Your Favorite Childhood Memory

SnackTime · 01-28-2012, 09:35 PM

Spending each and every moment with my grandmother.

adorable · 01-29-2012, 03:13 AM

Luckily, I was able to spend a great deal of time with my grandparents. Months at a time. Things were easy there, organized, clean - it all just made sense. No chaos. No drinking. No fighting. My brother and I were kind of treasured, like a reason to do all the things that they would do anyway. I don’t know how to put that into words exactly. Time spent, spending time. Enjoying each other.

They were fond of walking. When they got home from work, we would eat dinner and then always go for a walk. (Unless it was snowing.) The things we discovered on those walks were amazing. So many turtles, hawks, snakes, boats, fish and those weird brown things that puff into smoke when you step on them. I wish I had a dollar for every dandelion bulb or bubble that was blown. The whole point was to see everything you could, walk as far as possible and collect all the pretty rocks along the way.

They were fond of music and dancing. We learned how to square dance, polka, waltz, jitterbug, the Charleston, swing and Lindy Hop. I know all the words to The Three Little Fishes and the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. I can tell if I’m hearing Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller. I know that “The Shadow knows.” My grandfather always called me meisje and tried, to teach us all the Dutch he knew. (sigh) We watched the news, MASH, CHIPS, The Muppets, 60 Minutes, Magnum PI and Hee-Haw. Every single year for 12 years they took us to the State Fair, the pumpkin farm, and to pick strawberries.

On Saturdays we went for daylong drives to nowhere and learned important things like where they sold the best chili dogs, how the 60s screwed up the world and to always dress like you had somewhere to go. We spent a lot of time in creeks and swimming holes too. Hours were spent turning over rocks looking for baby lobsters. (I was seriously upset the first time I heard someone call them crawfish.) We would sit in the yard because the sun was out. We’d put little bags in jar full of water where it would somehow magically turn into iced tea - every single time. Hours of pouring over old pictures. Sundays were spent watching football, baseball or playing rummy, 21, or spit. So much fun and laughter. I wish so badly that I could turn the damn hourglass over.

01-28-2012, 09:35 PM	#1
SnackTime Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Transgender Preferred Pronoun?: He Relationship Status: UNattainable Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Feeling the ocean breeze... Posts: 4,868 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 10,393 Thanked 13,228 Times in 2,883 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	Spending each and every moment with my grandmother. __________________ "There's something to be said for not saying anything"

01-29-2012, 03:13 AM	#2
adorable Member How Do You Identify?: Sarcastically Preferred Pronoun?: She Relationship Status: Unavailable Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Home of the Yankee's Posts: 752 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,708 Thanked 2,644 Times in 590 Posts Rep Power: 12725119	Something I've thought a lot about lately... Luckily, I was able to spend a great deal of time with my grandparents. Months at a time. Things were easy there, organized, clean - it all just made sense. No chaos. No drinking. No fighting. My brother and I were kind of treasured, like a reason to do all the things that they would do anyway. I don’t know how to put that into words exactly. Time spent, spending time. Enjoying each other. They were fond of walking. When they got home from work, we would eat dinner and then always go for a walk. (Unless it was snowing.) The things we discovered on those walks were amazing. So many turtles, hawks, snakes, boats, fish and those weird brown things that puff into smoke when you step on them. I wish I had a dollar for every dandelion bulb or bubble that was blown. The whole point was to see everything you could, walk as far as possible and collect all the pretty rocks along the way. They were fond of music and dancing. We learned how to square dance, polka, waltz, jitterbug, the Charleston, swing and Lindy Hop. I know all the words to The Three Little Fishes and the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. I can tell if I’m hearing Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller. I know that “The Shadow knows.” My grandfather always called me meisje and tried, to teach us all the Dutch he knew. (sigh) We watched the news, MASH, CHIPS, The Muppets, 60 Minutes, Magnum PI and Hee-Haw. Every single year for 12 years they took us to the State Fair, the pumpkin farm, and to pick strawberries. On Saturdays we went for daylong drives to nowhere and learned important things like where they sold the best chili dogs, how the 60s screwed up the world and to always dress like you had somewhere to go. We spent a lot of time in creeks and swimming holes too. Hours were spent turning over rocks looking for baby lobsters. (I was seriously upset the first time I heard someone call them crawfish.) We would sit in the yard because the sun was out. We’d put little bags in jar full of water where it would somehow magically turn into iced tea - every single time. Hours of pouring over old pictures. Sundays were spent watching football, baseball or playing rummy, 21, or spit. So much fun and laughter. I wish so badly that I could turn the damn hourglass over.