What are your earliest memories as a child? I always struggle with this one as I think it can be hard to work out what you remember and what you remember being told sometimes.

I used to think that one of my earliest memories was stepping out of my parents’ camper bus and into a tree in Portugal whilst we were on holiday, but given that I was only 18 months at the time, I think it is much more likely that I remember being told the story. Apparently my parents took all the holiday photos of me from one side as they didn’t want my grandparents to know what had happened.

Some of my most vivid early memories are actually from the nursery school I attended from the age of three. I spent a lot of time with my friends from there over a few years and their families, so there were lots of memory-making opportunities.

I remember that one family owned a take away and lived above it; one family ran a bingo hall and we went along and played bingo a few times when her parents were working. These days I think most people play bingo on one of the bingo sites like gonebingo, rather than in one of those big halls. I remember I caught chicken pox from one of the little boys and measles from another. I remember the awful brown and yellow uniform we wore and looking down to see my yellow blouse covered in blood one day after tripping and falling into a wall in the school yard.

I remember hating school dinners and how the mushroom soup and rice pudding made me gag. To this day I still can’t eat either.

I remember fun sports days and loads of birthday parties all the time because each time it was someones birthday the whole class was always invited. These memories have created so many stories that I can share with my children, I frequently get “tell us the story about the…” which is exactly what I used to say to my parents!

What are your earliest memories?