Post a childhood memory

[katyseagull]

Okay, things have gone very bad in my life this week [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]. Inspired by Myrtle's awesome post, thought it might cheer me up if people shared a memory from their childhood. Don't worry about making it long. Little memories are cool too.

Just tell me something about your childhood that makes you smile. It will perk me up!


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So I’ll start.


A year ago my oldest sister told me she had almost no good memories of our childhood. I was like wow, you've got to be kidding! We had a pretty nice childhood. She looked at me kind of funny and said "We did ?" Disgusted, I tried to submit to her some good memories of our childhood to prove her wrong. I was like ok here you go, how about that one time when…no wait, that one sort of sucked. Hm, well ok there was that other time…no wait, that one was followed by mom screaming at us and then everyone crying. Gah, how did this happen? It would appear a lot of my good memories have been overrun with sad ones [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] Man, my childhood kinda sucked!



Anyway, a year has passed now, and here I still sit trying to remember what it was to be a kid and the things we did back then for fun. Here's what I remember...


Ice Skates

I remember in the winter going ice skating all the time with my sisters and friends. That was so cool. You can't even imagine how fun it was, ice skating in the evening with so many good songs playing over the speakers (usually classic rock). It was outdoors and the cold wind would whip at our faces and ears until we thought our skin would crack. We always had funny hats. My mom would actually knit them for us. I don’t know why. It was her thing I guess. Occasionally I would get new skates for Christmas and that was a pretty big deal.

I remember playing tag on the ice rink, and watching the cute boys, and learning to skate backwards. I remember making my sisters laugh as I showed off for them, attempting to run on the ice in my skates (I luv doing that) and trying to imitate the boys jumping in the air with both feet. I was not too shy back then. For some reason the ice really brings out your personality. I remember going indoors to warm up when I couldn't take the cold anymore and getting candy from the candy machines. Chilled reeses cups rule! I can still smell the old room with the benches and shoe shelves and hear the kids talking and yelling at each other. Mostly I remember laughing a lot. (Now that I think of it, I really enjoy walking around on skates indoors. Now there’s a great feeling, being so tall.)

When we were older we would search the rink for boys to flirt with and we would try to act confident and cool. That was always a challenge. It was a big deal if eye contact was made. Even when I was little I was boy crazy. I was never a great skater and I didn’t take it seriously the way my sisters did. They would practice their edges and I would practice flying into the boards, perfecting my dramatic stops. I was not too skilled.


Anyway, that is my best recollection from childhood at the moment. I wish I had kept up with my skating like my one sister. To this day she still skates and has really advanced. If I had continued maybe I wouldn’t have such puny weak legs.


Ok, so now will you tell me some memory of your childhood to cheer me up?

[Tennenbaum]

When I was little and lived in Haverhill my step sister Amanda and I used to ride around on my red and yellow BMX bike. Just up and down the street and sing songs. She would ride the bike, while I sat on the handle bars.

We'd also sit in these pine trees in the back yard for hours on end. I'm not even quite sure what we did up there. But it was fun.

I used to build forts w/ my friend Derek in Derry, NH. We had a sand pit in the back of the mobile home community we lived in. We'd ride our bikes back there or just go exploring. We used to ride dirt bikes back there too. One time it was cold and we were walking through some sewer pipes and I twisted my ankle and got my boot stuck in half frozen puddle and he carried me home. Boys back then didnt like me in 'that' way as I was really awkward and hadnt quite grasped the concept of personal hygiene. So this was a big thing for me. I always had a crush on him.

[Mrs. Utah]

Growing up, every spring, my parents would pile us all into "the van" and we would drive from Iowa to Colorado to ski.
The trips were awesome and we still laugh at the stories. Certain songs will remind me of these trips...like when my mom would always make us listen to John Denver as we would drive through the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Tunnel) and we would all roll our eyes...

One year on the way home my dad decides to take a detour and heads north to Minnesota. He called ahead to a dog breeder that he had been talking with and decided to surprise us all with a puppy.(Well, I think it was really for him...he is such a big dog guy) So, my sisters and brother and I have no idea where he is heading because we are not paying attention and late in the aftrenoon we drive up to a farm and there are many Old Engish Sheepdogs running about.
We spent a few hours there getting to know the dogs and picked out a big male who we named Winston.

I will never forget that....my dad was always doing stuff like that!

[Yawning Chain]

I grew up in a small town in central California. The summers where I grew up were both hot and magical. Neither me, nor any of my friends had swimming pools so we would lie to our parents and go swimming in an irrigation ditch that ran through town. I was the only decent swimmer of the group and on numerous occasions I had to rescue friends who got carried away in the current. No tragic mishaps, just lots of good memories. I also remember learning to ride a dirt bike way too young, maybe seven or eight years old. My step dad gave me his old Hodaka 90 and I would ride it up and down the alley for days on end. When I got older I would go ride through the vineyeards and eventually through town. Back then the police would just stop me and tell me to go home, no ticket, no call to my parents. I guess I'm getting old and sentimental but it seems like the you could get away with more back then. It was sort of a "boys will be boys" type of thing. Nowadays, everything is a major crime. All the stuff we did then would have us in jail now.

[diebitter]

As I've just been out to a Guy Fawkes night, I remember one particular bonfire night. I must have been 7 or 8, maybe younger.


I don't know whose house it was, but we were in a back garden. It was dark, the stars were out, and there were lots of kids and adults around, but I don't remember a specific adult, not even my mother (who would have taken me, I'm sure).


