Childhood Memories
 

What are some of your earliest childhood memories? I am 60 years old so many of these memories are from the early to mid 50's.

I remember the last time I saw my real dad. I think I was around 4 years old and he was working at a big produce market in Missouri. I remember the bananas hanging from the ceiling. He gave a dollar. I thought that was so great but my mother thought it was cheap of him.

I remember my Aunt Curly's farm in Missouri. We had lots of fun there.

I remember living in Corpus Christi, TX as a small child, around 5 years old. There were these little furry caterpillars called asps, boy did they sting if you stepped on one. I also remember in Corpus the Buccaneer Days they had every year. I thought the fire works were the greatest and all the festivities. I also remember a young man that lived next door that tried to molest me when I was playing next door but I ran away. I never told my mom about that until I was grown. I remember my brother and I playing on a old car seat, he jumped off and that made the seat tip over and I hit my head on a pile of bricks. I remember my head bled a lot. My mom called a taxi and rushed me to the hospital where I had to have about 6 stitches in my head.

I remember my grandpa, going fishing with him, going out to the barn with him with a flashlight to shoot rats.:eek: He would laugh at me when the rooster would chase me or the milk cow. I loved my grandpa. He was a welder and he fell off some scaffling and was killed when I was around 11 years old.

After my mother remarried and I was adopted by her husband and he became my dad that raised me. We used to go to his parents farm in Karnes City, Texas. I loved that place. Riding horses, playing in the barn, taking a bath outside in a tub. They had no running water. My grandma made homemade butter. I did not like having to walk to the outhouse, they had a mean tom turkey that would chase me sometimes.

I remember when I found out there was not Santa. I wanted a reindeer for Christmas, that was all I wanted. I was around 6 years old. On Christmas morning we opened all the presents and there was no reindeer. I just cried and cried. My mom asked why I was crying and I told her. She had to explain about Santa then.

I could go on and on but these are my early memories. What are some of yours?

I am going to be 57 soon and some of my childhood memories are of being around 5 and every summer catching fireflies(lightning bugs) in a jar and letting them go. One time I was mad my sister caught more than me so I let hers go in the house. Also we could always run all day and night as long as we came home for meals, those were the days when it was safe. Also we lived a couple of miles from Lake Michigan and we would walk there and play at the beach all day and I can still remember that feeling of being at the water all day and being starving. My dad would always take us 4 kids and ay of our friends who happened to be around to the museums, zoos, forest preserves in his big station wagon. Boy I could go on and on this is bringing back so many memories, Great topic.

Oh, yes, I remember catching the fireflies too. You are so right about all the freedoms we had as small children. I would never of dreamed of letting my kids do all the things I did unsupervised as a child.

Your memories of Corpus Christi remind me of one of mine from South Texas. The one thing that came to mind right away was - in the late 60's we had an oyster shell driveway and I was quite the fan of Batman and/or Superman (about age 6). I remember putting my mom's apron on around my neck like a cape, then running down the Oyster Shell driveway as fast as I could - and, you guessed it - taking a flying leap.

Those Oyster Shells are sharp. They cut bad & deep! LOL! My poor shins!

Well at least I learned I couldn't fly. :rolleyes:

HA! I loved to catch fireflies!

I remember when I was very small, my brother sister and I snuck out of the house to play in the snow and my mom found us and came after us with a wooden spoon, weird how I remember that. We lived in Vermont.

I remember sliding out of the back of our squareback volkswagon after we got home from the beach when we lived in N.C. and I sat on a bee on the way out and I remember my brother and sister thought it was hilariuos!! Not me.

I remember my best friend Paula that lived across the street was hit by a truck on her bike while riding to school and was thrown as high as a telephone pole, my mom would not let me go to her funeral, I had nightmares for a long time. I was about 7.

I remember raking leaves with a toy rake my mom bought me and my brother tried to pull it away, I pulled back and it went up my nose and ripped off the side of my nose, I remember the fear on my moms face as she drove me to the hopsital for stitches.

I remember sitting in an old crab apple tree with my siblings and munching away on them, I don't think I got sick but I remember watching them throw up..hehehe

I remember seeing a teddy bear in my moms closet and when I saw it under the tree christmas morning I knew there was no Santa, I believe I was 8.

