Your Favorite Childhood Memory

[Greyson]

One of my fondess memories was when I was about 11-12 years old. I grew up in the City of Los Angeles and I used to be a "paper boy." I worked for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. (Like many newspapers it is no longer in existence and yes, there was a time when people sold newpapers on the corner.)

Anyway I sold newpapers on the weekend in front of a Supermarket. At the front of this store was a donut bakery. (We were poor and my twin sister and I had never had a birthday cake from a bakery.) With money I made from that job I was able to buy our first special ordered from the bakery birthday cake. It was made of cake donuts, filled with whip cream and strawberries. The look on the faces of my brothers and sisters when I brought that cake home, for our birthday surprise..... Let's just say a bunch of kids were very happy and stuffed with a bakery cake.

[Soft*Silver]

My sister was 8 years older than I. She and my brother had the bedrooms upstairs. I use to sneak upstairs and look around her room. She had some round music powder boxes that I loved. It was the artful carve and curve of the designs, the scent and softness of the powder, the tender lilt of the music when the lids were taken off...but mostly it was about my sister's womanliness that I so wanted to bud into myself.

I loved the things ontop of her dressers. But those music boxes were my favorites. And if I ever find them in the antique stores, I will buy them.

My mother had a vanity and atop hers, was a gorgeous doll lamp with a full cloth skirt and a fan in her hand. I had never seen women like her before. I would sit at the vanity and put on my mother's rouge and her really red 50s lipstick and look wonderously at that lady. She had perfect bowed red lips and the most provacatively lined eyes...again, a testimony to womanliness. When my mother would put on make up, which was very rare for she was a true farmer's wife, I would sit on the chair in the room and watch my mother transform into someone I barely knew...someone who had a likeness to that woman of the lamp...and I so wanted to be a part of this wonderous club....

[Jet]

The summer after third grade I had to go to summer school for math. Tonight I remembered walking to school those mornings. God, being there was glorious in our small town. The mornings were crisp and perfect. I had no worries and life was full of fun. I didn't mind summer school at all. Afterward, my mom would have lunch ready and then we'd go swimming. That was the summer I read the Bobsy Twins and Nancy Drew. I rode a Red Chief bike, played with neighborhood boys every day and visited old Mrs. Getz because I liked her cats, Tillie and Murphy, and her cookies. Sometimes we'd play Old Maid. I played house with my first girl friend, Mary Jane. I was the dad. I really did have a terrific childhood....

[Jet]

Me at 7. The nuns were always calling my mother because I was always in trouble. We lived in a big two-story house that my mother decorated beautifully. It had a sitting room that nobody was allowed to go into because she said she was saving it for Kennedy. My aunt Judy, who was 17, came to live with us after high school, and we're still close after all these years. This was the year my dad taught me to ride a bike—the same bike my cousins rode down the steps and bent the hell out of. Our house had a big front yard with lilac bushes and irises and the change of seasons were wonderful. I think I'd give anything to back to that time for just one day....

[Jet]

I have a lot of great childhood memories and my grandmother's house is one of them. I grew up there and had some of the best times of my life. My grandmother was married 3 times and had nine children. She was widowed three times and raised my mother and aunts and uncles working two jobs. At first, the 10 of them lived in a smaller 3-bedroom house. My grandmother traded $1.00 with an elderly couple for the house above. One dollar. The old couple couldn't handle the house or the steps so they moved into my grandmother's 3-bedroom house and my grandmother moved into their house for a hundred pennies? God, it was simple and wonderful then— in the early 50s. I have a very special love for my grandmother and there were no better times than all of us together in her house. Years later, I wrote and delivered her eulogy. "I wouldn't give you one penny for the culture, the technology or the lifestyles of today. I would give millions, if I could, to be 10 years old again in the backyard of my grandmother's house on some crisp morning, when the sun shone differently."

[little_ms_sunshyne]

I was in second grade. My teacher would not let me go to the restroom because she said I should have gone when the whole group went. So I waited. Some time later I raise my hand and asked to go again, and of course she said no. I asked to go one last time and again she said no! I told her "If you don't let me go I am just gonna go here." There I was a determined little girl in a hot pink dress with highlighter green polka dots. She called my bluff and said no. I marched right up to her desk and PEED! I will never forget the look on her face. But hey, I gave her a fair warning I guess I have always been stubborn!

[bigbutchmistie]

whenever my adopted parents were out of town we would stay with someone in the church. oh god I loved it.. and HATED when they returned

[asphaltcowboi]

i was about 4 when we all were getting ready for church (me an 4 brothers) though how proud my mom would be of me getting all ready all by myself!!
we were all standing on the porch getting our pre church cleanleness inspection.. mom checkin theeth and ears and clothes..
i was so proud standing there in my lil dress an mary janes but when mom got to me she pulled up my lil dress to find i was wearing my brothers whitie tightie briefs an smaked my bottom "you go in there and take of you brothers underwear right now"
so i went in an took um off but ended up going to church "comando" and no one ever knew! told mom about 20 yrs later.

