What's the oldest memory that you have?

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My oldest memory is of when I was 2. My parents went grocery shopping and I was sitting on the seat in the shopping cart. I also remember an instance where I was on the floor with my grandma and she was helping me put shapes in the shape sorter. Once we got it in both my mom and grandma say "yay!" in a cheerful and excited voice.

NO SPINNING ALLOWED. Sorry I couldn't resist I just read a hysterical parent's post about being concerned about child liking spinning objects. BLOCK THE CREATIVITY.

Seriously your post got my attention with the spinning and dancing. I've always been a mover and I love it. To this day I still dance...every day by myself and I LOVE IT.

I can only recall small amounts of childhood memories, like the time I turned on the sprinkler system in my backyard, causing my older brother and sister to get wet.

I remember quite a bit from my early years. There was a duplex my parents lived in from the time I was about 1 1/2 until just before my fifth birthday. I remember a lot from that house. I remember the car they had (a purple Pacer named Bob), I remember sleeping in a crib there. I remember parts of my third birthday party, when one of my aunt's cats passed, my preschool teachers and the birthday party of a classmate. I remember the kid across the street and walking down the road with my aunt and cousin who lived at the other end of my road. There's a ton more. But yeah, best guess I have is my memories start somewhere shortly before my 3rd birthday, because I was no longer in a crib at age three.

First day at primary school, September 1961, I cried a lot throughout the day because of being away from home. Also vaguely remember walking on the beach with my mother at Blackpool in the early 1960s. Being in hospital with pneumonia in 1963 for nine days, apparently I nearly died. Also recall hearing of the assassination of President JF Kennedy, though I probably had no idea who he was.

Back in the day "phones" were connected to land lines, and had rotary dials.

Mom yelling at me to put down the receiver of the phone in our apartment when I was about three is the earliest thing I can remember, besides vague memories from about the same time of playing tag with kids on the hills between the apartment buildings.

My first memory happened when I was 2 years old after waking up from the surgery I had to remove a congenital buildup of fluid and wax from my ears (medications and ear tubes didn't work). I remember looking around the room at my mom and grandma who were sitting across from me, seeing my green stroller and a set of large foam blocks in a clear plastic case in the colors red, yellow, green, blue, and purple that my grandmother was holding, and I remember being angry. A few minutes later, some doctor in a white labcoat came in to the room to check on me (probably to discharge me or something). Then, I remember being outside the building with my family in my green stroller for a few minutes waiting for a ride home.

I then remember standing up in front of the TV watching Blue's Clues that same night after I came home. I also remember seeing the case of foam blocks that my grandma brought for me from the gift shop while I had the surgery right next to me.

The earliest memories that I can confirm are accurate are from I was 2. I remember a bunch of burly guys in overalls pushing my mother's crappy Toyota the last few feet up a small incline to get to the gas pump. (It was back when Toyotas were absolute garbage and the fuel gauge didn't work properly) I also remember the time she threw her keys in the garbage compactor at work.

Also, I remember bits of the night my brother was born going off to the house of one of my parent's friends to stay while they went to the hospital. He's slightly less than 3 years younger than me, so definitely also when I was 2, but barely.

Less clear is that I do think I remember being baptized.But, that one might just be the result of contaminated memory.

I try not to walk back through the archives too often as it pretty effectively disables my masking as the process is rather intensive.

Looking through the screen door and cheap lime green window curtains at age two, then going with my Dad to pick Mom and Brother up from the hospital sometime the next year. I've had a weird memory for events since then; like the names of friends in Kindergarten and how we met etc.

Marching around the basement to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and Bobby Kennedy's death. I can still see the train on TV that carried his body to Washington and the sadness I felt. And I remember sitting on my dad's shoulders during a Nixon campaign stop.

Being in the hospital at 6 months old due to pneumonia.

Being pushed on the back of a rocking chair and hitting my head on a heating grate when I was 4 years old. I sill have the 30 stitches in the back of my head to prove it.

