My first real memory is from when I was 2. I got lost in the "woods" and couldn't find my way home. Anything before words (hearing/understanding/"knowing" can come before) would only be sense memories. I have a sense memory of being read aloud to, for example, and the scent of my mother's skin (Jergens lotion :-) You could be happy because of a smell, know yourself happy, etc. When I got lost, I could not find the bridge across the creek and knew what direction it "should" have been in, etc. but I doubt I could have articulated all that.

However, the main thing I learned from that experience is my puzzlement over where the bridge "went"/who took it was because I was too young to developmentally understand "corners" -- the creek curved and I could not see the bridge. Young memories are more like dreams, more of our unconscious than actual indications of what may/may not have happened.

I vividly remember trying to figure out how to get across the creek and I could not wade it because the "sea monsters" might get me. I did not figure out until my 50's that I had been read Dr. Seuss' McElligot's Pool and until then, I swore one of the fish was a monster, last page. I bought the book then and took it to one of my therapy sessions and the "monster" was a happy looking whale! But, my mother was in the hospital when I got lost, recovering from an unsuccessful operation on her brain. I was 2, supposed to be in charge of knowing where my mother was at all times (failed!) just learning to talk, just toilet trained (failed again, went backwards there when my mother disappeared into the hospital) and so my life was a bit stressful and full of sea monsters :-)