I bet that did hurt. At least you did not try to fly off a roof.:)

What has happened to fireflies. I dont see them anymore. I remember my first class trip when we moved to the states. It was Washington DC and I was in 6th grade. The Bus driver let us out around the Museums and told us to be back in the bus a 6pm. Wow, can you imagine that now!!!No Way...

I hardly see any either but I rarely go outside at night. The like warm humid areas. I remember when we lived it Louisiana there were lots of them.

No, I can't imagine a bus load of 6th graders just being dropped off. What year was that?

My mother and grandmother use to get switches after us. I was a pretty good kid but my brother who is two years older than me was always getting into trouble. He got the belt taken to him a lot.

That was so sad what happened to your little friend and you getting hurt by the rake. I was lucky growing up, I never broke any bones but my brother broke his arm one time.

I don't think I have ever seen a crab apple tree. Shame on you for laughing at them. hehe

I do remember my mother catching my brother trying to smoke a cigarette when he was probably around 10 years old and she made him smoke a whole pack until he got sick. Let me tell you it did not work. He grew up smoking.

I remember always thinking my mom was such a horrible cook. She has high blood pressure and always makes everything low sodium. Well, guess what ? I love salt. Me and my lil bro would grab the salt shaker and hide in the closet and just shake straight salt into our mouths b/c we were so desperate for it!

We just recently told her this. (I'm almost 30) She just about freaked out. It was funny.

I remember my dad always planning cross country road trips for "us kids" to see our country's national parks. Not my mom's idea of a vacation. She would always pout and complain and wouldn't help read the maps b/c she claimed she didn't know how. Other than that, going to Zion and Bryce Cyn was really cool. (After a while she didn't go anymore, heh heh)

Well, I'm pretty young - 16 - and I'm trying to write down most of the memories I've got now while they're still clear, so that when I'm older I can remember them well. :)

When I was really young, I mostly remember my brother and I just having fun. He's 2 years older than me, and he's leaving for college in 2 weeks, which is just killing me. There was this huge tree on the corner of our street, and we'd almost kill ourselves trying to get to the top. There was a newspaper or something caught in one of the branches - and our goal was always to get up to it. Eventually, the guy who the tree belonged to cut off the branches so we wouldn't climb it (and kill ourselves in the process), but that never stopped us from trying. =P

I remember a lot of things with my old dog, Rusty. We had to rehome him 2 years ago (he is now being spoiled rotten by Alaskayorkie and his family :p), but I got him when I was 6 and we did everything together. If I was catching lightening bugs with my brother, Rusty would be running around eating them haha. We'd go on walks all over the place. I remember when he got attacked by a pitbull. I was probably 8 years old. I was right around the corner from my house and this...jerk...who lived on the corner of the street sicked his dog on Rusty. Some nice old guy who was walking by got the dog off of him.

My first best friend, Shane, and I had SO much fun together. He'd always call me his "princess" haha. He moved when we were 7 and I've never heard from him :(, though my parents occasionally run into his mom.

and my best friends since then, Jess and Emily, and I have all kinds of memories, of course. :)

I almost kinda wish I could go back to then. as excited as I am for the future, I'm also kind of nervous and things are changing a lot, and sometimes I just wish that I could go back to when I was 8 and didn't have anything to care about.

Yikes, 1972.....:cool:

I was born in 1955 in London.
As a 4 year old my brother and I used to play in bombed out buildings from the blitz a few years earlier.
Most of London at that time hadn't been rebuilt after the second world war.
It really felt at the time that a war was still on.

In 1962 we moved from london to Essex.

I had never seen green fields before that, we would go out from dawn to dusk exploring our new countryside.

We made camps at various places so we always had somewhere to go.

