Philosophical Thoughts for the Day

I'm not sure why, but last night I was lying in bed thinking to myself, "What is my earliest memory?" --- and you know, I couldn't figure it out! I kept thinking of things but realizing that I didn't actually remember that, I just know there's a photo of it, and the photo leads me to create a memory. That's not a true memory.

So I'm trying to figure out, at what age do we start to log things into our memory bank? I know it has to be immediate, because otherwise we would never learn anything - but maybe our memory banks are too full of useful knowledge in those early years to actually have room for memories of experiences?

I can remember snippets of my early childhood - things that I saw, or felt, or smelled, or tasted, or heard... but I can't remember anything really significant. I remember floating around on my Nana's pool in a plastic turtle, and I remember the seat of the turtle was frayed - but I don't know how old I was, or who I was with. It's strange though, the image of the frayed seat is so vivid in my memory... why? I also vividly remember the texture and colour of my sister's bedroom carpet, and the way my dog's fur felt on my face when I would rest my head on her and give her a hug. But those are just my senses, which obviously are (or were) very acute. I remember the smell of my Mum's roast beef dinners, and the smell of the linen closet because I always hid there when we played hide and seek. It smelled like clean laundry and plastic, because the package of toilet paper was kept there too. And I remember the light in the linen closet, it had a pull-cord. I guess I hung out in there a lot.

But why can't I remember anything actually happening? Anything involving other people? The earliest thing I can think of is my Dad carrying me into my bed, when he would work nights and I would sleep with my Mum... I would be so warm, and I knew Dad was so careful not to wake me so I would pretend to still be sleeping, and my bed would be so cold but somehow it was refreshing, and I would fall right back to sleep. I think that's the earliest I can think of, and I think I was probably 3 or 4 years old. I have lots of memories from when I was school-age... but that's probably my most vivid memory as a toddler.

What happened in those first 3-4 years? From pictures, I know a lot of things that happened, but why can't I remember? I wish I could.