Your Favorite Childhood Memory

[Selenay]

It was the first really big snowstorm the city had seen since I'd been alive, and I, of course, had the flu. Because I was so sick, I was banned from going outside in the cold.

My dad brought two big black garbage bags of snow upstairs from the garden and filled the bathtub so i could play.

[Words]

Sitting next to my grandfather - I must have been around 8 or 9? - while he patiently tore up little bits of paper and wrote notes on them prior to sticking them, with spit (!), to the keys of his piano and giving me my first piano lesson. I can still recall his smell and that of the piano itself.

It was wonderful.

Words

[Butterbean]

Yesterday, I was laying down in bed and out of the clear blue suddenly had this vivid recall of Christmas Day at my grandparent's house.

I could feel the cold air outside and see the moon in the sky after a long day of fun. It was just like I was transported back to it again.

Then, I had this strong sense of my grandpa, whom I was very close with..his energy was so intense, it was like he was there.

I tried in vain, off and on the rest of the day, to haul that lovely memory back again but couldn't do it.

It was beautiful.





Buttah

[Lynn]

I'm pretty lucky because I have lots of happy memories. Most of them involve doing things with my family. I remember many summer weekend trips from PA to Atlantic City, NJ. This was before casinos, when people still dressed up at night to walk the boards. We didn't have a lot of money, so we stayed at a cheap motel, off the main drag, but at night we'd dress up and walk the boards with everyone else, stopping for a frozen custard while my dad talked about coming to AC with his parents. We were all burnt to a crisp from too much sun, but it was fun, anyway.

[Soft*Silver]

I am so loving the sharing of these memories...

[Random]

My best childhood memory...

Waking up with the wind hitting the tent..

No one was up, the sun was just starting to pink the sky... The wind was so absolutly warm.. wild...

I walked across the sand to this outcropping of rocks and sat there... Watching the sky lighten and the world wake up...

It was just me, the birds, the wind, the ocean and the sun...

For me it's my favorite and most vivid childhood memory because I think that was the moment I became aware of myself as a separate person..

[Duchess]

I remember causing many issues with the town folk when a surfer friend of mine gave me a bumper sticker that read, "If it swells, ride it".

Going on fishing trips with grandmother Daisy, my brother Eugene and that stealing bitch of a housekeeper, Janice..

Watching scary movies with my grandmother. We'd hold each other and scream like maniacs..

Getting together for Christmas was always my favorite. Dressing the tree, wrapping presents, cooking and hanging lights were some of my favorite moments, but the best was when my gay uncle would get a little tipsy and start cursing out everybody in drag queen fashion..GOOD TIMES..


Duchess

[Just_G]

Great thread Diva!

I remember when I was 4-5 years old, I would hear the garage door go up when dad got home from work, I would run into the bathroom and slick my hair over like he wore his, and I would run and hide. I would hear him come in, and he would start walking all over the house saying, "Now where is my little buddy?" "G, where are you?" "Hmmm, I can't find my buddy!" Then he would find me...it was always so exciting even though we did it all the time.

When I was 6 I started going to work with my dad on Saturdays. I would put on my little McDonalds jeans that had a matching vest so I would be dressed like my dad. I would sweep the floors with the big wide mop broom...making more of a mess than cleaning one up, I am sure. Dad and grandpa would both be there, working the crossword puzzle and giving me little chores to do so I felt like I was working. After the shop closed, he would take me for a happy meal because I "worked" so hard. ( I am now 4th generation in that business, but don't work for happy meals any more. ) We have pictures here at the office of me all dressed up and "working" at the shop.

Some of my best childhood memories revolve around this business now that I think about it.

[Blade]

Welllllll I guess I was almost 11. You know when you come home from school you have to put on your play clothes. You can't wear your school clothes out to play. For anyone who doubts it yes I was hard headed even back then.

My neighbors Dad owned a Yamaha shop. So he always had a few motorcycles at the house to play on. He had a 80 Enduro, and had gotten a YZ 80 for Christmas. I had gotten new pants for Christmas snickering......So I was watching him ride on the back wheel of his new YZ 80. Of course I couldn't let him out do me so when it was my turn I popped the clutch and stood it up several times but couldn't ride on it. Finally I got the front wheel up and rode about 10 feet on it and slid off the seat and my knees, yes in my new "Toughskins" drug about 20 feet on the concrete. NOPE I did not skin my knees, but I did wear a hole in both knees of my new pants. Now how do you hide 2 holey knees and how do you hide new pants. Well ya don't but when Daddy found out what I had done I tried to hide my ass but it wasn't to easily hidden either.

SIDE NOTE....NO my kids never heard me say change out of your school clothes. I bought their clothes for them to wear and wear out. Not out grow before they wore them out.

[Apocalipstic]

I loved getting to go up in the front of airplanes and sit with the pilots during landing. The flight attendants would give me my own flight wings and sometimes I got to wear a pilots cap. *bliss*

They would show me the cool controls and I loved to see the lights of the cities and the ground and water looked like a topographical map.

I would spend hours memorizing the names of all the international airlines and the routes they flew.

(I know, I know....weird)

[PinkieLee]

I remember being in the 4th grade, and an organization set up through the YMCA came to visit our school to talk about one of their new programs. It was called Indian Princess. http://www.yindianguides.org/indianprincess/about.htm

It was a father/daughter program that had monthly meetings at different member's houses where games were played, nature outings & camping trips. I remember being soooo excited that I signed my dad and I up for the program.... without even asking him. I brought home the paperwork and left it on the counter.