Well, I was a child of the 70's (born in 67) and I remember a lot of things that I wished my own children could of experienced when they were growing up . . .I was the youngest of 4 children, but I was like an only child because there was such a big age difference (Sisters were 14, 13 and Brother was 11 when I was born)

I remember always being outside playing in the neighborhood and when my mom wanted me she'd ring this stupid bell . . .you could hear that thing for miles and I used to RUN home . . .I guess I was well trained . . .:D I remember finding the biggest hill in the neighborhood and trying to make it all the way down on my skateboard, lying down, in the middle of the road. :eek: I remember walking down to the elementary school and hanging around on the swingset or jungle gym and not having a care in the world . . walking down in the brook by my house and going through the underpasses to see how far they go . . .riding my bike carelessly, without a helmet and not on the sidewalk either . . .As I got into my teens I remember going over my girlfriend's house and sneaking the pony Miller beers from the refrigerator . . .her father never seemed to notice . .:confused: I had a pretty good childhood . . .no fears whatsoever . . .those were the days! :thumbup:

I love hearing all these stories. I can really relate to many of them. My how times have changed. Back when I was a child there was no color tv, no computers or internet, no electronic games. I was a tomboy, I did not like dolls but I did have one favorite doll and she was just a plain rubber doll with rubber hair. Some of my favorite things to play with when I was in elementary school was the Breyer horses, hula hoops, jacks, pick-up sticks, the little wooden windup rubber band airplanes and glider planes. Of course our whole family would play monopoly. We played a lot of games outside, hopscotch, Simon Says, tag, hide and seek. I just don't see kids today doing all the things we did. It seems that kids just grow up too fast now days.

I know exactly what you mean . . .my kids were born in 1989 and 1993 and it was strange to me to see how many parents didn't let their kids just go outside and play and run around the neighborhood . . .computers and video games and maybe a ride or two around the block on their bikes was what my kids did . . .they would have friends come over or go over their house but it just didn't seem right . . .the only real playtime would be at recess during school . . .I always looked forward to my kids entering school . . .friends, the classroom birthday parties, holiday parties . . .but to my surprise, school wasn't like that anymore . . .if your child had a birthday you couldn't bring in cupcakes, it had to be a "healthy" snack . . .carrot sticks and dip . . what 5 year old is into that? You can't celebrate with a Christmas Party, it had to be a "Winter Party" Home Birthday parties also werent a huge highlight . .. you'd invite kids and never receive a RSVP so you end up calling and asking if their child was coming . . .I just don't get it? :confused: I don't think my kids had the childhood I had at all . . .kids just seem so much sheltered today . . .and you are right, they do grow up way too fast . . .my daughter just got engaged and is planning a 2011 wedding and my son is learning to drive . . .I'm not sure where the time went at all and I hope that at least when I have grandchildren (hopefully not for like 10 years ;)) that maybe times would be reverted back to when I was young . . .

It almost makes me want to cry reading how things have changed. It makes me wonder what the future will bring for our children.

Wow, love this thread!
While I was reading, many of the memories came back to my.We used to live in a 3 floor apartment, the balcony had a fence to the ceiling, so that was my playpen, every morning my grandmother would wipe the floor so I could play, I could see the neighbors coming and going . No pampers back then, cloth diapers, remember the cloth line with all my brothers diapers, my mom used something to get the whites whiter, it was purple I think, and she used to had a bucket where she boiled the clothes with soap and water. Most of all I can remember the smells and tastes of thing...oh boy ...cod fish oil every day :eek: to keep colds away, the great smell of rain and fresh grass in the morning....
The ice cream truck...the sound of the harmonica (?)from the guy that sharpened the scissors, he would always ride a bike, and had a wheel with a pedal that he would spin to sharpen, all the ladies running down the street every time they heard him coming....

found this..

There's no Santa ? :(:(

These are great - I have too many good memories but I guess my favorite always will be.... growing up on the beach during summer in Rhode Island.....we still have a cabana right on the water but I don't get to enjoy it like I did growing up......my oldest son is now living my childhood - he loves it and goes every year as do my parents - actually they are there as I type this but sadly probably for the last time....

Did you guys ever play kick the can? Fess up now..

Yes, the ice cream truck does bring back memories.

The pictures of the scissor sharpener are cool. I don't every remember seeing anyone on a bike doing that.

I don't remember a game call 'kick the can' but I do remember kicking plenty of cans.:)

I remember when we had moved to California, my dad was in the Navy. We were living near where Disneyland was. I remember loving to go there. My dad got sent to Okinawa so it was just my mom and us kids in California. My mom had my brother write a letter to the show 'Truth or Consequences' and tell them about how much we missed our dad and how much we needed him because our bicycles were broken. Well, the TV show had my dad flown in from Okinawa and my mom knew ahead of time we would be on the tv show and my dad would be there. It was so cool. The host of the show called my brother up from the audience and had him talk into this big huge box, like it was a radio. The host told my bother to ask when our dad would be home and when my bother asked, my dad said 'Right now' and he jumped up out of the box. We were so surprised. They brought out new bicycles for my brother and I. It was really cool. I think I was probably around 7 or 8 years old.