[girl_dee]

fishing....

[Blade]

When I was a kid my Gigi would come and pick me up on Friday afternoon, so I could go to the high school football game with her and my aunt. My aunt was 9 yrs older than I was.

We'd get home from the football game have a snack and off to bed we'd go. I always slept with my aunt. She was so patient with me, I'm sure I must have had more questions than Trivial Pursuit.

As we lay in bed, she would try to ware me down by playing this game. She'd use her fingernail and write a letter on my back and I'd guess what it was, as I began to read she would write small words on my back for me to spell and guess and eventually she would write numbers or have me add numbers she wrote on my back. And yes I'd eventually fall asleep, and I'm sure she was glad when I did.

She became a grandma for the first time this past Monday and as fate would have it that would have been her mother, my Gigi's 85th birthday had she lived, and it was a little girl. I know she will be a super duper wonderful grandma.

[girl_dee]

grinding the fresh beef at my Grandma's

strange woman, my Grandma.

[SnackTime]

Spending each and every moment with my grandmother.

[adorable]

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.

[softheart]

I had a little white basket on my bike and I would ask my mother to give me things to put in it. I just hated when it was empty. I would pedal down my street begging any adult who was outside, for something to put in my basket. This sweet old lady named Mrs. Jenkins would bake special treats just for me. Like cookies or muffins. I actually thought she was Mrs. Santa Claus just pretending to be Mrs. Jenkins so no one would know. We would have a tea party on her front porch. She let me drink real hot tea.When I would head off to play again, she would wrap some cookies up in wax paper for me to eat while I played. It was always a mystery to my mother why I was never hungry for my lunch.

[Hollylane]

There was a sweet old woman for me too. I used to sell pictures I had drawn and colored to my neighbors for $.05 - $.50. She always bought my pictures, invited me in, gave me hot tea & cookies.

When I got a little older, she would come and get me for our tea parties. She taught me to crotchet, cook, clean, iron, sew and many other little lessons that my mother had not taught me (my mom & dad worked full time and neither are domestic). Her husband was also a gentle soul, who taught me carpentry and introduced me to what the true meaning of chivalrous is.

[princessbelle]

I have a sweet older woman story as well.

There was this woman that lived behind my house and she was just precious. Mom and Dad watched out for her and she had a key to our house. Mom says many times she would come home from work and Effie would be there with a dinner prepared. She was just an angel.

I remember once, i think i was around 4ish, i was playing with my doll in the living room. I believe it was called "baby first-step", anyway, the doll had beautiful long blonde hair and i was brushing it. Effie commented on how pretty the doll's hair was. I remember my face burning and felt it turn red. I told her that mom had cut off some of my hair and glued it to the doll. I do believe it was my first little lie because i will never forget how that moment felt. Effie laughed and laughed which made me get redder and redder.

The scene ended with her hugging me tight and telling me she loved me and my hair.

She truly was a precious lady and i am blessed she was in my life.

[mustangjeano]

My dad (my hero) taught me many things about how to treat a woman. One of my favorite memories was when I was a kid I noticed that, when walking with my Mom, he always made sure to walk on theoutside nearest the street. I asked him why and he said that was to make sure that a car splashing water from a puddle or jumpimg the curb would hit him and not my Mom. A good lesson in "old school" manners and cherishing women.

[Prudence]

Standing ovations at my dance recitals... and being rewarded afterward with warm Krispy Kreme donuts and cold milk.

[GPS]

My dad always treating me more like a son, my grandaddy driving me around in a '68 convertible, growing up between 3 states and a great summer home in Canada. i had the best childhood. i cant even begin to list my experiences. AND i try hard to give my son the BEST of both worlds to boot.

[LoyalWolfsBlade]

Hmm favorite childhood memory I think the one that always pops into my mind is each and every family reunion I went to when my granny was alive. I can still on my saddest day think of something about her that will make me smile and even shake my head in disbelief but still smile or even laugh. From watching her crochet to enjoying the smell of real corn bread and beans cooking on a Sunday. To even watching this old lady that had 12 children pick up her spit can next to her recliner and spit her chew into it. Gross to think about but that was my granny and she did not care what anyone thought of her as long as her family was taken care of. I am sitting here right now shaking my head at all the memories and honestly missing the one member of my bio-family I am not embarrassed to admit to loving and missing during the holiday season. Nor too embarrassed to admit that was one little woman I feared and inspire to make proud even today.