Sketchy childhood memories

[matie-k]

Do you have any childhood memories that seem really scary or almost impossible now as you think back on them? And maybe you wonder if they were just dreams or something?

For instance, I have a fuzzy memory of me and I think maybe a friend too(?) going with a strange man that showed up in our neighborhood and befriended us one day, and he took us in a truck (I think I remember it being a big truck like a dump truck) to a store and bought us some candy. I remember coming home and telling my dad about it and sitting in my room while he talked to me about it, and the candy the guy bought me was sitting on a desk in my room - it was a big piece of gum in the shape of a hamburger. If my memory is correct, that was the only time I ever got a spanking from my dad. I wonder if my dad would remember that one.

Another memory I have is from one day that I went to garage sales with my mom. We had to cross a busy road, and she started going, but I didn't notice she was going. So we ended up on opposite sides of the road, and I was very scared and didn't know what to do. What I remember doing is panicking and just taking off across the street right in the middle of traffic and barely keeping from getting hit.

Another memory I have is so strange. I remember every once in a while it was like I'd get a burst of adrenaline and be able to jump all the way up to touch the ceiling in our house. This would have been impossible as a small child though, so is this memory a dream? I don't know! Was it hallucination from a time I was sick?

[Danny Carlton]

On Christmas day my dad helped me find the house we lived in when I was really small (between 2 and 6). Here it is on Google Maps. I have a lot of fuzzy memories from that house.

[brodave]

My wife and I just got back from visiting our daughter and her family in Hawaii. I was saved in Hawaii when I was 12 and while we were there we went to see the church where I trusted Christ. It's no longer a Baptist church :sad but it still looks the same as I remember, but when we went inside lots of childhood memories came to me. Not just of the church but of all kinds of things. Kinda neat.

[Anon]

I have quite a few fuzzy memories from when I was age 2 and older. I would ask my parents about them wondering if it was a dream or not. Alot of them felt like dreams but my parents were able to explain them. One I remember being held while a pretty lady in a white dress came to talk to me. My parents confirmed it as a wedding that took place when I was only 2. I also had some memories that I would ask about and my parents would act like they didn't know what I was talking about. Turns out they were memories from when I was about 2 1/2, that happened during a very tragic time in my parents' lives, so I did not find out what the "memories" were until after my mom died, and my dad was free to tell me what the memories were about. They included living in an apartment we only stayed in for about 6 months, and walking up and down hospital corridors with my dad (which I confused for the apartment hallways.) I also remember an airplane trip from about the same time period.

Its possible your memory about jumping up to touch the ceiling could have been a time when you were young and in a low attic or under a table or something where you felt like you were very big because you could jump up and touch whatever was above you....

I do have a few recurring memories that ended up being dreams as well. I had alot of nightmares as a kid.

I find my family is amazed and some do not believe I have memories from age 2. My husband remembers nothing before like age 5.

Wow your story about being taken to the store by a stranger is really scary!!!!

[John81]

My earliest memories go back to when I was 2. What memories I have are rather clear. I can't think of a single fuzzy memory. It does seem to surprise some of the older folks (those who are still alive and those who were alive when I told them) that I remember so much of the house we moved into when I was 2.

[HappyChristian]

No fuzzy memories. My earliest one is from when I was three, and it inovlved my natural father - not a good memory, 'cause it was of him trying to kill my mom. That kind of thing sticks in the memory!!

I am afraid of heights because of two things that stick in my memory. One day we went to Canada with my mom and a friend of hers (named George). George wanted us to see a garden that was across the canyon. Mom wouldn't go, but three of us kids went with George. The canyon was crossed by a wooden plank bridge, held up by ropes. It swung, too. I was terrified, but made it across. On the way back, my older brother was ahead of me. He turned around and started laughing at me, and then began swinging the bridge. Now, we were both very young - I'm sure he had no idea of the danger he was courting. I started screaming for him to stop, convinced I was going to slide off the bridge thousands of feet below into the river rushing by underneath. Can't remember if it was George or my mom that got him to stop. I remember George coming up behind me, and my mom was on the land in front of us. We were about halfway over. He stopped, and we got back on land. I've hated bridges ever since - even in cars!

And then on another bridge...my older brother and I were walking to town when we were a few years older. We had to go over an overpass. We got halfway over, and he started to act like he was going to throw me over - he actually had one of my legs up there and I was off the ground!!! I was screaming and crying, and he was laughing. He quit, and didn't do anything on the way back. But I really don't like heights...and it's all his fault!