Other great memories were just the drives we did from Texas to California. There is so much to see along the way, the Grand Canyon, Knott's Berry Farm, the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. I loved spotting the desert sand twisters that swirled around. Some of the trips were just drive straight through and my parents carried a big coffee can for us to pee in so they would not have to keep stopping along the way.:eek: I remember my dad getting so tired of us asking 'Are we almost there?'

Later we moved to Vista, California and I was there for the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. I loved it there. Such beautiful country with hills and streams. Vista was at the foot of the Palomar mountains where the Palomar observatory was. We really enjoyed going up there.

All these memories make me want to travel and see more of our beautiful country.

It was a hide and seek game my friends and I would play at night. When the person that was IT, spotted someone, they had to run and kick the can before the IT person. So much fun on those hot summer nights in the 70.

This is a great thread!!

I grew up in Sedona, Arizona. I remember how rural and peaceful it was before the "crystal people" moved there. I rode my bike everwhere and rode my horse to the creek and through town. I could go hiking all day and my parents would never worry about me not coming home. Things were so different back then. Kids had more freedom and had better things to do than watch tv or stay in the house. We played baseball, frisby, went hiking, played at the creek and rode bikes. It felt good to feel the wind in your hair and be out in the fresh air all day! There was no color tv, no computers, no cell phones. We would have Halloween parties at the skating rink up Oak Creek Canyon. The whole town turned out in costumes! Everybody turned out for the 4th of July fireworks. Watermelon and a BbQ and a cake walk. Every spring there was the St. Patricks Day Parade(that still goes on today). I walked in it every year while I was in Brownies and Girl Scouts. I remember selling Girl Scout cookies in front of the Oak Creek Market for 50 cents per box and going door to door selling Girl Scout calendars hoping to make enought money to go the Girl Scout Camp. There was no movie theater in Sedona so once or twice in the summer we would drive to Cottonwood and go to the drive in. And Cottonwood had a DAIRY QUEEN!!!! My Mom was on the same bowling team for 40 years. She finally had to stop bowling 5 years ago at the age of 90 because it started to hurt her hip. We also went square dancing every Sat night in a club called the Sedona Swingers. My grade school principle was the caller. That was really fun! It seems like there was more family fun back in those days. And people had time to relax and look at the sunsets and listen to the crickets in the evenings. Little did I know that these would be the best times of my life.

Sounds like so much fun. How much did you pay for a McDonalds burger. I remember10 cents. I worked at a McDonalds in High School. I think that was the price. Anyone remember.

That sounds wonderful. It makes me want to turn back the clock. I was a Brownie too just for a short while when we lived in Lake Charles, La. Growing up a Navy brat had its ups and downs. I will cherish all the memories of all the places we lived but it was always sad to have to always move and leave my friends behind.

We moved to Lake Charles, LA when I was in the 7th grade and I got a horse and I would just saddle up and ride all over the place. It was so much fun. Then we moved to Weslaco, TX in the middle of the 8th grade but I still had my horse and we had a great time.

I remember my folks making homemade ice cream.

When I was little my grandma would make us pancakes and she would shape them like animals.

When my mother or grandmother would make cookies, cakes or brownies I would always get to lick beaters or the spatula. :)

Wow! I just got back from Sedona it was my husband's and mine first vacation in about 30 years.I never wanted to leave my dog/dogs. We stayed in Oak Creek Canyon. It is so beautiful there I can imagine how great it was back in the day. We looked at Cottonwood as a possible retirement place. Loved hearing your memories of it.

That is so cool!!! I love the Verde Valley. Cottonwood is a nice place to retire and so is Camp Verde. Not quite as expensive as Sedona. My Mom taught typing and short hand at Camp Verde High School in the 70's and I went to high school in Cottonwood. There was no high school in Sedona at that time. The seasons are perfect. If I ever get through school I hope to move back.
There are some Indian ruins around Sedona and that area is just a hikers paradise!! Did you get a chance to eat at Oaxaca Restaurant in Sedona? I used to be a buss girl there when I was 15.