. She was 88 and it was time for her to go. 3 strokes really takes it toll.

So I drove back home today to do the whole family thing. We were sitting around talking today and everyone else was talking their memories of my grandmother. I was sitting there quite and not saying much.

My aunt asked me what my memories of her were. I spent a lot of time with my grand parents as a kid. I just don't remember much. In fact I don't remember much before I was about 15 or so. Most of my memories before there are just fragments. Like I remember very clearly half a sentence or so that someone said, or a feeling that I had. I just don't have many memories of events. To remember enough to tell you a story about something that happened. No way.

It kind of has me curious if same thing is going to happen with my current memories. Am I going to be in my mid 40's and not remember anything before I was 30?

[Mickey]

I remember TOO much from my childhood that I wish I didn't.
Don't worry about it too much. I'm sure your memory is okay .

[Chip]

It is not uncommon to have some fuzziness about memories of childhood. If there are *no* memories of childhood, then it can sometimes be an indication that perhaps there were unpleasant events that you've blocked out.

I would not worry about later memories being similarly faded... in most cases, the issue with childhood memory isn't that the memories aren't there but, based on the last cognitive psychology research I read, as children, we haven't developed the organizational structure for memory storage, so the memories are actually all there, but the retrieval cues for them aren't well organized. That's why you'll sometimes be doing something odd and random, and it will trigger a strong memory about something you'd long forgotten... because you triggered an oddball retrieval queue. As we get older, we get better at organizing information, so our memory retrieval also improves.

[Swamp56]

I had a very troublesome childhood and my mind has blocked most of my long-term memories as a defense mechanism so I don't get overwhelmed with thoughts.

I also have short-term memory problems, but I have the medicine I used to take (Seroquel) to blame for that.

[mattypants]

Originally Posted by starfish

My aunt asked me what my memories of her were. I spent a lot of time with my grand parents as a kid. I just don't remember much. In fact I don't remember much before I was about 15 or so. Most of my memories before there are just fragments. Like I remember very clearly half a sentence or so that someone said, or a feeling that I had. I just don't have many memories of events. To remember enough to tell you a story about something that happened. No way.

It kind of has me curious if same thing is going to happen with my current memories. Am I going to be in my mid 40's and not remember anything before I was 30?

i cant remember much from before even a few years back. i couldnt tell you a story of my childhood even if i tried.
ive also been curious if i'll always be this way...

Originally Posted by Swamp56

I had a very troublesome childhood and my mind has blocked most of my long-term memories as a defense mechanism so I don't get overwhelmed with thoughts.

i think have the same thing... but i still have problems getting overwhelmed by my thoughts

[Étoile]

I seem to be an oddball. My long-term memory is sharp. I can still remember some parts of the first day of Pre-K. My short-term memory however, sucks. I forget things that I'm supposed to remember seconds later!

[MusicIsLife]

I remember flashes of my childhood and sometimes whole scenes of things from age five til about 13, and then it becomes clearer after that.

[Jack2009]

I remember the mundane and the important, and I can trace it back to around 2-3. Even a few dreams as well around the age of 6-8.

However, I spend time rethinking my past like an album in my head once every few months. I think about my past more than I do about my present, and if not the past then I am thinking about the future.

[xequar]

I don't remember hardly anything before I was about 10. For instance, I know I watched GI Joe and Transformers when I was a kid, but I know absolutely nothing about those shows because I don't remember them at all.

[jazzrawr]

I actually remember a lot, and a lot of details too.
But I've always had a memory like that. I can remember clearly from when I was about 5 onwards.
Most people don't remember as much as I do. When I say "Remember when...?", half the time nobody else remembers it. XD

[Filip]

I can remember a lot from as early as age 2-3. And sometimes I remember things that other people tell me are right, despite them never telling me about what happened back then

I know my doctor once told me that's a pretty early age to have exact memories of, though.

And I have a freakishly exact auditory memory. I can replay most conversations I had in my head down to small details. This sometimes scares my mother when I suddenly decide to continue a conversation I that trailed off a few days before.

[carrie90]

I remember very little tbh

[Lexington]

I've got a weird memory. I don't have a really good OVERALL memory of my childhood, so it's tough to sort of remember "what my childhood was like". But I have a ton of very specific memories from my childhood. And I mean a ton. For instance, to pick one thing at random, the house I lived in when I was 3 until I was 11 had a largish, mainly unfinished basement. Here are some random memories just related to that.

* Keeping the spare key underneath the tiny box on the interior of the window sill behind the washing machine.
* Not replacing the spare key after I used it, and therefore having to try to drag myself through that window without smashing into the washing machine (and getting old fabric softener and stuff all over me).
* The big wooden cabinets at the base of the stairs full of my mother's old teaching supplies. We never ever went in there, for some reason.
* My mother pulling me away from my friends to chat on the stairs. For some reason, she wanted to tell me about something she saw on Sesame Street earlier that day.
* Getting really mad at my parents about something while on those stairs, and screaming the worst thing I could think of to say - "Shove it!" I was probably five. And yeah, I got in major trouble.
* Sitting on those stairs watching my mother do laundry. I don't know why, but I thought that laundry seemed "fun" for a chore. Still do, but I don't exactly rush to do it.
* The crawl space towards the front of the house where my parents kept boxes of stuff they didn't want to throw away. My favorite items in there - an old time school desk (with the wooden chair attached to the front of the desk, complete with inkwell) and a see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil monkeys carved out of dark wood. I think their old cigarette-holder-in-the-shape-of-a-globe was there, too.
* My father remodeling part of the area to make a "TV room" when my sister was on the way.
* The hole in the wooden floor you could still feel through the carpeting after he finished.
* Watching the premiere of a new TV show (Angie - the only time I watched it) in that TV room and chatting with the locksmith as he changed the locks on the back door after our house was burglarized.
* Writing my name inside a small book (it may have been a kid's prayer book) while in the TV room, and wishing I had a cool nickname. I tried out a couple on the inside cover. I seem to remember "Big X" being one. I have no idea why - I wasn't big in any way, shape or form, and I don't know what X stood for.
* Rediscovering a Scholastic book that I must have gotten from school a few years back, rereading a bit of it...and realizing it wasn't as good as "For the Love of Benji".
* My brother and I (and a couple friends, I think) leaping off furniture in that room. There was presumably some sort of premise to our game, but it involved a lot of jumping. My brother had a loose tooth, and one particularly jarring landing sent the tooth flying out of his mouth.
* Listening to American Top Forty (a radio show played every Saturday morning that counted down the top 40 songs in America) while playing our high-tech video games.





Shut up - they rocked.

That's literally off the top of my head. About ONE (or two) rooms in a house I lived in for eight years...nearly thirty years ago. No idea why my brain likes holding on to this stuff. But I'm kinda happy it does. It's fun to reminisce.

Lex