For the first 4 or 5 years of my life, my parents owned a 4-family apartment building and lived in one of the units (this would be 1966-1970). I remember a couple of toys, and Christmases. I also remember playing in the yard. I think I also remember watching "NASA animation" of astronauts in a spaceship flying through space approaching the moon on an old B&W TV. Once, I was with some other kids (probably my sister, as well as Holly and Beth, daughters of one of the other tenants) and we ate some "Nilla Wafers". There was some stress that we weren't supposed to be doing this, (no sweets until "dessert time", after the meal) but we did it anyway. As I recall, yes, we were caught. Most religions would probably excuse that as I was below the "age of reason" -- I didn't really appreciate that WRONG means DON'T DO IT. Guilt and shame would be large forces in my life, growing up in a religious family on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1970s.

I also remember the time I inserted a twig into the trunk lock of Mom's 1961 Dodge Lancer (dreadful rustbucket of a car), and they had to hire a locksmith to undo the damage I did. I honestly didn't know this was destructive. I also remember some time I spent in a portable nursery. It was I guess 4 feet by 4 feet, with netting on all 4 sides so I couldn't escape, and the playing surface was like 6 inches off the ground. Parents could throw some pillows or stuffed animals in there. They could set it up in another room of Roger and Betty's house, who lived about a mile from the 4-family apartment building. Or at Grandpa Ray and Grandma Mabel's house, not quite a mile away (I think Roger was Mabel's brother). My parents would get together and the grownups would play cards.

And yes, I remember being a "difficult" baby. I admit it. I enjoyed having bowel movements and squirming around in my diaper, enjoying the smooth, creamy feeling of "you know what" against my skin. I did eventually, grudgingly, grow up and use the toilet like the big kids.

EDIT: Later, after my parents moved to a 4-bedroom house some miles away, I went to kindergarten. That is where I first discovered there was something "wrong with me" (it took decades before I knew it was something called "Asperger's Syndrome"). Anyway, each young student was supposed to complete an identical project. Cut orange construction paper in the shape of a pumpkin. Glue little eyes (like from a craft store) to represent the eyes. Glue kernels of corn on it to represent teeth. Draw a nose on it with crayon. Cut strips of black paper (say, 1 inch wide by 11 inches long) to represent the arms and legs. Then fold them over, back and forth, so every inch the arm/leg had a 90-degree "accordion" bend. Then glue it onto the place where the arm/leg should go. In modern terms, my brain "locked up" like a Windows computer crash. Recess had to be postponed for the entire class because I was slow to complete the project! I felt bad, but what could I do?

So when many tasks need to be done towards the goal, and it doesn't really matter which is done first, my brain may lock up, even to this day. Maybe this belongs in a separate thread "When did you first discover you were 'different'?" but I'll just leave it here.

Good to see so many here have memories from age 2 and 3, it annoys me intensely when people say that recollections before the age of 5 are false memories - just because they can't remember anything before they started school.
I'd lived in three different houses by the time I was 4 and have very clear memories of my first two homes. From age 3 I remember every major event in my life and how I felt at the time. From 16 onwards it all becomes a bit of a blur, as if being a young adult was longer ago than my childhood and wasn't as relevant.

My earliest memories would have been when I was 3, at my first preschool... I don't remember a lot about it but I have pretty clear memories of at least one day where we had a performance on stage in front of our families. I also know I was 3 when my sister passed away and I have memories of being at her funeral.

I have lots and lots of memories from 4 on, most of them very clear.

My earliest memory that I can place in time is from when I was 8 months, that's because the situation is immortalized on a photo and the photo is dated. I have a short move clip of that moment in my brain from the first person perspective. I have hundreds of vivid first person perspective clips from early childhood, earlier than 2 y.o. They include picture, sound and even feelings and early thoughts.
I didn't realize it's weird for most of my life, only relatively recently I've learned that for most people memories work different way.

I have a vivid memory when I was very young of being snuggled in-between my parents on a sectional couch in our living room. There was a bad storm with much thunder, lightning, and wind. The lights went out. I often discussed this memory with my parents as a youngster, and they were amazed I could recall the event. As this was the only time that the details I had recalled had happened in my childhood, they were able to tell me when it was. There was a tornado heading toward our town. As we had no basement, my parents had gotten on either side of me on the couch as we rode out the storm. I was five months old.