Happy Childhood Memories….

I have long been of the opinion that the best time of life is childhood. No work, no stress, innocence, fun, climbing trees, collecting caterpillars, brandings etc.

Even if childhood was not great, most people have funny or happy memories.

Please join me for a skip (or limp) down the slightly dusty and weed afflicted yellow brick road and share your fondest memories.

Wasn't funny at the time, but my mum still laughs at it (and I just get embarrassed). In preschool it was a stinking hot day and all the kids were stripping off and running under the sprinkers in their undies. I was wearing a full length velvet dress (long sleeve) and white opaque stockings (yes it was summer but it was my favourite dress at the time… and one of the few dresses I would wear) and refused to undress. One of the carers started to unzip my dress and I went mental and locked my self in a cupbord and cried until I passed out. They had to call my mum to come and get me. When mum asked what happened I said it had already been a bad day because they had asked me to play with Play-Doh and I had already done that before and I just lost my temper.

There was also the time mum got pulled over for a random breath test on the way home from the pools. The policeman asked mum if she had had anything to drink and she said no. I told the policeman my mum was lying she had been drinking a lot. The cop said "what's your mum been drinking today?". I said mineral water… tropical and showed him the can mum was still drinking. He didn't even breath test mum, he just told her to drive safely. I remember mum saying "I have never been so embarrassed in my life". Little did she know a short time later I was shown a forehead slap, and when I came home and we went grocery shopping, I excitedly said "guess what I got shown today" and demonstrated in the supermarket. Mum still says she saw stars.

I also tried to save a kitten from a tree. The kitten didn't need saving, bu I climbed the tree, it jumped down, I jumped down, the ugly a** dress I was wearing ballooned and caught on the fence and my dress was now a hospital gown. Mum thought I did it deliberately because I was laughing so much. I didn't, but I really didn't like the dress.

My fondest memories of childhood would have to be putting up the Christmas tree. Mum and the three girls would put up the tree, and dad would sit on the couch and watch. I always enjoyed the Bathurst weekend. Dad loved cars and I would save my pocket money and buy him nibblies and ask mum to buy him some beer. I didn't really like the cars, but I enjoyed the time with dad and the running commentary of the race.

Please share your memories. I am sure everyone has a lot of stories, and the more posts the more embarrassing the stories will get as people remember and start to share their personal smilie moments.

I just put up a blog yesterday at GamingWithChildren about playing arcades back in the late 70's / early 80's …

Playing Adventure on the Atari 2600.

My happiest childhood memories are probably about going fishing with my grandfather. We did that a lot. Sometimes there were fish, and there were always stories.

well I had a crappy childhood. Being picked on most of the time.
There was a short time ( a year or two) when I met 2 brothers, one was my age.
never felt friendship like that and never have felt it since. Those two brothers and neighbours of theirs will keep having a special place in my heart

I don't revisit my childhood much, but you're right Kayla, there are always some good memories. Mine revolve around my grandparents.

I 'll never forget making pies with my grandmother. I used to be allowed all the dough scraps to make into "cookies"-tough and inedible little misshapen animals to others but culinary masterpieces to me. She also used to let me iron the handkerchiefs and pillowcases(yes--imagine doing that today!) which made me feel incredibly competent and grownup. My grandfather did his part by taking me on long drives to the country to pick up milk, eggs and fresh veggies from his farmer friends and occasionally took me to the mind-boggling estate of a wealthy steel magnate(somebody Ryerson) where he knew the stable hands and I got to ride ponies and see my first Arabian purebred horses. Once we even took a for-real sleigh ride. That was just magic.

I also discovered the perils of racing bicycles there, riding with the daughter of the house on their gravel drive, where unlike my Schwinn clunker, I needed to squeeze some contraption on the handlebars to stop, causing me to immediately go flying over the front wheel in a magnificent arc head first into the gravel drive--yes, I was of course wearing my best clothes at the time.

I've read that no matter what happens in life, a happy childhood can never be taken away from you. Grats to all those who had one, and hopes for all the kids in the world to get one.

Most of my childhood memories - my good ones - are from a rural area, far away from here.

I just loved walking through the landscape, the hills, the grass, the fields … pure nature.

My bad childhood memories, however, relate to other children not understanding the way I was thinking because I was "different". Maybe I was even far ahead of them, but their bullying kind of distorted parts of me and left me behind with a very, very weak self-consciousness.

Since around the turn of the millennium I'm working with my self to heal this all again, and it gets better and better.

Today, I dug out some childhood books I want to read again. This will be fun !

Here is another one … I'm in the middle between my older brother and younger sister. The game is Pong … and the time period should be obvious from the amount of polyester …

I was lucky (blessed) enough to have had an amazing childhood. I could literally post hundreds of happy childhood memories… but I will spare you all and only share one…

One of my fondest memories was a fishing trip that my father and my uncle would take me on every year from the time I was about 10 until I was 19. We would go to Canada and spend a week in a cabin on a huge chain of lakes. I can't remember the exact name, but we were in what was called the Moon River Basin, and I think it was near Perry Sound (any Canadian's here wanna help with that?).

I would take a bunch of fantasy novels to read on the long road trip, and at nights in the cabin. We would spend literally 8 to 10 hours a day fishing, taking the boat from lake to lake… and I'm not joking when I say we caught hundreds of fish over the years. We would eat fish every night… and we would bring home (on ice) what we were legally allowed to cross the border with. So we would continue to eat delicious fresh fish for weeks after the trip.

It was a great time, every time. I learned a lot about my father, my uncle (my dad's best friend), and myself during those trips. I hope to do the same thing with my sons some day very soon!

