What''s your best childhood memory?

[kenny]

Mine may be hearing the bells of the Good Humor Ice Cream truck and mom quickly agreeing to give me change (a rare occurrence) to run out to buy a coconut-coated ice cream bar.

Years later it was the Helms Bakery truck and buttermilk doughnuts.
(No wonder I'm fat.)

 

[MissMina]

My childhood in the Midwest in the 50s was pretty much the female equivalent of "A Christmas Story".
So I have a lot of good memories.

When I was six we left military housing (Living on an Army post was
wonderful!) We lived in a housing development built for GIs after the war. It was out in the middle of nowhere and
several of our neighbors had horses. We were allowed to ride them whenever we wanted to.
For me that was pure bliss.

But the biggest thing I remember is the total sense of freedom we kids had.
From sunup in the morning till mom called us in for meals we were out doors.
"Playing".
I could write a book. Maybe someday I will.

 

[packrat]

Spending the night at Gramma Joyce''s-she''d make us scrambled eggs for breakfast and her homemade bread w/her homemade apple butter. And she always played games with us. For hours.

Riding our bikes down to other Grandparents'', Gramma w/the Kitties house. We wandered all over their farm. They used to have sheep (I had my own lamb named Friskie), and there were a lot of different barns, and they each had their own smell. Grampa would give us rides in the loader of the tractor, and he''d let us sit w/him in the cab when he''d do farm chores. As an adult now, the sound/smell of a tractor just makes me happy. Dad has one of Grampa''s tractors now, and I still like getting to ride on it when he has to do stuff. They had a big corn crib too, that had 3 areas--we were ALWAYS told not to play in it and we ALWAYS did. We''d climb up the boards to the top and then jump down into the corn. We''d each take one of the outside sections and throw corn cobs at each other across the middle section. THE BEST FUN EVER.

Oh you know what else, they had another farm on the highway close by, where my Gramma grew up, we called it "the other place". There is a HUGE barn, and grampa stored hay (or straw..I can never remember which is which). Dad took a burlap bag and filled it w/hay or whatever, and tied it w/a looong rope from the very top of the barn, and we would all 4 of us go w/Grampa and Gramma to the other place to swing. We''d climb waaaaaay up on the bales, and dad would bring the swing, and then they''d get us situated, sometimes my brother and I straddling it together, facing each other, and then let us go..and there was always piles and piles on the bottom so when it was swinging just a little, we''d fling ourselves off. hahaha it makes me smile to think of the screeching and laughing and the tummy tickling when you whoosh! thru the air!

I tell you what, I''d take the burlap swing and that dang corn crib over an amusement park any day.

I like to talk about when I was a kid.

 

[junebug17]

- ordering pizza (a really big deal, happened once a year, usually during Lent)

- going to Dairy Queen (again, once a year)

- Christmas morning, a time of peace and normalcy in an otherwise somewhat chaotic, troubled household

- Easter morning - for a few years my older sister would leave clues all over the house to lead me to my Easter basket, I just loved it

- going to my neighbor's house to watch Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart (we were very close to our neighbors, they were like family and treated me very well)

- swimming in our neighbors pool - our family was allowed to use it at any time.

- running through the sprinkler on hot summer days

Oops, sorry! Didn't realize it was supposed to be just one memory! It was kind of nice to think of some positive things about my childhood.

 

[Arkteia]

My father carrying me (I was tired) and me looking at blue forget-me-nots on the ground. My parents later told me I could not remember it because I was less that 1 at that time. But our program director told us that memories are formed when kids start speaking, and I was a very early talker.

 

[MissMina]

That is very interesting to me.
I once described a place to my mom
and she said I couldn''t have remembered
it because I was less than a year old.
I began to talk at the age of six months
(And many would say never looked back)

 

[sctsbride09]

I think one of my fondest memories from childhood was being outside with my grandpa and watching him work on his 65 Mustang. My grandma had one too (same year,different color), so every month he would be outside tinkering with the cars in some way. I didnt pick up anything about cars

, should have paid more attention. But I got lots of quality time with one of my most favorite people in the world. I miss him so much (he passed 5 years ago), but everytime I see a 65 Mustang I smile. One day, I will have one of my own.

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Father''s Day when I was around 5 years old.

My dad (very much a handyman) decided all he wanted on Father''s Day was to build my sister and me a proper swingset... not one of those wimpy metal ones. And so he did. It was a big wooden set with monkey bars, swings, climbing ropes, slides, a "fort", see-saw, you name it.

It took him a few days to finish the whole project, but on Father''s Day evening our family of four crammed into the little fort/lookout deck and ate Mr.Hero hoagie sandwiches, watching the sun go down. My dad still says it was his favorite Father''s Day ever.

I love that memory

 

[Dancing Fire]

watching B&W TV shows
banana split at Woolworth was 49 cents

candy bar was 10 cents each
gallon of real gas was 25 cents
pack of cigarettes was 30 cents
postage stamp was 5 cents
LBJ was our President

 

[soocool]

Going to the World''s Fair in the early 1960s in New York. I still have my souvenirs!

 

[elrohwen]

Going to Mackinac Island in Michigan. My grandma lives close to the island (she''s in the upper peninsula) and we would stay with her at her cabin on Lake Superior every summer. One day during the trip we would take the ferry to Mackinac and spend the day. The island doesn''t allow cars, so everything is horse drawn - taxis, tours, etc. For a horse crazy kid, it was heaven. It''s a beautiful island and I was so excited to share it with DH a couple summers ago.

I''ve never actually spent the night on the island, so I hope to do that at some point. I just wish it were closer.