The other day there was a blog suggested with the
above title. I always thought my memories go very far
back however I could not immediatley recall what
my very first memory may have been. After thinking
about it for a while now I came to the conclusion
that one of my first memories may have been about
sitting in a stroller and sleeping in a cot. I remember
how thrilled I was when after my third birthday I was
allowed to change from my cot into a single bed. I felt
really grown-up then! And from that age on I certainly
was not pushed around in a stroller anymore. I was able
to walk to where ever we were going.I can still remember
the little store-room where my stroller was kept, looking
at the stroller and thinking, ah yes, I was pushed aoun
in this when I was little.
I was born in 1934. It must have been before my third
birthday because I remember I was still using the cot
to sleep in, when my Mum said ‘Gute Nacht’ and she
explained to me that she was going out that night. I
should tell her to have a good time (“Mutti amüsier
dich gut!” and kiss her Goodnight. Actually this
definitely happened on a number of occasions.
At the time we did not have a live-in maid yet. Ma father
did not always work in the same town where we lived.
When my mother went out at night-time, it would often
have been with her sister. So I, little Uta, was left in
my cot all on my own in the apartment. When Mum left,
I would happily wish her a good time. I really wanted
her to have a good time. Because then my Mum felt
happy. I loved it when she felt happy. I cannot
remember ever having felt scared as a kid because I was
left alone for a while!
At the time it was quite normal in Germany for people
to leave their little children unattended at home.
AuntyUta 
i cant recall my first memory, mainly becuase there are so many pictures of our childhood and stories that go with them. i cant remember which are my memories and which i remember parents telling me about
Hi, Tinkerbelle!
I agree, a lot of things we remember because of dhildhood pictures and what parents and others tell us about our childhood. Maybe it has to do with feelings? Do we remember how we felt in certain situations? Thanks for your comment.
Wow. That is so cool of you to remember at 3. The most I could remember was when I was 6. Usually they say we remember the extremes like happy, fear, sadness. I wish I could have remember more. Beautiful post. Thanks fot the visit.
Great post. What an amazing memory. I wish I have that gift to recall. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for reading my post. I’m glad you liked it.
I absolutely love your blog 🙂 Please keep writing.
Wow, thanks so much for sharing your memories. I had no idea children were left unattended then… But I would love to live in a time and space when that was possible. I guess it was much safer then.
Your posts prompted me to think of my own earliest memories and sleeping in a cot with the sun streaming into the room seems to be one of them. I can even recall the comforting warmth of the sun.
Great post, Aunty Uta, and keep it up.
Thanks for your nice comments on my blog. Lovely to have in return found yours. My earliest memory is my new baby brother coming home from the hospital. I was’nt very happy about it. I was 3 years old.
Hi, Aunty Uta,
I accidentally discovered your blog after you posted on mine & have started to read it from the begining
I couldn’t resist making a comment about he idea of leaving a child alone. Look up this webpage http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/1160704.Dad_who_asked_for_childcare_advice_reported_to_social_services/ to see a newspaper story about a problem I had about just asking a teacher’s opinion about what age it would be safe to let my son play in the park without me. He was eight at the time this idiot teacher ‘reported’ me to social services for even daring to ask this question.
If I had left a child of about 6 or younger alone it would be removed into care these days. In fact this obnoxious teacher smugly told me she knew of a ten year old child taken into care because it was left alone at home.
Thanks for visiting, dear single Dad. I just read the newspaper story about childcare advice. My husband Peter also read this story and immediately pointed out how his mum would have been put in jail if those rules had existed when he was a kid. Peter was born in 1935 and grew up in Berlin. He was allowed to play outside with his friends and use public transport unsupervised from a very early age on. More or less the same goes for me too. In Berlin kids started school at 6 years of age. The parents would take their children to school on the first day only. After that the children would always walk to school on their own.
Extraordinary what you encountered there. I truly do hope you had support during that. I’m a mother single – I know exactly, exactly what it’s like. Brave, dad 🙂
Hi Noeleen,
I just read again Single Dad’s comment from last year. Haven’t heard from him for a while. Must check whether he’s still blogging. He went through hard times raising a child on his own.in England. But you know all about single parenting.
I can only say attitudes and laws changed quite a bit since I was a child in the 1930s and 1940s, After all this was more than sixty or seventy years ago!
Hope you and Daniel are well, Love, Uta
We are well, thank you Uta. Better every day 🙂
I looked at single dad’s first post, to see how he started out. I really didn’t like him referring to his wife so offhand, a psychotic and schizophrenic and his children as ‘that lot’, but hopefully he is more grounded now. Interesting though..
I don’t know my first memory, I don’t…. Amazing to remember at 3 though. AMAZING!
And re your comment about kids being walked to school only on day 1 – wow. I can’t imagine letting Daniel just go off at six!! You know what the world’s like… was it not like that then?
Interesting question this, Noeleen. I think in those days people just didn’t feel the need for constant observation of their children. In big cities, such as Berlin for instance,. children learned at an early age to use public transport on their own. Many children had a key to let themselves into the apartment when they got home from school and no-one was there to let them in.
I wouldn’t know whether criminality in cities has increased or decreased. But parents are certainly more scared these days, in our first world societie that is, to let young children do anything on their own
When I was flipping through my family album, I kept asking my mom…”did i really do this?” and she would just nod profusely “oh yeah…u did it alright…” lol…
Strictly speaking, it would be 5 year old that I could really felt the presence of ‘me’ in this world…
This ‘Be With Us’ comment I just found in the ‘spam’ section.. . . .It’s been ‘approved’ now, because I asked for it.!
I think it’s wonderful to be able to look at your early childhood pictures. In the family album you can even see what you were up too as a baby or a two year old. It’s good if you can remember some of the things you did as a 5 year old without having to look at the photos. Maybe you started school as a 5 year old? Can you remember this?
Yep…you are correct!! I started my schooling at the age of 5 (Kindergarten)…
Btw, thank you for approving this comment…appreciated it.
Please call me Wendy… and nice meeting you!
Cheers~ 😀
Thanks for your comment, Wendy. Lovely to know your name now.
Best wishes, Uta.