The next morning, my mother sat me down at breakfast and told me that I wasn't going to be able to join, because my dad worked two jobs and didn't have the time to do this (without my dad knowing this). I was crushed... until a few weeks later my dad said "come take a ride with me pumpkin". We showed up at a house, where I recognized girls from my school. It was the first official meeting of our local Indian Princess tribe.

We stayed in the program for 2 years... and still to this day he has a picture of us, at a camping trip, beside his bed.

[julieisafemme]

Sitting in bed with a paperbook copy of Charlotte's Web and some home made chocoalte chip cookies from my mom. The pages had grease stains from the cookies. It was gray and foggy outside. I was reading the part at the end where Charlotte is talking to Wilbur and telling him she was going to die and he had to take care of her babies. I cried and cried...in a good way.

And sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags, mattresses and whatever else we could find. We sent my little cousin down and he rolled head first more than slid. We were frozen with fear when he go to the bottom that he was hurt and we would get in trouble. He crawled out of the sleeping bag and said "let's do it again!!!"

[julieisafemme]

Originally Posted by Strappie

Isn't if funny how our parents use to have the HUGE cars, what I call boats and that we never wore a seat belt.

I use to sit on the arm rest in the front seat when we were all in the car. My 3 sisters sat in the back while I was up front on the arm rest (real safe) I remember once my dad having to slam on the brakes cause of a deer while I'm heading str8 for the windshield.... haha OMG things have changed!

LOL!!!! I fell out of the car in the backseat when I was 3 or 4. Just opened the door and fell head first. I was fine but had a big bump on my head. We had a Rambler station wagon with the wood siding!

[Lynn]

When I was about eight, we stayed in a cabin at one of the PA state parks. I remember eating fish that my dad caught along with burnt instant mashed potatoes. They were the best potatoes I'd ever had. There was an outhouse, and I remember my mom telling us in the morning about stepping on something on her way to the outhouse the night before. We looked on the path and found a squished baby mouse!

[Mister Bent]

One year, my parents decided to go organic (loved the 70s!) and started their own enormous garden in the backyard. Of course, this was supposed to be a family project, so we were all recruited. I was probably 6 or 7, my brother and sister were 15 & 16 respectively.

The tomatoes became my brother's special project, to my mother's delight. He applied their compost, staked them and became incredibly vigilant over them. My mother wrote a feature for the newspaper and did a series of articles on our garden adventure, one included a cartoon of my brother holding a shotgun, protecting his Jersey tomatoes.

I'm not sure exactly how it all came to pass, but it turned out that it wasn't the tomatoes my brother was protecting - it was the marijuana plants that he had carefully staked to the tomatoes.

Ah, the 70s.

[AtLast]

I have many warm memories of my father and just being with him...

The times we wandered on trails silently with the dogs at our heels to find the right part of a creek to fish in are precious memories. We would cast and simply rest with the mountains around us. We never had to exchange many words, you and I. We just understood each other.

You taught me the love of dogs and horses and of a woman. And there was my time apprenticing under your keen experience with bicycle racing. What a gift to have had you recognize my muscular body as an asset and not belittle me for not being like other girls. You were proud when I sent an ace serve against the kids from families that didn’t want our family to be members of their precious tennis club. You said, “just walk tall.”

[Write14u]

I had a ton of great memories.
My grandparents were the best.
I remember my grandad had this old van that he kept stockpiled with (mostly junk) he bought. I was around 10-11 and an avid reader. He and I would get up mad early on Saturday mornings and take his van to the flea market. We'd set up his table and I'd help him sell. As a reward, he'd give me about $2-3 and let me wander around and get anything I wanted. I always came back with books.

My great-grandmother lived until I was 12. Every morning I ever spent at her house, she would get wake my sister and me and cook us breakfast -- eggs, bacon or saugsage and toast or biscuits. Mmmmm, and apple butter. I think of her anytime I make those foods. They are my comfort foods.

[Diva]

When I was a small child, visiting my Grandad & Granny Sweeten, I would sit on the grey bench next to my Grandad while he smoked his pipe. There is an indentation on the arm of that bench, where he would bang out the ashes (I guess they were ashes, yes?) of his pipe. I could have sworn, the last time I bent down to smell it ~ LONG after his death (1964) ~ I could still smell that sweet tobacco. I nearly cried.

I have begged my uncle repeatedly for that bench and he has always said no. I'm at the point now where I might just go and 'borrow' it. <giggle> Guess where he'd come lookin' for it first? To my back terrace, that's where!

[Write14u]

I was 5 and at my greatgrandmother's house (my grandfather's mom, not the one with the apple butter). My cousin Cindy was this beautiful blonde with long flowing, hippy hair (it was 1975). I loved my cousin Cindy, but for some reason, I fell in love with her boyfriend Greg. I spent the entire day ensconsed on Greg's lap and tagging along after him. When my mom said it was time to go, I told her I would ride home with my grandmother. However, I forgot to tell my grandmother. They all arrive back at my grandma's house and I'm nowhere to be found. They have to drive back to the town over to my greatgrandmother's house.
Yeah, I'm still sitting on Greg's lap when they get there. *grin*
The family still teases me about this.

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by Diva

When I was a small child, visiting my Grandad & Granny Sweeten, I would sit on the grey bench next to my Grandad while he smoked his pipe. There is an indentation on the arm of that bench, where he would bang out the ashes (I guess they were ashes, yes?) of his pipe. I could have sworn, the last time I bent down to smell it ~ LONG after his death (1964) ~ I could still smell that sweet tobacco. I nearly cried.

I have begged my uncle repeatedly for that bench and he has always said no. I'm at the point now where I might just go and 'borrow' it. <giggle> Guess where he'd come lookin' for it first? To my back terrace, that's where!

I have a picture, somewhere, of me when I was about 5ish smoking my gramp's pipe in their backyard.