Hey Laurie,
very interesting that you should bring up this subject.
I was just recently discussing with someone a conversation I had several years ago with my pal Veronica (who is also a member of this board.)
She was born on June 11 and I was born on June 21.

When I first met her she mentioned being interested in the Apollo program. Cool. We got to talking about it, and she told me that her first memory is of the moon walk. That's interesting, mine too.

Who knows, maybe I have other fragments of memories that predate that event. But I can recall everything about it. I remember that my dad woke me up and that he wanted me to come and watch something really special. I remember being surprised because it was really dark outside. All these people were there, my neighbour from upstairs, my grandfather, my older brothers. (We had a colour TV, which back then I guess was still a rarity, so people came to watch it with us. Although I'm pretty sure that the imagery was just in B&W.) I can remember where I sat (scrunched between my dad and the arm of the chair.) And I can recall the imagery. I just really remember my grandfather telling me that I was witnessing something truly incredible, a momentous event in human history.

I talked to my mom about it a few years back, and she confirmed that I was indeed awoken in the middle of the night, that the people I recall being there were indeed there. So it wasn't a dream.

Veronica also recalls her parents sitting her down in front of the TV and impressing upon her the magnitude of the event.

I found it pretty fascinating that we are both pretty much the same age and that we both have this as a very distinct recollection. We would both have been what, a year and a half, not even, but we were both old enough for our brain to be functional enough to comprehend what was going on around us, and for it to be lodged in our memory. I guess having a mile stone in human evolution as a way point helps.

It has definitely led me to thinking quite a bit about memory, at what stage of a persons growth they start developing, when we start losing them, what constitutes an event noteworthy enough for us to remember it, etc.

Like I said, maybe we all have memories lodged in the recesses of our brain earlier than what the two of us remember from being a year and a bit. But the momentousnes of it is certainly a big help in placing it in a timeframe.

I don't actually remember the moon walk but my mother has a drawing I did in red crayon of Neil Armstrong on the TV from that night.

I was born in San Diego and spent my first three years in Carlsbad, CA. My earliest memory is of being taken by my mom in a stroller to the end of our road where the train tracks were so I could wave at the engineer as the train went past. Clear as if it happened yesterday.

My grandma babysat me the on Election Day 1972 so my parents could go vote for president. I had to ask what the president was and Grandma said he was like the captain of a ship. I remember my mother was "Another mother for Peace" and we had a sign in our window "War is not healthy for children and other living things" I also remember hearing the word Watergate all the time and on the news they had a segment where kids told what they thought Watergate was and one little girl said it was a great big gate that when they opened it all the water came out. I still think of that.

I have quite a few: one of my earliest is of sleeping in the crib in my parents room (I was in the crib until I was 5). I was probably 2.5 years old and I was not feeling well. I woke up and there were shadows on the wall and I started to fuss and my mom got up, all groggy and said, SHHhhhh.

when I was 3 I was in Mexico and my mom was bathing me in a tin tub in the patio and I remember being angry (crying) because my cousins were looking at me and everyone was ooo ing but I felt embarassed.

I think my earliest memory has to be of me sitting propped up in some baby seat and I was watching my brother and sister play on the floor

i remember how simpler things seemed to be.

the sky was bluer, where it always seems to have a gray tinge to it now.

i remember my cousin came over from turkey and drove a 67 red mustang convertable with black leather interior, and i was fascinated with the plastic that was the back window

i remember my dad taking him with me to the 7-11, like 530 in the morning to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts

how much cooler Barbie toys were

waking up and listening to the music of Love's Theme by barry white and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, playing at the beginning of the local announcements "Today at the library, the garden club will host their annual brown bag tea................."

our huge ass green station wagon with the wooden panels

culottes and clogs (blue denim with an umbrella appliqued on them)

my Captain Kangaroo doll

our tiny tabletop christmas tree that sat on top of our big tv (that you had to actually get up change the channel)

Laugh in

my mothers long skirts and her scarves

i remember our very first house, and how one of my cousins cars caught on fire in the driveway

always feeling safe and loved

this god awful dress my mother made me wear for a family portrait, that had tight elastic around the sleeves, that bugged the hell out of me

i remember when a family friend did my first tie dye t shirt
and a sister and brother who lived next door to me, and she let me play her flute and made me a choker with a sand dollar.

i do remember some things about the war.

wow. i had a great childhood.

I clearly remember the moonwalk, in '69.

My brother & I (as usual) were horsing around & making a lot of noise, when our father told us to be quiet and listen; that what was on the television was very important. That is my first really clear memory.