# When you look back on your life, what is the first image that pops into your mind?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 8, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339 "2009-07-08T16:25:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/1 "2009-07-08T16:25:24Z")
Think about your life history. Without spending any time reflecting, what is the first image or event that comes to your mind?
---
### Author:  [@Gam\_Zeh\_Yaavor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gam_Zeh_Yaavor)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/2 "2009-07-08T17:34:18Z")
A boot stamping on a human face - forever.
---
### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/3 "2009-07-08T18:34:12Z")
me standing under a waterfall.
---
### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/4 "2009-07-08T18:44:23Z")
Me.
---
### Author:  [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/5 "2009-07-08T18:55:44Z")
One day when I was about 10 I was helping my dad clean up the yard and he let me use a hatchet for the very first time to chop up a bunch of branches. For some reason when I reflect on my life that’s always the first image I get.
---
### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/6 "2009-07-08T19:31:50Z")
Me sitting on the roof of my parents’ station wagon, watching the last Saturn V lift off.
ETA: [I was there](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skylab_launch_on_Saturn_V.jpg).
---
### Author:  [@QuercusMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuercusMax)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/7 "2009-07-08T23:22:52Z")
Oddly enough, playing Commander Keen. The first one (Invasion of the Vorticons).
I have no idea why.
---
### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/8 "2009-07-09T03:05:51Z")
Di you mean the first/earliest memory we have, or just the first thing that pops into our head when we think about our life?
---
### Author:  [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/9 "2009-07-09T05:59:08Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:8, topic:502339”]
Di you mean the first/earliest memory we have, or just the first thing that pops into our head when we think about our life?
[/QUOTE]
the first image from any time in your life that comes up.
---
### Author:  [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/10 "2009-07-09T06:12:38Z")
Laughing with friends.
---
### Author:  [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/11 "2009-07-09T06:41:53Z")
Crawling around in the living room and falling over. No idea how old I was, but I was just getting used to walking at that point I remember. After that, maybe playing outside with the family or tee-ball games. Could only been about 5 or 6 at that point.
---
### Author:  [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/12 "2009-07-09T07:00:38Z")
Being on holiday in a caravan with my family and their friends (no, we weren’t all in the same caravan).
---
### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/13 "2009-07-09T07:17:15Z")
Tree.
---
### Author:  [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/14 "2009-07-09T10:08:49Z")
I see my children.
---
### Author:  [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/15 "2009-07-09T13:22:15Z")
The breakfast bar/kitchen and dining area of my grandparents’ home.
---
### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/16 "2009-07-09T15:18:28Z")
Picnics in the park with my immediate family and my grandparents, and sometimes my aunts, uncles and cousins were there, too. We had chicken from KFC, iced tea, potato chips… great times!
---
### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/17 "2009-07-09T17:25:41Z")
Having ideas and drawing.
---
### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/18 "2009-07-09T18:32:49Z")
My room in an old apartment. Mostly I remember the harsh light from that hideous overhead bulb.
---
### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/19 "2009-07-09T18:34:25Z")
A spot on the ceiling from where a quarter of a banana got stuck, for awhile.
Apparently there was enough banana juice deposited to cause mold, which stained the plaster before anyone noticed.
It was the first time I remember my parents telling me a story about something that I had done when I had no memory of the event at all. The story goes that I had been given a quarter of a banana, from a banana sliced in half both ways. I had been tossing it up and catching it when it failed to come down. It had hit the ceiling flat side up and suction was keeping it there.
Mom got to see me looking all kinds of puzzled up at the ceiling until it eventually came back down. Later Dad saw the mark and asked how that had happened. I apparently chirped, “Oh, that’s where I put my banana.”
I have no memory of any of that. But I can picture Dad finding the spot. He used to do sort of a slow motion dance with a cup of coffee and a cookie. He’d stand and sip . . . and then take a bite. . . and take a step or two. . . then relax and lean back, curving his back. . . then straighten slowly and another sip. I imagine at one point he leaned back and looked up.
---
### Author:  [@Umbriel2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel2)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339/20 "2009-07-09T21:12:19Z")
As I noted in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=506887), I have the weird impression of having awakened from a nap when I was about 2 or 3 and thinking _at the time_ that it was the first thing I could remember. I recognized the house and my mother, but had the distinct impression that I was seeing them for the first time.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-look-back-on-your-life-what-is-the-first-image-that-pops-into-your-mind/502339.md?page=2)