Amazing that we are as close as we are!!! :Green

[Anon]

I remember falling to the very bottom of a swimming pool when I was 2 or 3. I remember my dad's shadow coming down to get me. I don't remember being afraid though.

However to this day I cannot swim and am petrified of water. :roll

[matie-k]

Hmm...I am afraid of heights now too, and I remember a bad memory of my brother teasing me too! We were up in the capital building in Bismarck, ND (my grandparents lived half a block away from there), and there was a window open, and my brother teased me about throwing me out. But it seems like my fear of heights has only started more so after I had kids.

[futurehope]

I remember falling to the very bottom of a swimming pool when I was 2 or 3. I remember my dad's shadow coming down to get me. I don't remember being afraid though.

However to this day I cannot swim and am petrified of water. :roll

That makes baptism a real step of faith.

I knew a guy that I used to run with that was that way - he hated taking a shower!
Obviously why I USED to run with him. :thumb

[Anon]

That makes baptism a real step of faith.

I knew a guy that I used to run with that was that way - he hated taking a shower!
Obviously why I USED to run with him. :thumb

I'm not THAT scared of water...LOL! Of course, I do not allow the water to run in my face except to quickly rinse the face wash off.

[bzmomo7]

I was in a tornado when I was 2. I don't really remember much, I almost think I can remember seeing the black wall through the door, but I'm not sure, it is very sketchy. I do have a memory of my cousins and I running these little wooden car toys that my grandpa made us out of wood across the top of my toybox and it made little black marks on it. My mom assured me that was DEFINITELY before the tornado. It is strange. I know that after the tornado my mom said that if someone rattled a piece of metal or something that I would burst into hysterical screaming for several weeks afterward. (the tornado was a huge one--took our trailer and threw it across the road, sucked my Dad out the kitchen window and he held onto a light pole for dear life, and they found my crib a mile away in a tree, my mom and I were pinned to the ground by some carpet that flew up over us and an oil rack that fell on us)

[Anon]

Oh wow....that's amazing. God really protected you through that! Glad you were not in your crib!!!! Scary!

[John81]

I was in a tornado when I was 2. I don't really remember much' date=' I almost think I can remember seeing the black wall through the door, but I'm not sure, it is very sketchy. I do have a memory of my cousins and I running these little wooden car toys that my grandpa made us out of wood across the top of my toybox and it made little black marks on it. My mom assured me that was DEFINITELY before the tornado. It is strange. I know that after the tornado my mom said that if someone rattled a piece of metal or something that I would burst into hysterical screaming for several weeks afterward. (the tornado was a huge one--took our trailer and threw it across the road, sucked my Dad out the kitchen window and he held onto a light pole for dear life, and they found my crib a mile away in a tree, my mom and I were pinned to the ground by some carpet that flew up over us and an oil rack that fell on us)[/quote']

Wow! Praise God for protecting your family through that.

[bzmomo7]

Oh wow....that's amazing. God really protected you through that! Glad you were not in your crib!!!! Scary!

Yeah, (I had a very devout Old Methodist Grandma--she was praying) others weren't so lucky....many people died that day across the U.S. My dad suffered a minor heart attack and never fully recovered. http://www.april31974.com/ To this day, everyone in my family cringes when April 3rd rolls around. We were living in rural Indiana at the time....I would suppose the tornado that took our little town was an F4, it came up from Monticello, IN. It's kind of funny reading about the tornadoes and the studies they did on them after the fact because they describe how that particular tornado followed the river (which was the river that ran directly behind our house, my grandparent's house, and the church)

[John81]

Yeah, (I had a very devout Old Methodist Grandma--she was praying) others weren't so lucky....many people died that day across the U.S. My dad suffered a minor heart attack and never fully recovered. http://www.april31974.com/ To this day, everyone in my family cringes when April 3rd rolls around. We were living in rural Indiana at the time....I would suppose the tornado that took our little town was an F4, it came up from Monticello, IN. It's kind of funny reading about the tornadoes and the studies they did on them after the fact because they describe how that particular tornado followed the river (which was the river that ran directly behind our house, my grandparent's house, and the church)

I've read about that outbreak and watched programs dealing with it; my wife is fascinated with tornados having grown up in Texas with them popping up all around them.