Alrik I understand what you are saying.
I am the same. real insecure because of the bullying in my childhood but everything has changed for me from the moment we moved ( about 4 years ago) and the best started the moment I met my girlfriend. We are together know for 3 and a half fantastic years

I think even people who had bad childhoods can generally find a happy memory somewhere. Even with bad parents, there is one good memory, or a friend, teacher or someone who looking back tried to help, shown compassion or tried to make life a bit easier. I think everyone has something to be grateful for.

It like my old job in a small way. It sucked big time. If I had left I may not have met Dhruin again, and my life would be very different. I am always grateful to have Dhruin in my life, and the people and experiences of my life resulted in me being with him, so I take the good with the bad in my life for the end result. 16 years together, with some ups and downs, sadness and happiness, but he has been my support, my comfort and my friend and when we reach our goals we know how hard we have worked for it. If my childhood had been different, or my life events changed I wouldn't be the person I am today. I may be a better person or more stable with a different history, but I might also be a lot worse off.

@ Alrik & Titus. I am still insecure and think Dhruin will leave me when he realises he could do a lot better, but I have to trust him that he wouldn't hurt me. He has promised me (I made him promise) if ever anything did happen with someone else, or if he realised he didn't love me anymore that he would break it to me gently and not let me find out myself.

@narpet Don't just share one memory. It always puts a smile on my face to hear other people's happiness, especially when it is time spent with family. Encore! Encore!

@magerette I also wish for every child to have a childhood filled with good memories like the ones here. Cooking with nanna, laughing with family, favourite games and toys, camping and telling stories and jokes. Its funny how the little things mean so much more when you grow up. I remember helping my nanna cook, and I would give anything to be able to do that again. Very special times.

Kayla you are right. there are always certains spots of light even with the ones that there to call their childhood a missed or screwed childhood.
I had them too. Some were my best friends for a long time. But I can't compare my childhood with now it is like comparing live in hell with living on earth. earht has his bads moments but if you grown up in hell, living on earth can seem as paradise almost.
I had become a real insecure teenager. that has changed more or less. I know my flaws and my strength now but sometimes I can feel the dark coming back a little. But it doesn't consume anymore like say 5 years ago

I have a much better memory for the various bad events. It's not that there were that many, nor that there weren't just as many good ones, but the bad ones are more vivid. Anyway…

Grandpa sent my family on vacation for Christmas one year on this. The captain was a real Scotsman. He had a little table-top acetylene cannon that he'd fire off when we'd leave port, and he'd play a recording of Amazing Grace done on bagpipes. We were leaving some port at sunrise. To see the sun coming up on the horizon, see all those sails being raised, hear that genuine Scottish accent calling out the orders, hear that little cannon boom, all with a bagpipe Amazing Grace soundtrack… Even as a smartass pre-teen, I was truly and totally awestruck.

Childhood yes YES!. I had wounderful childhood. My favourite was pretending I was someone else out in the woods, kind of like roleplaying and live, we did it before I had ever played any games though, I always had a lot of fantasies! I was superhero, or sorcerer or knight or the builder of a foreign empire, or a miner, I could play almost anything. I even broke down a rock outside my home when I played miner, wow that was impressive.


I do not agree that childhood is the best time of life though. When you are this age ( I am 25 by now ) there is something even better! Namely being in love! that could never be beaten by my wounderful childhood! I hope it'll not die to make an awful and boring rest of life after marriage!

I am still insecure and think Dhruin will leave me when he realises he could do a lot better, but I have to trust him that he wouldn't hurt me. He has promised me (I made him promise) if ever anything did happen with someone else, or if he realised he didn't love me anymore that he would break it to me gently and not let me find out myself.

I do not really think you can use this term better about human beings. You cannot really say one would be better than another! Except like he is better than me at running, or she is better than me at earning money. You could be the best possible for him! while I might be the worst possible for someone, I could also be the best possible for someone else.

If someone really, *really* likes you, then the person won't go away, Kayla.

I sort of met a good (girl-)friend last year, too, but we have the problem of several hundreds of kilometers between us and we both currently have a difficult life situation right now.
To me, it's rather like "patchwork" than real friendship, but we stay in touch with one another.

But it simply is a good feeling to "know there's a friend".

That's what friends are for, aren't they ?


P.S. : I just bought once again today the ice of my good childhood memories : The German "Nogger" : http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2008/04/17/870250.html (According to Wikipedia it appeared for the first time in 1964 on the German market.)
I just love this ice !

He is a friend with benefits. I will keep him mesmerised with my womanly… charms (and if that doesn't work I can slip some oleander in his coffee). My womanly charms may not be as shiny and new as they once were, but I can still shake my tailfeather if I have to. Of course I'll probably fall over the sofa and break my toe again, but I'll still give it a go.

I know what you mean, about they won't go if they really like you and they are happy, but there is always that slightly weird, irrational voice at the back of my head (it's ok, I don't usually hear voices, well ok, I do hear voices a lot, but my voice with thoughts, not like Sybil). I don't think he's going anyway, if he does I can always hunt him down, go to jail and become Big Bertha's friend… unfortunately also with benefits… for her… mainly just nightmares and pain for me I am sure.

Dad used to drive me and my brother to a deep lake (part of a hydropower dam) where the locals had built a 2.5m tower that we could dive from. Since most other outdoor activities involved boring sandy beaches where you literally have to walk a km from the shore to be able to swim (though I've learned to appreciate these beaches at a more advanced age) that little lake was heaven.

Building snowmen in the winter when there still was snow in Belgium in the winter… So a long long time ago… (talking about Antwerp Centre)

hehe funny my girlfriend studies in antwepr and so she lives there in the week anbd comes home at the weekend and she said the same. When it snowed in wholme Belgium there was just a little snow in Antwerp City

I was in antwerpen nice city, I was also in Gent during winter, but there like no snow and not even cold, same for Brussels! I didn't have to wear a jacket all winter!