I remember it being so dark, the fireworks they were letting off seemed so much brighter than any other fireworks I'd ever seen. They also had a small bonfire which was warm when you got near. I remember the kids being given sparklers - long metal sticks with 3/4 coats in a sort of gunpowder/sulphur, which you'd light and it would sparrkle and fizz. I remember playing with one and dropping it. An adult said to us kids they should go in a bucket of water which was nearby, and I picked up mine, but by the wrong end and it was still red-hot and I burnt my fingers and cried some. Some adult ran my fingers under a cold tap, but I still got big blisters which were very sore.

I remember going outside and watching more fireworks, and forgetting my hurt fingers (but sucking on them), and then a catherine wheel starting to burn and spin but coming off it's ping and spiralling around the garden and landing in a group of adults, whizzing around their legs while they shouted and jumped out of the way. I remember thinking it was really fun, and laughing my head off.

Then I remember being given a baked potato picked out of the bonfire with the tin foil peeled back, and cut open and smothered in butter, and just eating it without a knife or fork, just with my fingers, and it was the best potato I'd ever tasted (even to this day).

[Dominic]

Somewhere in the northern NJ mountains, circa 1971...

This was my normal Saturday...

I grew up in an area that was pretty rural...all the houses in my little community had at least an acre of land, and there were lots of forests, streams and nature right outside our back door...

One memory that I love is my best friend Victor and I going "exploring." My Mom would make us "adventure packs" with peanut butter sandwiches, a banana, and some comic books. We'd also have our canteens that we'd fill with iced tea.

Victor and I would set out through my backyard, straight into the mysterious forest behind our house. We'd hike and climb trees and dig up long-lost treasure (that we had buried on an earlier trek), and try and spot foxes and bears - something that was remarkably still possible back then.

Once we got through the forest, we entered Mr. Smith's apple orchard - many, many acres of nothing but apple trees...we'd have to sneak through, pretending we were commandos like in "Rat Patrol," because we were sure Mr. Smith (whom we never met or saw) would surely come after us with guns blazing and dogs snarling if he ever caught us trespassing through his orchard, eating his apples. Let me tell you, nothing is sweeter to the taste then a not-quite-ripe, just-picked and stolen apple.

Victor and I would find a tree and sit down in its shade to eat and read comic books. Usually some gruesome horror comic that my Mom always hid from my Dad for us.

After lunch, we'd hike through the orchard and come to this 12 or 15 acre ranch...it had horses running around, dogs who'd want to play with us, and - if we were lucky - a tractor or two we could climb on and once again pretend we were on "Rat Patrol."

After that, we'd start circling back and cutting through various yards, sneaking around, fighting Nazis and discussing some horrible fate that might befall us in the future- like having to kiss a girl. Yech.

One yard would have the tire swing, another would have a cool barn we could sneak in - if we were brave enough that day - and another would have ducks and geese frolicking in a pond.

Closer to home now, we'd go deeper into the forest and find the small stream that wound its way all the way back to Victor's house. We'd follow it, splashing around, maybe putting a GI Joe we had brought onto a flat piece of wood and giving him a ride down the obviously Class IV rapids, all the while bombing him with huge bombs from above (rocks).

Finally, we'd end up at Victor's house, wet and dirty and happy. Tired, too. Victor's mom would make us get undressed so she could wash our clothes and I'd have to put on something of Victor's. Then we'd watch a little TV - probably "Lost in Space" - and finally have dinner with victor's family.

We'd then rotate where'd we'd sleep - my house or Victor's. In the summer, we'd sleep outside in sleeping bags, under Victor's fort or in the tent my father got for us kids to play in. Before going to bed, we'd chase fireflies and capture them in a jar. Later, we'd even read more comic books by the light of the firefly jars. If we were lucky, one of our Dads would pile us into the car to make the drive to Dairy Queen...

Those were my Saturdays as a kid...My parents and Victor's parents are still very close - Victor's folks still live in the same house in NJ! - but Victor died a couple of years ago, falling down some stairs and hitting his head. I was lucky enough to see him a few months before that (we had not seen each other or talked in over ten years) and we spent the time laughing and remembering our childhood. Before leaving, we hugged and he told me how lucky he felt to have had a first "best friend" like me. I hugged him back and agreed.

[pryor15]

this thread:

[Mrs. Utah]

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this thread:


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Amen....told ya Katy! [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
When I was little and lived in Haverhill my step sister Amanda and I used to ride around on my red and yellow BMX bike. Just up and down the street and sing songs. She would ride the bike, while I sat on the handle bars.

We'd also sit in these pine trees in the back yard for hours on end. I'm not even quite sure what we did up there. But it was fun.

I used to build forts w/ my friend Derek in Derry, NH. We had a sand pit in the back of the mobile home community we lived in. We'd ride our bikes back there or just go exploring. We used to ride dirt bikes back there too. One time it was cold and we were walking through some sewer pipes and I twisted my ankle and got my boot stuck in half frozen puddle and he carried me home. Boys back then didnt like me in 'that' way as I was really awkward and hadnt quite grasped the concept of personal hygiene. So this was a big thing for me. I always had a crush on him.

[/ QUOTE ]

He wouldn't have carried you all the way back if he didn't "like" you, too. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[diebitter]

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this thread:


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minjack
I need to find a similar picture of Joe Bob Briggs to reflect MY style of movie review [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
/minjack